Some informed observers think the rising went off at half-cock: it had been planned for another day, with the support of senior officers, but was brought forward because the regime was about to arrest Mr Guaidó and the coup plotters then backed down.
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Cutaway view of the action of the Remington- Ryder No. 22 breech-loading rifle, which loads only with the hammer at half cock. Figure 1: Arm at the moment of discharge. Figure 2: Open to receive the cartridge. Figure 3: At half cock, loaded.
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White, age 31, died of his wound two days after his shooting. On December 27, 1880, Earp testified that White's shooting was accidental. Brocius expressed regret, saying that he had not intended to shoot White. Gunsmith Jacob Gruber testified that Brocius's single-action revolver was defective, allowing it to be discharged at half-cock.
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Early flintlocks had required a half-cock position to prime the pan, in preparation for firing the firearm, after loading the main chamber. Some other early types of revolvers, such as the Colt 1851 Navy Revolver, required the user to place the hammer at half- cock to permit rotation of the cylinder to load the firearm. On such firearms, the standard practice was not to load all 6 chambers and leave the hammer at half-cock, but, rather, to load only 5 of 6 chambers by standard safety practice, and stow the dropped hammer on an unloaded chamber. Nonetheless, some users did use the half-cock notch as a very early safety on such revolvers when all 6 chambers were loaded, often to a dangerous and unintended consequence.
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Dickinson fired first, hitting Jackson in the chest; incredibly, Jackson was not killed, but merely wounded, and was capable of returning fire. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took his shot. Jackson's pistol stopped at half cock, so he drew back the hammer and aimed again, this time hitting Dickinson in the chest. Dickinson bled to death.
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Pitman also umpired every Boat Race between 1903 and 1926: a total of 19 altogether. In 1903 Pitman umpired his first University Boat Race, and was to start the race with an ancient pistol, which had worked perfectly for the previous umpire Colonel F. Willan. He pronounced the "Are you ready?", at which stage both crews squared their blades, and raised the pistol, but it stuck at half-cock and refused to fire.
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Having attained the rank of major-general, he returned to Europe and retired to his paternal estate near Pembroke. In 1830, he was promoted to lieutenant-general. He died on 12 September 1835 in a shooting accident in the vicinity of Pembroke. While in the act of getting over a hedge, his fowling-piece, although at half-cock, went off; the contents entered his left eye and blew off the entire side of his head, killing him instantly.
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' I gave over much of my life to the show and if I was to carry on at such a pace I'd have to continue to put my life on hold. I didn't want to do things at half-cock [...] I had a lot of fun playing Irene, and Gavin, who plays my screen husband Terry, and I got on brilliantly. Irene was a complicated lady. I never knew what was going to happen next, but that's what life is like.
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Colt Single Action Army hammer at half cock Half-cock is when the position of the hammer of a firearm is partially—but not completely—cocked. Many firearms, particularly older firearms, had a notch cut into the hammer allowing half- cock, as this position would neither allow the gun to fire nor permit the hammer-mounted firing pin to rest on a live percussion cap or cartridge. The purpose of the half-cock position has variously been used either for loading a firearm, as a safety mechanism, or for both reasons. The still commonly used English expression of "going off half-cocked" derives from failing to complete the cocking action, leading to the weapon being unable to fire.
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The snaphaunce has a form of safety built into its design, since the steel (frizzen) could be manually moved forward so that if the cock should be released accidentally it would not strike sparks. This led to an inherent disadvantage: in the flintlock when at half-cock and the frizzen is closed, the flint is in close proximity to the steel and can easily be adjusted to strike square to and in the center of the steel; in the snaphaunce the cock can only be at full-cock or down, where it prevents the steel from being brought back to the firing position, so the flint is more difficult to align. The development of the snaphance occurred separately but at the same time as the creation of the miquelet.
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