Knoch Needlefire Pistol
Needlefire Guns
•
6m 55s
This is a handmade, single shot needle fire pistol (zündnadelpistole) made by a German gunsmith named A. Knoch in Munich in 1850. I have been unable to find any documentation about the man, but the gun is an interested example of the needle fire system that existed as one of the intermediate technologies between the percussion cap and the self-contained metallic cartridge. This example is in unfortunately rough condition, but on disassembly we can see how everything was supposed to work.
Up Next in Needlefire Guns
-
Dreyse/Kufahl Needlefire Revolver
Needlefire rifles were developed in the 1830s and represented and early effective type of breechloading rifle. As such, they were adopted by both German and French armies - but only in rifle form. Needlefire handguns were much less common. This particular design was patented in 1852 by a man name...
-
Parisian Needlefire Knife-Pistol Comb...
Combination knife/gun weapons have been popular gadgets for literally hundreds of years, and this is one of the nicest examples I have yet seen. This sort of thing is usually very flimsy, and not particularly well made. This one, however, has a blade which locks in place securely and would seem t...
-
Italy Modernizes: the Carcano Needlef...
When Prussia and its Dreyse needle fire rifles defeated Austria and its muzzleloaders at Shadow in 1866, much of the world took note. In Italy, the reactive was to immediately begin looking for both a new rifle and also a system for converting existing stockpiles of muzzleloaders into something m...