Matchlock Pistol Shots

A couple of shots from a .62 Caliber matchlock smoothbore pistol. There are a few issues I still need to work out on this pistol. The load used here was 35 grains of Goex ffg black powder pushing a .595 lead ball with a .018 pillow ticking patch using about 9 to 12 grains of 4F in the pan. The ignition used was a 1/8" braided cotton match cord originally designed to be used for snapping Japanese matchlocks.

The reason some of the others on site laughed is because of the hangfire and the sound of a blow-by discharge, yet the projectile still reached close near the target up at the dirt back stop.

I will probably have to try a larger projectile. So with later shots with this pistol I will try .600 and the .610 round balls. I will also try some 20 gauge shotgun wads with number 6 shot.

As can be seen in the video, to get this pistol to fire is a rather fastidious process. I still need to work out a few issues in practice to get this arm working as well as people in the historical past fired theirs.

Supposedly these arms were considered very reliable if the weather was good and powder was dry.
I am sure there are some long forgotten secrets and methods for reliability in the use of these types of arms considering how long these were in use before the perfection of flintlocks and other weapons of the past.