A highly important four barrel Landsknecht mace, ca. 1540

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... were designed to use as clubs when the charge was spent.....

Or the other way round, in this case; your enemy aproaches you with the assumption that you are only armed with a mace and suddenly you open the thing and give him the best

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Looks like a Landsknecht 'pepperbox'

Never so true

Fernando