Duelling pistols

A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead musket ball. They were made in identical pairs to put both duellists on the same footing. Not all fine pairs of pistols are actual duelling pistols, though they may be called so.

Standard flintlock pistols have a noticeable delay between pulling the trigger and actually firing the bullet. Purpose-built duelling pistols have various improvements to make them more reliable and accurate, such as longer and heavier barrels, spurs on the trigger guards, saw handles, platinum-lined touch-holes and hair triggers. All component parts were manufactured, hand-finished and then adjusted with great care and precision, which made duelling pistols much more costly than standard firearms of the period. Special care was taken when moulding the lead bullets to ensure that there were no voids which would affect accuracy. Pistols were carefully and identically loaded, and each duellist was offered his choice of the indistinguishable loaded pistols. As duels were generally fought at short distances which were paced out, typically 35 to 45 feet (11 to 14 m), between stationary opponents, extreme accuracy was not required.

Duelling pistols had long smoothbore barrels - typically around 10 in (250 mm) and fired large, heavy bullets. Pistols with calibers of 0.45 in (11 mm), 0.52 in (13 mm), 0.58 in (15 mm) or even 0.65 in (17 mm) were common. The bullets loaded in them could weigh 214 grains (0.49 ounces; 13.9 grams) in .52 caliber, or more in larger calibers. Bullets were fired with a muzzle velocity of approximately 830 feet per second (250 m/s), which made a .52 caliber bullet about as lethal as a current .45 ACP round - and therefore capable of inflicting very severe wounds. These injuries, coupled with the primitive state of emergency medicine at the time when duels were commonplace, meant that pistol duels frequently resulted in fatalities, either immediately or a few days afterwards. This was the fate of Alexander Pushkin, a highly experienced pistol duellist who had fought 29 duels before being wounded in the stomach by Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès on 8 February 1837. Pushkin managed to return fire, slightly wounding d'Anthès, but died two days later.

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