peashooter85:What is a pinfire?What is a pinfire gun? I have posted many pinfire revolvers and rifl
peashooter85:What is a pinfire?What is a pinfire gun? I have posted many pinfire revolvers and rifles, but many people today probably do not know what a pinfire is. Many of those on gunblr can probably answer this, but for those who follow me who are not as knowledgeable with antique firearms here is a brief lesson.Every cartridge is made up of three parts - primer, propellent, and bullet. The propellent is the explosive compound that prepels the bullet. The primer is the thing that ignites the gunpowder. Modern ammunition comes it two basic forms, centerfire and rimfire. Centerfire ammunition has a primer that is kind of like a cap for a cap gun, when the firing pin strikes the primer it forces a spark into the gunpowder and ignites it (see pic 2). A rimfire cartridge does not have a cap type of primer, but instead has a priming chemical lined inside the rim. The firing pin strikes the rim, setting off the priming chemical and igniting the gunpowder (see pic 3). Most rimfire cartridge are small caliber, the most famous being the .22long rifle, but some larger caliber cartridges at one time existed.Now that modern ammo is covered, I digress to my earlier question, what is a pinfire cartridge? Pinfire cartridges were invented by Casimir Lefaucheux in the 1830’s, and most popular during the mid 19th century. They follow the same basic design of all ammunition- primer, propellant, and bullet. However a pinfire cartridge does not have a primer located at the rear of the cartridge. Instead the primer (a percussion cap) was inside of the cartridge, seated inside the propellent (black powder). A small pin jutted out of the back of the cartridge, and when stuck with the guns hammer would stike the primer (see pic 4). Pinfire cartridges would used in rifles, revovlers, and shotguns, and were mostly used in Europe. Some pinfires made their way to the New World, but for the most part never caught on in the United States and North America. They became obsolete with the invention of the rimfire and centerfire. Today the pinfire is an obsolete form of ammunition that hasn’t been manufactured for over 100 years. However a dedicated group of collectors exist who specialize in collecting pinfires and fabricating their own ammo. -- source link