Unusual wheel lock three barrel pistol

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by fernando

I wouldn't be surprised if our expert forumites know this thing inside out.
This pistol resembles the exemplar that belonged to Emperor Carlos V; is of the same type and dates back to the first half XVI century. Carlos V was of great support to gunmakers dreams.
This specimen shown here is of the wheel lock system and was used for shooting darts with the propulsion developed by gunpowder gases. Its three rotating barrels were alternated by a cog mechanism.
This picture was scanned from a 1978 thematic agenda.

Fernando

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Some more details of this arrow firing specimen. Unfortunately this is all I could find in my comprehensive library (ca. 3,000 books and catalogs on European A&A).

As Fernando has pointed out, it was made by Peter Peck, Munich, who furnished several firearms for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (including this one), in ca. 1550 and etched and gilt by Ambrosius Gemlich, also Munich.

The wheel cover is etched with the Roman Imperial Eagle; a highly unusual feature is the dog with its swiveling reserve pyrites' head and jaws.

The sickle shaped dog spring running around the wheel cover is a characteristic technical feature of the 1st half to the mid 16th century.

The measurements are:

overall length: 41.5 cm
barrel length: 20.5 cm
caliber: 7.2 mm smoothbore
weight: 1.810 kg


Best,
Michael