Dueling Pistol Information

The dueling pistol match in early American history was derived from a custom starting in the Middle Ages in Europe. In defense of their honor, men would engage in a gentlemanly man-to-man battle using pistols to settle their dispute. The dueling pistol, or flintlock, gradually replaced the sword as a means of settling disputes. Elegant in design and profound in purpose, dueling pistols played an important role in the evolution of projectile weaponry.

  1. History

    • Like many early American customs, pistol dueling was imported from European nobles who used the pistol as a means for settling disputes. During the 1770's, the matchlock was the pistol of choice. The matchlock's unreliable and often dangerous performance gave way to the flintlock design which gained immense popularity with it's more reliable performance--compared to matchlocks--and kept pace with the growing popularity of pistol duels. The 1800's and the infamy of notable duels like the Alexander Hamilton versus Aaron Burr duel, cemented the duel pistol's place in history.

    Evolution

    • The early dueling pistol, the matchlock design, had it's drawbacks. A piece of match cord burned slowly to ignite gun powder in a flash pan, which then ignited gun powder in the pistol's barrel ejecting a lead ball. The flawed system emitted smoke revealing the shooters position and also caused accidents due to the combination of gun powder and an open spark.

      Enter the flintlock, the early 1800's design that would carry dueling pistols popularity to the Civil War. A tiny piece of flint attached to a hammer with a thumb cocking mechanism came into contact with a small amount of gun powder in the flash pan. A lock protecting the powder was pulled down until the trigger was pulled. Once the trigger was pulled, the hammer was released and the lock was flipped away from the pan creating a spark. The small spark ignited the powder and the projectile was ejected. The flintlock was mass-produced and provided consistent quality for the shooter.

    Shooting a Dueling Pistol

    • The weapons used in duels are called smoothbore flintlock pistols. Pistols like the smoothbore flintlock were not particularly accurate and were problematic. Dueling pistols routinely misfired and even in the hands of a seasoned shooter, accuracy was arduous at best. The duel pistol was made for balance and accuracy. The 9 or 10 inch barrel was heavy, with a rounded barrel in the earlier designs, later giving way to octagonal barrels which were believed to improve accuracy. The heavier barrels also helped the shooter steady his arm and to absorb the pistol's recoil.

    Features

    • Dueling pistols were large caliber handguns made as large as .57 caliber, a favorite of the times. Front and rear sights were also used, although not as universally as the large caliber. Triggers went through several iterations with hair triggers being quite common, until 1805 when spur trigger guards began showing up on pistols as a means of providing an extension for the middle finger to steady the shooter's grip. Ornamentation was commonly tooled onto the barrel with gold mountings on the stock. Stocks were made of fine hardwoods and the pistols possessed a number of design elements including adjustable hair triggers, rainwater drains and a safety catch.

    Range

    • While the dueling pistol was designed as an instrument of precision, its performance left much to be desired. The effective range was 20 yards, a good cause for setting the distance for pistol duels at 10 yards. The dueling pistol was nothing more than a short range weapon with a shooting error (missing the target) that only increased with distance.