Firestorm breech design

[RedFeather]

All this talk about the Firestorm got me to wondering how it works. I checked the flinchlock forum and was directed to T/C's site which shows it to be a coned breech plug that holds the pellets up away from the base, allowing the ignition fire to swirl around under them and touch off whatever the bottoms are coated with. This got me to wondering about that design with loose powder, as a lot of guys are putting some in with the pellets or just shooting all loose. My question is, isn't that design the exact opposite of a patent breech? I mean, it appears it would be a bit slower using loose.

 

[Hunter66]

I thought so too. I took the breechplug from one and turned the face flat on a lathe. The gun went off better and also shot better groups.