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Yes, way way too much! I think too much powder actually ******* ignition RATHER THAN SPEEDS IT UP. And I don't care for it when my trigger hand gets singed by all those burning grains, either.

Nope. Not at all. But I do leave the frizzen open after firing, blow down the barrel to hasten the burning of any embers, watch the smoke come out of the vent and repeat until there is no more smoke. Then I reload and prime the pan, close the frizzen, cock the hammer and fire away. My comment...

Slightly off the subject, but still related — I forgot to put powder in the pan before closing the frizzen and my musket fired anyway when I pulled the trigger. I realized right away that some of the powder from the main charge migrated though the vent into the pan. That is one more VERY GOOD...

OK, I see how that would be different. Thanks for the explanation.

Very very long ago. I'm an old guy now; 74 this past August. I bought my Charleville mail order from an ad in a blackpowder magazine that I was looking through with some other sailors aboard ship. We were deployed for six months in the Mediterranean in 1973. Stir crazy while at sea, we...

I make paper cartridges for my Charleville. The paper I use is newsprint and I do not treat the paper with anything. I find it almost always burns up completely during firing. Very rarely have I seen any smoldering bits of paper on the ground, but when I have, it burns up completely in seconds...

I do the same thing. I start fires in my woodstove with pine needles, pine cones and small branches from the pine trees in my back yard. No need for paper at all.

More speculation here, but seems LIKELY there must have been a sizable quantity of powder on their reloading bench? I always make it a point to have nothing at mine except the powder in the dispenser, and the only primers are in the feeder. Everything else is put away in a separate room. And...

My brother was on the gun line offshore Vietnam in 1966 aboard a destroyer and 1968 aboard a heavy cruiser. I believe they came in close to shore many times, including close in at Da Nang. He developed a rash while aboard the cruiser. The corpsmen thought he had some kind of a tropical fungus...

I pretty much do something like that — I make the payments electronically from my bank account, online. I don't want the bank to do it automatically because — I am a control freak. The only bills I pay the old fashioned way are for local companies that do not bank electronically, like my local...

They suck everywhere. I frequently get mail for my neighbors and they for me. When I have an bill to pay, I no longer put it in my mailbox but drive to the post office and put it in the box there. I suspect my Mailman has dyslexia; both with letters and numbers. He seems like a nice guy but if...

I have often thought also about soldiers in close ranks firing volley after volley. Perhaps some got excited and double charged their pieces and filled the pans to overflowing. Imagine the flash and the boom of such an overcharged musket right beside your ear! And if somebody REALLY over did...

I have found that my Charleville fires reliably with a smaller, rather than larger mound of 3F priming powder. If I am aware of heat from the flash, and bits of burning powder hitting my cheek — I used too much.

I know very little about cannons, but just looking at it — Whoever designed and built this thing was really scared of it blowing up when fired. That's why the barrel is so large and the bore so small by comparison; not to mention all the bands running around its circumference. I bet the thing...

I believe "Man In The Wilderness" released in 1971 is more accurate. It starred Richard Harris as Glass.

I can understand how living on the Reservation with your own tribe — really an extended family, I suppose — gives a sense of belonging to many Native People. But I am glad to hear about Native People living out here with us Pale Faces rather than on Reservations. From what I understand, they...

One of my great great uncles serving in the Union Army was shot through the chest in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Still alive, he dragged himself out of the open and into hiding under some bushes. After a day or so he regained consciousness and further revived himself with some coffee still...

OK, I can't help it...

I use them too, if I am not using paper cartridges in my Charleville. The daisy cut patches fold nicely around the ball and make it easier to ram them home.

Welcome to you from neighboring New Hampshire. BUT I MUST point out a minor inaccuracy in your intro. Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers were native to New Hampshire and without doubt, many of the men came from Massachusetts — but they did NOT call Vermont home. During the French and Indian...