MATCHLOCK

Matchlock

The matchlock was the first mechanism, or "lock" invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. This design removed the need to lower by hand a lit match into the weapon's flash pan and made it possible to have both hands free to keep a firm grip on the weapon at the moment of firing, and, more importantly, to keep both eyes on the target.

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matchlock

Noun

  1. Early type of firearm, using a smoldering piece of cord to fire the powder in the firing pan.
  2. The gunlock used in such a weapon, having a slow smouldering match, see: slow match.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: matchlock
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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