Pepperbox Guns

Hello, this blog will be talking about a design of fire arm that in itself lasted quite long but did in fact fail due to none of the models of this gun selling very well along with other problems that I will get to later.  This design is known as the pepperbox gun named due to its resemblance to a pepper grinder.  The pepperbox gun design has been around for hundreds of years, since the 15th century in fact. But before I continue let me explain what a pepperbox gun is for all those who may not know.  The pepperbox gun is a firearm that had multiple charges (projectiles, and propellant) or bullets in anywhere from 3 to 24 barrels each one set to rotate either manually or mechanically by the pull of the trigger to fire independently using anything from match lock (a burning piece of string lowered into the black powder to regular center fire bullets we have today.  

                                             

This design had lots of advantages over the very similar revolver, though both had chambers holding the charge and projectile, the pepperbox gun had an individual barrel for each bullet.  This made the cost of producing the guns much lower and in some cases made it more reliable.  When the timing for the hammer of a revolver was not exact the bullet could still be fired but could cause an explosion in the gun possible injuring the operator.  The pepperbox on the other hand if it was not lined up properly it would still fire safely because each bullet had its own barrel.

The down side to this was the fact that most pepperbox guns were very front heavy and that made it difficult to aim.  The lack of sights didn't help that.  Now those points don’t matter when you think of the reason the gun was used in France for self defense and shot from the hip.  But nowadays we have much better self-defense handguns.  Which is I think the main reason the gun failed and is not really seen today.  Now before I end I would like to mention my personal favorite odd gun from the world of pepperbox guns.  The Apache revolver.  Not named after the Native Americans but after the French street gang that used this strange weapon.  Gun knife and brass knuckles it looks strange and deadly and that’s why I like it.  Next blog will be on the Armatix Smart system iP1 a more modern fail but possibly a pioneer in its field. Thanks for reading and have a good day.