This English dagger flintlock would be tough to carry in the ... back-action (where the operational parts of the gun are behind the hammer) percussion pistols of at least .41-caliber. Barrel lengths, ...

The old saw “never bring a knife to a gun fight” is somewhat moot when one is armed with a Rodgers knife pistol—a clever percussion-fired defensive arm composed of both blades and barrel.

SPRINGFIELD — More than five decades ago, staff at the Springfield Armory Museum walked in to discover someone had pried open a display case and taken a rare Model 1842 percussion cap pistol.

As the U.S. Army’s first percussion pistol, the Model 1842 replaced the Model 1836 flintlock, and it would subsequently blaze its way through the Civil War and across the country as the nation ...

Flintlock pistols of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were eventually replaced by percussion cap firearms, which ignited gun powder with an explosive chemical compound rather than a piece of ...