cap and ball gun
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cap and ball gun noun A single-shot, long-barreled rifle that uses a percussion cap to fire its charge.
1939 Hall Coll (Gatlinburg TN) I had this old cap and ball gun. Well, I was just a little bit choicey, and I didn’t want to just shoot one and all the rest of the flock would fly away. 1960 Burnett My Valley 48 She was a splendid shot, and even after her husband and hunting sons had acquired modern rifles, she used her old cap and ball muzzle-loading rifle. 1983 Irwin Guns and Gun-making 8 The early Kentucky rifles were of the flintlock type, requiring a mechanism which struck a piece of flint against a steel plate called a frizzen, or battery, providing a spark of fire which ignited the powder in the pan, which in turn fired the powder inside the barrel. (This technique was developed by the French in the early 1600's.) Early in the 1800's the percussion cap was invented and soon thereafter most of the Kentucky rifles were converted to the cap-and-ball type. After about 1830-1840 most Kentucky rifles were made using the percussion (cap-and-ball) ignition system.