WEAPONS MUSEUM "TM"

It is difficult for us today to imagine what people felt when they first saw firearms in action. Fire, clouds of smoke, thunderous noise, and invisible projectiles hitting targets from great distances — all of this must have been terrifying.

On the early examples of handheld firearms, the ignition hole through which the fire was transferred to the main charge was located at the top of the barrel.

No matter how much gunsmiths tried to improve the matchlock, they could not achieve significant qualitative changes.

The next step in the development of handheld firearms was the creation in the second half of the 16th century of a new system for igniting the charge. We are talking about the flintlock.

The American writer D. Runyon once called the automatic pistol an “equalizer of chances,” meaning that a person who possesses such a weapon and knows how to use it will almost certainly emerge victorious from a fight. One only has to manage to draw the pistol in time and send the bullet to its target without missing. In the worst case, a miss can be corrected with a second shot…

It would be wrong to think that handheld firearms immediately gained universal acceptance, unlike artillery.