Snaphaunce Weapons
The Snaphaunce locks were developed in mid to
late 1500’s being much simpler to make than the wheellock. The pan cover was
still a separate sliding piece as on wheellocks and the sear arrangement is
basically the same. The frizzen could be left forward as a kind of safety on
guns with out the sear locks. Large powerful mainsprings make these large
locks very fast dependable sparkers. The Dutch, French, and English were the
main users of these types of locks. Many of these guns were sent over to
America in the early 1600’s as they were better suited for our needs of
defense and hunting than matchlocks. George Moller has found that 1000
Snaphaunce muskets were sent to the Virginia Colony in 1702, so they were
used quite late. Many Snaphaunce locks were fitted to matchlock muskets to
update them.
One Snaphaunce is listed on a raid to the new world in 1584, where a
soldiers snaplock pistol dropped from his belt and went off upon hitting the
ground and killing him.