.45 caliber flintlock pistol

This is kind of a fun weapon, but it can also be a bit scary at times. It's a blackpowder flintlock pistol I picked up a long while back at a Renaissance festival.

What's scary about this thing, at least the first few times you shoot it, is the great big BLAM and BOOM that goes along with firing it. Yeah, more modern firearms have a recoil and some BANG, but nothing like this.

See, this is blackpowder. Real blackpowder. Not the modern-day Pyrodex stuff.

Blackpowder is an explosive. And when you fire a flintlock there are two explosions very close to one another.

First, there's the small explosion on the side of the barrel where the flint actually strikes metal and causes sparks, which ignite the small amount of powder in the pan there.

Then there's the larger explosion in the actual barrel of the gun.

And all of this is going on at the end of your hand, or maybe even near to your face if you're trying to aim tightly.

Yeah. This can be jarring. At least until you're used to the weapon.

I've never been able to hit anything with this pistol, but it was still fun to have. It always had a good weight to it, feeling solid enough to be used as a club if need be.

This pistol was made in Japan during the 1950s. It's a pretty good weapon for having fun with or doing some target shooting, but it's nothing you'd want to take into a deadly situation today. This weapon is practically no threat whatsoever against anyone using a modern firearm.