Morning Gents,
Sorry to be so long with the reply to your questions. I learned a lesson the hard way last night when I spent about an hour typing your answer and then lost it when the Forum’s server closed.
I have just had good luck with the MVTC products and folks. I bought my first two in the mid 90’s. Another, about 1998 and the last two months ago. Three pistols including the Murdoch, brass barreled blunderbuss pistol and heavy British Dragoon and the brass blunderbuss (in that order). All touch holes are correctly sized and placed. None pass through the breech plug. The springs are stronger than those on any of my Pedersoli guns. And I have shot them all with hundreds of loads. I clean them all with liquid solvent and water in my downstairs kitchen and so know that all breech plugs are water and air tight. They all look new, in fact too new and exhibit only one small change from firing. The Murdoch has a very slightly loose frizzen that needs to be shimmed. Still works though, is pretty accurate and fires 18 out of twenty times.
I only had two problems ever with a MVTC product. One frizzen arrived unhardened. I could have done it but I didn’t know Pete back then so I called him to put it right. He did, immediately and was very nice about it. That assurance sparked my next purchases. I later received a little pistol with a brass barrel and it threw balls randomly left, right, up or down in about an eight foot area at 25 feet. I had never seen this at the time and was amazed that there was no consistency at all to the shots. I cleaned and ran a searcher down the little short barrel and found a small dished out area near the muzzle where the boring device? Had apparently touched on the way out of the bore. When a sprue or patch hit that spot, it grabbed and launched the ball randomly depending on how it caught. I called Pete and discussed it with him. He offered to replace it and for safety sake really wanted me to send it back, but I decided it was something I could fix myself and later did when I found the time. I built a small expanding mandrel and a slow hand lathe which successfully polished the bore neatly removing the pit and increasing the windage by 2/100ths of an inch. I polished the bore, searched the stock for voids (artillerist coming through) checked the breech plug and proofed with double ball and powder. Then re-polished and searched. No problems. I now use about 40 grains of ffg, had to move to a .51 round ball and it shoots a 20” pattern at 50 feet consistently. One cool thing about that little gun, with some Texas flints I found and a friend of mine knapped it’s never misfired in hundreds of shots. Of course probably will this weekend since I said that.
Now what’s moderate? I was in a mock battle at Ft. King George in 1986 and the guy next to me was firing blanks that literally shook the ground. Since he stood next to me while doing it, and I was afraid his chamber was going to explode, I asked how many grains he was using of the State’s powder (free to us). His response was 250 ”“ 300 grains of ffg. In a Japanese 3rd model Brown Bess. To me, this is not responsible or moderate. My group of 25 was using 110 grains of FFG in blanks and the reports were adequate and in fact had that faintly hollow pipe thunk sound like a heavy musket firing ball usually does. Rifle “crack” really does not belong in a 74 musket and signals really unsafe chamber pressures. Usually with blanks I use an amount of powder equal to the caliber of the gun and work up slightly to get the required report. It depends on whether or not the event allows ramming, wadding (or even a ramrod on the field), how many shots you’ll get to take from one gun etc. I have worked out formulas for a few movies I helped with from time to time. For round ball and shot I find most people load too much powder for the job at hand. One thing old timers knew well was that powder and shot were expensive and it could cost your life if it ran out. So I load the smallest charges that will get the job done. If I’m punching paper at 50 feet with a .490 round ball I may only load 25 grains of ffg. If I’m hunting with my Bess (pedersoli) I’ll use 630 grains of No. 7 birdshot on 70 grains of ffg for small game and for deer might use a .715 with patch on 100 grains. I have been experimenting successfully with fg loads in my three large bore muskets for about a year and have increased accuracy, lowered recoil and seem to have less fouling. Anyway, from my artillery days I own a good supply of unused fg and black powder is hard to find where I live.
Historically, the first factory made firearms in bulk came from France in the 1790’s during the “Wars of the Revolution” when regardless of quality the French Govt. had to get lots of muskets quick. The last thing I like about the MVTC guns is that they are hand made and look it. They (or at least mine) don’t have modern markings of any kind on them. They are what they are, handmade guns, of probably similar quality and metallurgy of many originals. I like them but prudence with all guns and black powder specifically can be the difference between a fun afternoon and considerable grief and I have a family, children and grandchildren so I don’t tempt fate with mine.
