The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to the cap lock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms. Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun. Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle. Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot.
John Moses Browning was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms – many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms.
A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in 1832, but not patented until 1835, it was one of the earliest practical designs of a metallic cartridge. Its history is closely associated with the development of the breechloader, which replaced muzzle-loading weapons.
Holland & Holland is a British gunmaker and clothing retailer based in London, England, which offers handmade sporting rifles and shotguns. The company holds two royal warrants.
The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa and Asia, the double rifle is a sporting weapon with very little military heritage.
Joseph Manton was a British gunsmith. He innovated sport shooting, improved weapon quality and paved the way for the modern artillery shell. Manton was a sport shooter and a friend of Colonel Peter Hawker.
Daniel Myron Lefever was an American gun maker, popularly known as "Uncle Dan Lefever". He is best known as the inventor of the hammerless shotgun, first introduced in 1878. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Section 32, Plot 96
A hammerless firearm is a firearm that lacks an exposed hammer or hammer spur. Although it may not literally lack a hammer, it lacks a hammer that the user can pull directly. One of the disadvantages of an exposed hammer spur is the tendency to get caught on items such as clothing; covering the hammer by removing the spur reduces this tendency.
Boss & Co. is an English bespoke gunmaker, established in 1812 by Thomas Boss in London.
Westley Richards is a British manufacturer of guns and rifles and also a well established gunsmith. The company was founded in 1812 by William Westley Richards, who was responsible for the early innovation of many rifles used in wars featuring the British Army during the 1800s. It remained in the hands of the Richards family until it was purchased by Walter Clode in 1957. Currently the company has two listed directors, Alexander Clode and Sheikh Sultan Bin Jassim Al Thani of Qatar. The company has received a number of royal warrants since 1840.
Tobin Arms was a firearms company started in 1905 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States. It produced side-by-side and double-barrel shotguns in various grades. The company moved to Woodstock, Ontario, Canada in 1909 or 1910. It then made shotguns until 1925 before shutting down.
W.W. Greener is a sporting shotgun and rifle manufacturer from England. The company produced its first firearm in 1829 and is still in business, with a fifth generation Greener serving on its board of directors.
John Rigby & Company is a gunmaking firm founded by John Rigby in 1775 in Dublin. The company was established by the first John Rigby in Dublin, Ireland, apparently in 1775; his grandson, also John, opened a London branch in 1865; and Dublin operations had ceased by February 1897. The company is now owned by Lüke & Ortmeier Gruppe and is based in Vauxhall, central London, under the supervision of managing director, Marc Newton.
Armas Ugartechea is a Basque Spanish manufacturer of guns and rifles located in Eibar, is a privately held Spanish firearms manufacturing company. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of sporting and hunting purposes. It produces several models of double-barreled shotgun. It is devoted to the craft manufacturing of fine hunting shotguns and is the heir of a long craftsman tradition that has cleverly incorporated new technologies in the production of its guns, and, at the same time, keeping its traditional know how. It was the first Spanish company to start making under and over barrel guns. I. Ugartechea is well known for the quality of its work both at home and abroad. Is one of the few gunmakers to produce its own barrels, flawless at best. A present, Armas Ugartechea sells its guns worldwide. Among its customers are heads of state and monarchs from several countries, as well as top hunters and crack shots. The Ugartechea Family is still in charge of the company which is a basic principle, as they are the ones who know better how to optimize the manufacture of these firearms, which combine with craftsman work the best technology.
The Meriden Firearms Company of Meriden, Connecticut, USA manufactured small arms from 1905 to 1918. Meriden manufactured 20 varieties of hammer and hammerless revolvers with an output of 100 handguns a day in 1906. In addition to revolvers the company manufactured shotguns and rifles.
Alexander John Forsyth was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister who first successfully used fulminating chemicals to prime gunpowder in fire-arms thereby creating what became known as percussion ignition.
The Tranter revolver was a double-action cap & ball revolver invented around 1856 by English firearms designer William Tranter (1816–1890). Originally operated with a special dual-trigger mechanism later models employed a single-trigger mechanism much the same as that found in the contemporary Beaumont–Adams revolver.
A multiple-barrel firearm is any type of firearm with more than one gun barrel, usually to increase the rate of fire or hit probability and to reduce barrel erosion or overheating.
Henry Nock (1741–1804) was a British inventor and engineer of the Napoleonic period, best known as a gunmaker. Nock produced many innovative weapons including the screwless lock and the seven-barrelled volley gun, although he did not invent the latter despite it commonly being known as the Nock gun. He was a major supplier to the military during the Napoleonic wars. His high quality duelling pistols and double-barrelled shotguns were much sought after and it is largely through Nock that the latter became the weapon of choice for hunters.
Gallyon Gun & Rifle Makers Ltd is a British gunmaker currently based in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England, which offers bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles.
