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Way back in 1971 Fess Parker was featured on the cover of the Dixie Gun Works catalog. Here's what he had to say about Tick-licker: "In case you're wondering about it too, the rifle I carry in the show is only a reasonable facsimile of old Tick-licker. It was never made to fire. Thanks to our...

I bought one of those Belgium muskets with the two piece lock and two piece stock from Someone's Rifle Ranch - I forget the name. The frizzen was soft and flints were hard to get in the mid 60's anyway so I cut some wood blocks to fit in the hammer jaws, drilled a couple of holes in the side...

Terrible with acronyms. ALR???

It's fun to speculate on such things but the pressure from the gasses generated by the gunpowder igniting are transmitted to the ball via the patch, pushing said patch even tighter against the ball than when when it was loaded.

Thanks for sharing that. Cool!!

Gus- not arguing, just discussing. When powder is distributed throughout the bore there is the potential for it to be ignited not just by the hot gasses that you mention but by the flash of igniting powder or perhaps by the ignition source. That flash fills the bore and can ignite the rest of...

I also read that H.P. White report: it spoke of a grey substance built up in the barrel. The substance was not identified; the testing was done on the metal of the barrel itself and no flaw was found. There's one more thing to be considered. I'm not picking on reenactors but the pictures...

Here's a quote from the owners manual for a Traditions muzzleloader from Traditions themselves ( https://www.muzzle-loaders.com/media/wysiwyg/product-manuals/Traditions Percussion - Flintlock/Traditions-Percussion-Flintlock-Manual.pdf ) See page 16 of the manual. "Important: Each time the gun...

A lot of good ideas here. I use a home-made concoction called "gunny paste". It's 1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 mineral spirits and 1/3 beeswax, all measured by volume, then melted together in a double boiler set-up on the kitchen stove and poured into small containers that seal well like baby...

Owned one of these in percussion. On mine, the rammer was too short and came with about a six inch or so extension that had to be screwed on the rod in order to load the rifle. Strange. Oh, mine was a .44; said so on the barrel.

I own a Minuteman, but in .45 caliber. Has a 1 in 48 twist. Although nominally a .45 it's actually a .44; I use a .433 round ball. It came as a flinter and the lock sparks very well. In my assortment of things & stuff gathered over the years I had a percussion lock for this make of rifle. Drops...

I have an 1861 Armi sport that likes 44 grains of 3f pushing a 405 grain Lyman Minie ball.

Well, it's an India-made Bess so replacement anything is a challenge. And many modern-made frizzen springs are cast; not only on India-made muskets but on other makers' guns as well. Something to think about.

Don't know about thinning, I've dealt with this by grinding that bottom "leg" where it cams against the frizzen spring to shorten it. Remove a little bit at a time, polish smooth, lubricate and try it. Better to take several times until you get it right than to remove too much metal. Best to...

I've found square patches to work just fine also; no difference in performance in my frontstuffers. But muzzleloaders are fussy and unique; your results could differ.

I shoot an ArmiSport '61 Springfield, use it for target shooting. After 250 to 300 rounds I can see a definite growth in grouping; changing out the eroded nipple corrects that. If you are getting blowback so bad that the hammer is getting blown back ( I assume to half-cocked) it's definitely...

The barrel is held to the stock by the tang screw and a smallish bit of wood captured by the nosecap. That's why it isn't usually a good idea to fire max loads in these pistols. I've never heard of a barrel breaking loose but the potential is there. Have fun.

Longer machine screws. The Traditions Kentucky has no barrel wedge or pins to hold that barrel to the stock; the tang screw and the wood captured by the nosecap do the whole job. You might always use sensible loads in that pistol but someone else might belong to the "More is Better" school and...

How does the lock act when out of the rifle? If the problems disappear, see George's post above.

Right now, somewhere "Beyond the Great Divide", the late Paul V. is frantically looking for a keyboard!!