• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Search results

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. Canute Rex

    Wasp nest

    If you are worried about the complex chemicals in wasp spray, you can do the bag method with car starter fluid. That's just ether - puts them to sleep for eternity. Caveat: It is, of course, extremely flammable.
  2. Canute Rex

    For the matchlock fans...

    Bamboo speed loaders. Just as 16th-17th century Europeans had bandoliers of wooden powder bottles, the Japanese had boxes of bamboo tubes with pre-measured powder in them. I compete in primitive biathlon with a matchlock smoothbore. It's a timed course, so I have to load quickly. I have a...
  3. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    I use a 4" angle grinder with a thin diamond disc. I cut a hole in the bottom of a roughly 18" square, maybe 6-8" deep cardboard box so it fits over my bench vise. This is to catch the cut piece of pyrite as it wings off in a random direction. The rim of the cardboard box should be an inch or...
  4. Canute Rex

    Barkskins

    I have only seen one episode, and that because a friend of mine is in it. It's an interesting vignette; the Filles du Roi meet the Habitants. There weren't enough women in Nouvelle France so the French government recruited women to go over and marry settlers. It's a scene of intense awkwardness...
  5. Canute Rex

    The Brown Bess in combat- how effective was it ?

    Getting back around to the Brown Bess, the development that changed battle dramatically was the socket bayonet. Previous to that, musket men needed pike men to protect them, especially from cavalry. There were plug bayonets that fit in the muzzle of the musket, but they were difficult to keep in...
  6. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    I've tried the ferrocerrium sticks. They make a big spark that fails to ignite the priming powder. No idea why. The rough cubes I get on eBay (see links I listed above) work fine for me. I've got a cut slab of pyrite in the lock right now that has about 20 shots on it.
  7. Canute Rex

    The Brown Bess in combat- how effective was it ?

    I'm sure that lightness and handiness were factors in shortening muskets, but moderate accuracy was also necessary in woods warfare. I'll push back on the training issue a bit by noting two things. 1) I wrote "train a soldier properly", with emphasis on properly. I could train a novice to...
  8. Canute Rex

    The Brown Bess in combat- how effective was it ?

    I have seen a number of Brown Bess muskets in armories in the UK. They generally have oval bored muzzles, aligned top to bottom. The British soldiers drilled six days a week, and much of that was "dumb show" (no ammo) loading and firing drill. I also noticed that the buttons on the ramrods were...
  9. Canute Rex

    Making Paper Cartridges

    I have always just nabbed a few sheets of 8 1/2 x 11" out of the computer printer. Fold in half lengthwise; cut along crease. Take each stack of long strips and fold at a 45 angle in the middle to make an equal-leg L. Cut along the angled crease and you have four cartridges per sheet with a nice...
  10. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    A couple of pyrite offerings. https://www.ebay.com/itm/NATURAL-SPECIMEN-1-IRON-PYRITE-Cube-with-Description-Card-4-Sizes-Available/312542863709?hash=item48c501a15d:g:LlkAAOSw9ClcmUW~...
  11. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    I have gotten a bunch of pyrite on eBay. Caveats: There are three kinds you'll see; beads, Spanish smooth, and Chinese rough. Beads have been shaped and polished. Too expensive, avoid. The Spanish pyrite is glossy and golden cubes that look like they have been machined. The smoothness is...
  12. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    Thanks, Mike, Rick. I was just out today with a friend and fellow wheellock shooter, experimenting with load development. He built himself a copy of an early 17th C French rifle and used a Loyalist Arms lock. That lock had to get extensive rebuilding by Brian Anderson. It's still not as reliable...
  13. Canute Rex

    Wheellock news on the internet

    I guess this is what is called a "flex", but that wheellock by Brian Anderson is leaning in a corner about two feet from me right now. It is sweet to look at but also sweet to shoot. I can swing it up to my shoulder in one motion and as my cheek touches the stock my eye lines up through both...
  14. Canute Rex

    Opinions on Rifle Shoppe wheel locks?

    Consider the Indian wheellocks to be prematurely assembled parts sets. A friend of mine has made one work, but it involved a complete rebuild. Weak springs, bad geometry, newly fabricated parts. It's a crapshoot. Brian Anderson is a master at this stuff, but don't take Flint62smoothie's...
  15. Canute Rex

    Replica breech loading swivel gun

    The construction of the barrel with the rings around it arose because at the time they didn't have a ability to melt that quantity of iron to a liquid and cast it. As tenngun points out, they were assembled. A set of wrought iron bars were welded together like barrel staves and then the rings...
  16. Canute Rex

    New musket owner (flintlock): Question on loading/paper cartridge

    I have had some success with conical paper cartridges. I made a wooden conical form, kind of a blunt ended ice cream cone. I experimented with paper to get a proper shape cut out so that I wouldn't have to trim the paper after rolling. Using stick glue I rolled a bunch of little ice cream cones...
  17. Canute Rex

    Percussion bench rifles

    Fleener, it was in the recent Amoskeag auction. I had not thought that I was actually going to win it. It was preceded by about $50k of nice Schutzen rifles, so I think the relevant collectors had smoking checkbooks and took a break. I tried it out day before yesterday on a bench at 50 yards...
  18. Canute Rex

    Percussion bench rifles

    Just bought this at auction and haven't even gotten delivery yet. Made in 1867 in Dayton Ohio by W. W. Hackney. Remington "cast steel" barrel. It looks as if somebody stuck it in a closet for 153 years. 44 cal, but I'll have to slug it to find out what that means in thousandths. I imagine it has...
  19. Canute Rex

    Bullet trap/backstop

    I'll join with AJFedak and others in recommending rubber mulch (shredded tires) in a box. I made a box about 2 feet square on the front and 3 feet long. I put a hinged lid with a piece of tin roofing on it. Filled it with rubber mulch, plus pieces of tire sidewall and floor mat up front. I put...
  20. Canute Rex

    Snaphaunce Musket Build

    One of the cool things about a snaphaunce is that you can see the remaining influence of the wheellock on the mechanism. It still has the horizontal "seesaw" double sear and the sliding pan cover. Elegant job on this one, Ricky.
Back
Top