Swivel gun

Common card · No. 219275

A swivel gun (or simply swivel) is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between either the rifled or the smoothbore barrels. Swivel guns are distinct from pivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot, or screw guns, which are mountain guns with a segmented barrel. An older term for the type is peterero (alternative spellings include "paterero" and "pederero"), derived from the Spanish name for the gun, pedrero, from piedra (stone) and the suffix -ero (-er), because it originally fired stone projectiles. The swivel gun had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession, and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. It was used for centuries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

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