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Description
Day 22: Dueling

"Since the advent of firearms people have experimenting with ways to make them more effective including combining them with pre-existing weapons like swords, polearms, axes and even shields, naturally with mixed results. This was something of a necessity as early firearms were notoriously unreliable and only fired one shot at a time and had to be manually reloaded each time. One example of this hybridization are custom-made dueling swords with small pistols built into the hilt. While primarily intended for personal protection these swords gained popularity as dueling implements. Depending on ones fighting style the pistol was used either as the initial attack or a last resort, either it must be done from fairly up close due to limited range, accuracy and stopping power; Sometime even a direct hit was no guarantee of taking an opponent out of a fight immediately. And the pistol was virtually useless against an armored foe."

Description
Day 22: Dueling

"Since the advent of firearms people have experimenting with ways to make them more effective including combining them with pre-existing weapons like swords, polearms, axes and even shields, naturally with mixed results. This was something of a necessity as early firearms were notoriously unreliable and only fired one shot at a time and had to be manually reloaded each time. One example of this hybridization are custom-made dueling swords with small pistols built into the hilt. While primarily intended for personal protection these swords gained popularity as dueling implements. Depending on ones fighting style the pistol was used either as the initial attack or a last resort, either it must be done from fairly up close due to limited range, accuracy and stopping power; Sometime even a direct hit was no guarantee of taking an opponent out of a fight immediately. And the pistol was virtually useless against an armored foe."