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A Cheater's Dueling Pistols (1820s) (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by FireTower@lemmy.world to c/forgottenweapons@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Dueling pistols broadly lacked rifling but this English one had a unique hidden form of rifling called 'French Rifling'. The idea was during a duel the pistols would be inspected for rifling to ensure neither side was cheating. But French rifling wouldn't be seen, allowing one party an unfair advantage.

French rifling wouldn't go the full length of the barrel so all but a thorough examination would suggest the gun was smooth bore.

Jonathan Ferguson from the English Royal Armouries Museum suggested that the name came from the English associating French people as being underhanded, rather than French usage of the rifling.

Royal Armories: 11:59 https://youtu.be/p1fYUafNpUg?si=

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 60 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbor's dog.

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@kbin.social 36 points 5 months ago

Tally ho!

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 39 points 5 months ago

For those who don’t know

Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, "Tally ho lads" the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.

[-] takenaps@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

Lolol what is this from?

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/own-a-musket-for-home-defense

There's a copypasta about the idea of using strictly 1700s firearms tech for home defense.

[-] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Laat wednesday in baltimore

[-] norbert@kbin.social 12 points 5 months ago

"Congratulations you're hired!" - Local P.D. probably

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 47 points 5 months ago

So the English created a cheat, and then named it after the French because they perceived the French as cheaters. The lack of self awareness is staggering.

[-] sramder@lemmy.world 40 points 5 months ago

It seems like insisting on a specific pistol would be a dead giveaway, but there was probably ample opportunity for some sleight of hand.

It’s still odd to me that someone would elect to settle an argument with this kind of honor game and then cheat.

Old timers in the hotrod community still refer to a purposefully hidden element as being Frenched, never thought about the origin 🤔

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 15 points 5 months ago

It’s still odd to me that someone would elect to settle an argument with this kind of honor game and then cheat.

What if you get challenged by some douche

[-] sramder@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago

What if you get challenged by some douche Huh… fair point. I didn’t even think about that, I just sort of figured the guy with the ornate set rigged pistols was the douche. But if people were just lining up wanting to shoot me I’d start looking for an advantage at some point.

[-] Fosheze@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

At the same time, if people are lining up to get a chance to shoot you then you just might be a douche.

[-] sramder@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Yeah… I’m starting to think that we’re just not going to figure this out with reason alone ;-)

[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

It turns out that even when your honor and social reputation are on the line, most people aren't really keen to die.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

But how does the cheat work? I thought the seconds choose weapons?

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago

Johnathan mentioned in the video the rules of dueling would be agreed upon by the duelists. So a cheater might arrange for an opportunity to swap them or perhaps have a third party (that he bribed) pick them.

[-] johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

I wonder if one would normally aim a non-rifled pistol differently, so that if your opponent got the rifled pistol they would be likely to miss their shot.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

You aim them the same. Rifling is just more accurate because it causes the bullet to spin.

this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
138 points (97.9% liked)

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