What does flintlock musket mean?

Answer 1

Its a description of a type of firearm. These were long guns, fired from the shoulder like a modern rifle. "Musket" meant it was a smoothbore weapon, not a rifle. A rifle has spiral grooves inside the barrel, which make the bullet spin as it leaves the gun. This makes the bullet much more steady in its flight, and much more accurate, and they will travel farther, sort of like a football quarterback makes a football spin when he makes a pass, for the same reasons. A musket had no grooves inside, so the bore (inside of the barrel) was smooth, hence, "smoothbore". A smoothbore has a short range and is inaccurate, as its very hard to predict where the projectile will go when it leaves the gun. The "flintlock" refers to how the gun was fired. Gunpowder and ball (bullet) were rammed down the barrel, and the lock was cocked - pulled back - where a catch held it, until it was released by pulling the trigger. The pan was primed with a little loose gunpowder. Part of the lock held a flat, rectangular piece of flint. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer snapped forward and its steel tip hit the flint, making sparks, which caused the loose powder with which the pan had been primed to flare up, and this little burst of flame would go through the touchole in the side of the weapon, igniting the main powder charge behind the bullet, making the main powder charge explode and shove the bullet out of the barrel. Its from this old type of weapon that expression still in use, such as "lock, stock and barrel", and "flash in the pan" are derived. A flintlock musket was an outmoded type of weapon by the time of the US Civil War, though many southern soldiers in the first year or two were armed with one, since that was the best that was available, until better could be captured or imported. Flintlocks had been replaced by percussion locks, where the hammer was snapped on a percussion cap to make the gun go off, and even old muskets had often been reworked to rifle (cut grooves inside) the barrel.