Bullet points

Throughout history, many writers have used shooting metaphors when seeking a really vivid image. Shakespeare turned to the language of falconry when he wanted to make a particularly powerful statement. Othello says of Desdemona’s imagined infidelity “though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings, I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind to prey at fortune.” Sadly, you won’t find many references to shooting in Shakespeare, though in Henry IV Part 1, Hotspur sneers about an unnamed cowardly courtier who bleats, somewhat anachronistically, “… but for these vile guns, he would himself have been a soldier”.

It was in the Bard’s later years that flintlocks were developed and about the time of the Civil War that the first shooting metaphors started to come into the language. Over the years they have become clichés, frequently used by those who have little or no understanding of their true meaning. Take, for instance, the phrase ‘a flash in the pan’; most people today probably think that refers to a culinary incident – a premature flambé. 

But how many shooters actually know what it means? The downbeat dictionary definition is “a promising start followed by failure”, which rather underestimates the power of the image. In a flintlock the spark from the flint ignites a small amount of powder in the lock pan that flashes across to the touch hole and thereby ignites the main charge. Bang! Or not bang, if it doesn’t hit the main charge and there is just a flash in the pan – a spectacular burst of fire and smoke followed by… nothing much.

This highlights the essential requirement to ‘keep your powder dry’; something not necessary with the metal cartridge, but the phrase lingers on.

The difficulties of flintlocks have produced other common metaphors that have long outlasted their origins. To ‘hang fire’ is another example, and really a variation of a flash in the pan. Faulty powder might lead to slower ignition and a pause between pulling the trigger and discharge. The phrase was most commonly used at the end of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century the problem seems to have been resolved, but even today that can happen with a dodgy primer, and we all know the rules about misfires.