Joseph Manton double 17-bore

We are all very familiar with the progression of ignition systems in firearms – the flintlock, various percussion systems, primarily the tubelock, then the familiar copper cap that appeared in the early 1820s. The percussion system had such advantages over the flintlock that flintlocks died out almost immediately when the new detonators came into general use in the early 1820s.

Such was the superiority of the percussion gun that many flintlocks were converted to copper-cap ignition and even many tubelocks were converted to the simple copper cap in