Snaphance Musket
European Gunmakers (various) · Rifle · Out Of Production · 1560
Also known as: Snaphaunce Musket, Snaphaance
Overview
The Snaphance Musket is a muzzle-loading smoothbore long arm fitted with a snaphance lock, an early flint-ignition mechanism that first appeared in the late 1550s as an improvement on the snaplock. Striking a flint held in a cock against a separate steel battery, it featured an automatically opening pan cover to keep the priming powder dry until the instant of firing. The snaphance was the mechanical predecessor of the true flintlock and was supplanted across most of Europe by the cheaper, simpler flintlock from around 1620, though it persisted in Northern Italy into the 1750s and in North African arms much later.
Specifications
| Firing Mechanism | Single Action |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Magazine Capacity | 1 rounds |
| Magazine Type | Internal |
| Effective Range | 90 m (98 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 2 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | None |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Stock Material | Wood |
Calibers
- Lead Round Ball (Musket) · primary — also known as round ball, .69 caliber ball, musket ball
Features
- Firing modes: Manual
- Feed systems: Muzzle Loaded
- Features: Muzzleloader, Snaphance Lock, Automatic Pan Cover, External Flint Cock
Service history
Conflicts
- Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
Production
Production years: c.1560-1680
Made by numerous individual European gunmakers; no centralized production figures
Origin
Country of origin: Netherlands
Notes
Specifications vary widely as snaphance muskets were not standardized; the .69-class bore and ranges given are representative of a 17th-century military smoothbore musket.
Background
The snaphance takes its name from the Dutch 'snaphaan' (pecking hen), a nod to the way its cock snaps forward like a bird pecking. It was the crucial evolutionary step between the costly clockwork wheel-lock and the flintlock that would dominate firearms for the next two centuries.