Boxed set, Original? or very old copy?

[Seth Isaacson]

In duellling the point is to settle the matter of honor.  Taking excess time aiming is considered unsportsmanlike.  Might explain the sight design.

So if both parties shoot wide, it's spit, cuss, then smile and go home with honors intact?

It all depends on the region, the time period, the offense(s) that started the affair, etc. Different places and time periods had different customs and there were many variations of a duel that could be agreed upon. Generally speaking in later periods pistols were more accurate than earlier on and closer to target pistols. Some duels had multiple reloads and exchanges of shots if reconciliation was not reached. In some cases you have to fire before a set countdown ends, sometimes shots were exchanged at a signal, etc. In a marching/walking duel, the duelists walked towards one another, and the man that fired first had to stop and wait to receive the other man's fire. The second man was allowed to walk all the way up to a predetermined spot if he so pleased though sometimes a time limit was placed on him.

Generally speaking purposely shooting to miss was considered a mark of foolishness. You shouldn't agree to shoot at one another unless the offense warrants actually doing so. If you shoot into the ground or obviously fire away, you could also be intentionally or unintentionally implying the other man is not worthy of being shot by you. Nonetheless, there are many duels on record in which combatants are known to have purposely missed.

[Gulf state gaurd]

When Andrew Jackson went to duel Gen Winfield Scott they were sufficiently impressed with each others manliness that they drank together instead.

Jackson got in trouble in another duel when his opponent shot him in the chest next to his heart, Jackson was believed to have intentionally shot to kill his opponent (which he did).  He was shunned by polite society for a long time afterward.  It was also used against him politically and my have been the reason Pres. James Madison was incensed that Jackson made General without his say.

American duelling was less regulated than European with rather ironically Alexander Hamilton leading the effort to have duelling made illegal in the state of New York after his son was killed by a political rival of Alexanders.  The fellow may have actually baited his son. 

In a nutshell once honor satisfied the duel was over.  One of the more outlandish ones the one fellow ws like the black knight in Monty Python.  His opponent and everyone present kept begging him to end it after multiple hits but he demanded they prop him against a tree to continue.  That being said under the Code Duello if you recieve  a hit sufficient to unnerve the hand, they may retire for the day and reshedule when they are able to continue.  Which in other rules usually a hit is sufficient to end the duel unless they would rather fight on.

Again it really comes down to the principles and their seconds.

[Seth Isaacson]

Hamilton and his son were both killed by the same set of dueling pistols too.