Dueling pistols broadly lacked rifling but this English one had a unique hidden form of rifling called ‘French Rifling’. The idea was during a duel the pistols would be inspected for rifling to ensure neither side was cheating. But French rifling wouldn’t be seen, allowing one party an unfair advantage.

French rifling wouldn’t go the full length of the barrel so all but a thorough examination would suggest the gun was smooth bore.

Jonathan Ferguson from the English Royal Armouries Museum suggested that the name came from the English associating French people as being underhanded, rather than French usage of the rifling.

Royal Armories: 11:59 https://youtu.be/p1fYUafNpUg?si=

  • @[email protected]English
    15•9 months ago

    It’s still odd to me that someone would elect to settle an argument with this kind of honor game and then cheat.

    What if you get challenged by some douche

    • @sramderEnglish
      19•9 months ago

      What if you get challenged by some douche Huh… fair point. I didn’t even think about that, I just sort of figured the guy with the ornate set rigged pistols was the douche. But if people were just lining up wanting to shoot me I’d start looking for an advantage at some point.

      • @FoshezeEnglish
        5•9 months ago

        At the same time, if people are lining up to get a chance to shoot you then you just might be a douche.

        • @sramderEnglish
          5•9 months ago

          Yeah… I’m starting to think that we’re just not going to figure this out with reason alone ;-)

    • @[email protected]English
      2•9 months ago

      It turns out that even when your honor and social reputation are on the line, most people aren’t really keen to die.