By Larry B. Schuknecht
As relating to firearms the terms Action- Actions and Lock-Locks are sometimes interchangable and often confusing and I will attempt to clarify them somewhat here. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary gives one of the definitions for Action as “A mechanism; as the breech action of a gun.” Their definition of Gun -Lock is “The mechanism attached to some firearms, by which the charge is ignited.” Wikipedia defines Action as “The physical mechanism that manipulates cartridges and/or seals the breech. The term refers to the method in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism. Actions are generally categorized by the type of mechanism used. A firearm action is technically not present on muzzleloaders as all loading is done by hand. The mechanism that fires a muzzleloader is called the lock.”
During the Flintlock, Percussion and early breech loading periods the plate with the hammer, tumbler, bridal, sear and springs was referred to as a Lock. On so called hammerless guns the lock can be a side plate upon which the hammer, sear, bridal and springs are mounted on its inside face or it can refer to the parts (hammer, sear and springs) which are housed inside a receiver as is the case with the Anson & Deeley. Sometimes as in the case of a gun with the Blitz or Floor Plate lock the gun is erroniously referred to as a Blitz Action gun when it should be referred to as a Blitz Lock gun. If you find this confusing you are not alone.
Many pre World War II gunmakers whether large or small developed their own Lock and Action Systems. Some such as Collath and Dreyse as part of a totaly new firearm while others like the Nimrod system by Thieme & Schlegelmilch were simply variations of the already established. Some modern gun makers are still improving Lock and Action mechanisms. One example is Max Erns Ern Roller Sidelock.
In the german language the word Schloß refers to the Lock and Verschloß refers to the action lock up or fastening design. An action is refered to as a System.