British practices in priming Brown Bess

[DanChamberlain]

One should also point out the possibility - as was suggested by Ross Seyfried - that the granulation of powders in days gone by may have differed from that of today. He suggested, with some research on the subject, that our current 3f was yesterday's 2f in efficiency. So, back in the day, 2f was very good stuff. While we have great powders today, the Brits were state-of-the-art when it came to black powder.

I use only 3f powder in all my guns, from .36 long rifle, to 12ga shotgun. Prime or main charge.

Dan

 

[ericb]

I think it important to note that, at least in the many, many accounts, documents, etc that I have read regarding 18th Century Warfare that I have been struck by just how rare mention, reports or accounts of misfires in Combat are. Surely they happened, particularly in the Rain, but apparently not enough to be considered particularly significant, or a major problem. I have likewise noticed how few firsthand reports of death or injury due to "Accidents" or "Mishap" with Muskets I have seen.

TG's point is well taken - were I in the Continental Line, I would certainly have squirreled away enough Powder to use as back-up priming, just as in my Charleville Cartridge Box today I usually have a Squib of extra priming powder, rolled up Paper Cartridge style, on those occasions when I am not priming from a small priming horn. (I confess to usually using 3 or 4F for priming, simply cuz the Pan on the Charleville is so big, and I prefer to save my 2F for the Cartridges proper - but it will shoot all day using 2F for prime).

E

 

[Coot]

"Something that hasn't been taken into consideration is that the only powder the soldiers had was that in their cartridges'
Ii have seen on this or other forums where it is thought or there was evidence thnat some military peole carried an addiotionl horn of powder as an "in case" backup for priming. I do not know how accurate this is of how common in the various theaters of the past

Seems like the easiest thing to do would be to use what was already on hand - if extra priming powder was needed & the norm was to prime from the cartridge, just pull out another cartridge, tear it open & prime from that. :idunno: