1650 Dog Lock Musket- Live Firing
This is a reproduction 1650 Dog Lock Musket. It is a practical weapon and is fully functioning.
All weapons in this hire category are capable of firing live ammunition and are therefore strictly controlled by the UK firearms act. However, for film and theatrical use, we have adapted many of our firearms to function firing blank rounds only.
All of our practical firearms are available for hire for film, television and theatrical performance on the condition that each contract is strictly supervised by an approved and qualified company Armourer.
Please refer to our standard Terms and Conditions of hire.
Description
A doglock is a type of lock for firearms that preceded the ‘true’ flintlock in rifles, muskets, and pistols in the 17th century. Commonly used throughout Europe in the 17th century, it gained popular favor in the British and Dutch military. A doglock carbine was the principal weapon of the harquebusier, the most numerous type of cavalry in the armies of the Thirty Years’ War and English Civil War era. Like the snaphance, it was largely supplanted by the flintlock.
Much like the later flintlock devices, it contained the flint, frizzen, and pan, yet had an external catch as a half-cock safety, known as the “dog”. This type of lock had no internal, half-cock loading position as the later flintlock mechanism contained. To load a firearm with a dog lock, the cock was secured with the external dog, preventing it from moving forward to strike the frizzen and begin the firing sequence. The user could then safely load the musket or pistol. To fire, the cock was moved to the full-cock position, which caused the dog to fall backward and no longer prevent the lock from firing. A pull of the trigger would then fire the piece. This fell out of favor with the British before 1720. Later flintlocks would contain no such catch, as the half-cock position had been created with the internal parts of the lock.
