Locktime

[Turnup]

Easy enough, it's the time taken from trigger release to the time the primer/propellant is ignited- matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, percussion and cartridge have progressively had faster and more efficient lock times, all to do with the lock mechanism, nothing at all to do with barrel time then it would be lock-barrel time. If that was the case then it would vary with velocity of every different type of projectile weight/ /load in the same gun, locktime is consistent in a particular gun with whatever ammunition is being used..

Matchlock - not all have a trigger so when does the timing start?

Flintlock and Wheelock - production of sparks?

Flintlock and Matchlock and Wheelock, ignition of primer or propellant?

What part of the propellant? (ignitions is progressive)

How would you measure any of these anyway?

Cartridge - strike on primer, ignition of part of primer, emergence of primer sparks into propellant, ignition of propellant immediately adjacent to primer, ignition of all of the propellant, commencement of projectile movement? These things are not simultaneous, and again how would you practically measure any of these?

Have you ever seen locktime given an actual value?

Please give some examples of quoted locktimes and cite the references.


By ukniels definition these things could be measured and given a numerical value (apart from the Wheelock), allowing proper comparisons to be made.


The definition you support, while it might be linguistically sound, is, when examined, vague, very difficult to actually measure, and thus of no practical use.