Sporran clasp pistol

[PeterB]

From the National Museum of Scotland:

"Sporran clasp of brass and steel with four concealed pistols which would fire if the sporran was not opened correctly. "

Sporran 2.jpg

https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-co...roy-macgregor/

[Quarter Scot]

WOW! Don't mess with THAT sporran!! Speaking of BOOM!! Reminds me of other hidden pistols from The Wild West...

[Me cousin Jack]

Mutually assured destruction

[figheadair]

There is no evidence that a bag was ever attached or that this was worn. It looks like a piece of Highland Revival showmanship and a romantic curio. In particular, with the barrels build into the side frame then they would obviously fire left and right, they would not affect the wearer or someone attempting to open the sporran from the front.

[Jock Scot]

There is no evidence that a bag was ever attached or that this was worn. It looks like a piece of Highland Revival showmanship and a romantic curio. In particular, with the barrels build into the side frame then they would obviously fire left and right, they would not affect the wearer or someone attempting to open the sporran from the front.

I am not too fussed about the left, the right and even the front bit. Its the behind that would concern me!

[Quarter Scot]

Looking at that closely and knowing what I know about flintlock guns, I would guess that is a double barreled pistol that is activated (triggered) by pulling up on the center nob. I believe the hot box part of the cylinders are in the neighborhood of where the frizzen (the plate where the flint strikes) and gunpowder pan are and would set off both barrels at once. It would be a clever hidden weapon but likely not the top of a sporran. May have been worn on the belt and, if on the right side (dominate hand side) would shoot forward at the threat. Would be a close-quarters weapon. The pan would have to be filled with gunpowder ahead of time and would easily spill out if the wearer were to bow, lean over......... As previously said, likely a show piece rather than an effective weapon. But clever all the same, and interesting. History........

[DCampbell16B]

I have to agree with Quarter Scot. Pull the center stud and all four barrels fire. However, rather than fore and aft, I think it was designed for port and starboard. If one had a man holding each arm."Sorry Officers. Let me show you some ID."

In reality I think Mr. Macdonald is more correct. The lock features (as near as I can see in the still photo) a well developed gooseneck cock, a flat plate and roller frizzen spring. All were generally later 18C design features in British locks (but much earlier there than this side of the pond).

[matchlock]

That's a pretty impressive design, IF it were actually functional. But it could have been a lot more compact, and sporran clasp looking.

If worn as a sporran at 12 o'clock, it would fire to your 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock position.

Center ball on top is trigger, when the lock hammer is cocked, that ball is pulled down to look like the rest, it trips the seer on the lock when pulled up. Seer releases cock holding flint to spring into steel frizzen, sparks scraped off frizzen as it flips forward then rain into flash pan full of priming powder. (Weird trigger, but all standard Flintlock to this point.)

If it worked, the touch hole in flash pan would route the fire through black powder filled holes up to the 4 barrels. They would all go off at once, or slight lag on the top barrels for burn rates.

If you look on the barrels above the pan, you'll see a cluster of 4 holes drilled in the sides of the barrels. That's a kinda big spread of touch holes for that size pan, and it's not right at the pan. Hopefully they just pulled some mount screws to move the Lock down for better detail or something? Maybe lock could have been changed at some point?

Pretty cool, it kind of reminds me of the 'duckfoot' multi barrel pistol designs.

Either way, it'd be fun to read its history and check it out while wearing a kilt.