The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to the caplock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms. Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun. Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle. Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot.
Percussion caps have been manufactured in various sizes to fit snugly over different sized nipples.
Nipples for 4.5mm and 6mm percussion caps
Japanese samurai's matchlock converted to percussion lock
A pair of caplock twister pistols
A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun. This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
A "Brown Bess" muzzle-loading musket, used by the British Army from 1722 to 1838
Loaded muzzleloading cannon. (1) Priming charge (2) Main propellant charge (3) Wadding (4) Projectile (5) Wadding
Wadding recovered from the wreck of the packet ship Hanover and was found inside a loaded cannon, National Maritime Museum Cornwall (2014)
A pair of French rifled, flintlock, duelling pistols by Nicolas Noël Boutet 1794–1797. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada. The set of accessories includes a small hammer as rifled pistols used slightly oversized bullets; a hammer was needed to drive the bullet down the barrel when loading.