H.B.C.Pollard in his book , History of Firearms, published in 1926, page 104, describes a gun in his collection as follows:
"A hammerless flintlock sporting gun made in Prague, Bohemia, by Stanislaus Paczelt in 1730 has a steel thimble brazed into the muzzle as an internal liner to the barrel. This is the first known specimen of a choke or restriction at the muzzle to concentrate the pattern of shot."
F.Y.I
The Hammerless flintlock has an enclosed flash pan the purpose of which was to reduce the possibility of scaring of birds upon discharge.An example of this gun is to be seen in the Tower of London collection,exhibit #X11-627. It is interesting to note, that Alexander Forsythe, reinvented the concept of the hammerles flintlock in the late 1700,s when he fitted a crude shield to the flash pan his old flintlock; again the objective was to minimize the scaring of birds. Ultimately in 1807 Fosythe went on to patent the Scent-bottle lock that utilized fulmimating powder.