 a duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured to be used in a duel, when duels were customary and not illegal. duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead musket ball. they were often made in identical pairs to put both duellists on the same footing. == design ==  standard flintlock pistols have a noticeable delay between pulling the trigger and actually firing the bullet. purpose-built duelling pistols have various improvements to make them more reliable and accurate, such as longer and heavier barrels, spurs on the trigger guards, saw handles, platinum-lined touch-holes and hair triggers. all component parts were manufactured, hand-finished and then adjusted with great care and precision, which made duelling pistols much more costly than standard firearms of the period. special care was taken when moulding the lead bullets to ensure that there were no voids which would affect accuracy. pistols were carefully loaded identically, and each duellist was offered his choice of indistinguishable loaded pistols. as duels were generally fought at short distances which were paced out, typically ,http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/last_duel.php between stationary opponents, extreme accuracy was not required. duelling pistols had long smoothbore barrels (typically ) and fired large, heavy bullets. pistols with calibers of , ,  or even  were common. the bullets loaded in them could weigh half an ounce () in .52 caliber, or more in larger calibers. bullets were fired with a muzzle velocity of approximately , which made a .52 caliber bullet about as lethal as a current .45 acp round, cap
Single-shot_pistols