338 Winchester Magnum Blog

Target of the Week Video

Shot of the Week Video

Gun of the Month Video

Gun News Story of the Week

Shooting Blogs

Banks

BB

Jess in Afghanistan

Lex

Seth

Viewer Picture of the Month

Viewer Email of the Month

Jess going off to war. Check out his blog here.

Safety Tips for Shooting on Public Land-video

“No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

- Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776

Matchlock

The Matchlock was the first mechanism or "lock" invented to simplify the firing of a hand-held firearm. The matchlock design removed the need to lower a lit match into the flash pan by hand 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.

Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) Chinese matchlock firearms.

The classic European matchlock gun held a burning slow match in a clamp at the end of a small curved lever known as the serpentine. Upon pulling a second lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the burning match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch-hole igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun barrel. On releasing the lever or trigger, the serpentine would move in reverse, driven by a spring, and bring the match out of the pan.

Earlier types had only an "S"-shaped serpentine pinned to the stock either behind or in front of the flash pan (the so-called "serpentine lock"), one end of which was manipulated to bring the match into the pan.

The snapping matchlock, was a variety of the matchlock, in which the serpentine was strongly spring-loaded and released by pressing a button, pulling a trigger, or pulling a short string passing into the mechanism. Due to the fact that the match was often extinguished after its relatively violent collision with the flash pan, this type fell out of favor with soldiers, but was often used in fine target weapons.

An inherent weakness of the matchlock was the necessity of keeping the match constantly lit.  If the match was not lit when the gun needed to be fired, the mechanism was useless as a firearm. Wet weather could be problematic to matchloacks for obvious reasons. At night, the match would glow in the darkness and the distinctive smell of burning match-cord could potentially give away the carrier's position. (This was used as a plot device by Akira Kurosawa in his movie Seven Samurai). The openly lit match cord could also cause potential danger when soldiers were carelessly handling large quantities of gunpowder (for example, while refilling their powder horns) with lit matches present. This was one reason why soldiers in charge of transporting and guarding ammunition were among the first to be issued self-igniting guns like the wheel lock and snap hance.

Matchlock firearms were first mentioned in the 14th century Chinese military book Huolongjing. The famous Janissary corps of the Ottoman army used matchlock muskets as early as the 1440s.(1) The matchlock appeared in Europe some time in the mid-1400s, although the idea of the serpentine appears some 40 years previously in an Austrian manuscript. The first dated illustration of a matchlock mechanism dates to 1475 and by the 1500s matchlocks were almost universally used. Barbur transported the matchlock technology to India in 1526 and the Portuguese introduced matchlocks to Japan by 1543 where they flourished until the 1900s. The Japanese based the Tanegashima on a unknown model of Portuguese snapping matchlock.  The Japanese refined their Tanegashima so that the difficulties with self-extinguishing matches were almost eliminated. (The Japanese were unable to produce steel springs until much later and used unreliable brass springs at first). Improvised matchlock guns were last used by pro-Indonesia Timor Leste militias in the 1999 conflict.

Despite the appearance of more advanced ignition systems, such as that of the wheellock and the snaphance, the low cost of production, simplicity, and high availability of the matchlock kept it in use in European armies until about 1720. It was eventually completely replaced by the flintlock as the foot soldier's main armament.

Watch the video

BB Gun Shooting and Hunting Blog

BB Gun Shooting and Hunting Blog Archive Page

I recently ordered a couple of new guns from my local gun shop. It may be a while until they come in, from what I am told. I ordered a 3 inch Ruger SP101 in the new .327 Federal Magnum caliber and a Ruger Hawkeye African in the .375 Ruger caliber. The seller tells me that the SP 101 in that make up is just now trickling out of the factory and that distributers are having a hard time stocking them for retailers, so I may be waiting a while...click for more.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.gunczar.com