Just wondering

[Smokey Plainsman]

Percussion locks were considerably simpler and easier to manufacture. That’s one theory behind their rapid popularity. Economy could have played a large role in replacing flint.

 

[oldwood]

This question is frustrating to folks like us , looking for information about the firearms used by our hunting forefathers. I have thousands of pages in books and the vast majority of information about the guns used then , is like smoke in the wind. So much so , the only reason it's so vague , it must be the folks back then , thought it so common place as to be unimportant in the scheme of life. All that said , There are two books written by Appalachian professional hunters , one from Northern Maryland , Meschak Browning , "44 Years A Hunter , and the other , 50 Years a Hunter and Trapper , by E.N. Woodcock, a hunter from North Central Pa.. located North of Sinnamahoning ,Pa. the West branch of the Susquehanna River. Browning started his hunting about 1816 , while Woodcock began about 1825. The m/l guns these guys used initially had to be flintlock rifles and over time Browning finished his memoirs using C/W era percussion rifles , while Woodcock finished his notes using lever action ctg. guns about 1870. Browning doesn't mention when,or if he changed from flint to percussion. Woodcock 's father had his old flint rifle changed from flint to percussion before his son seriously took it to the woods to hunt for profit. Woodcock did mention in the midpoint his notes,(Guessing year about 1840) somewhere he fired two rapid shots at some animal , which would say he was using a double barrel percussion rifle. The information these hunters left us, slips smoothly right over the information about their firearms. The pre 1800 history seems just as vague as what we have just discussed . ................OOPs ,got way out in the weeds this time..........oldwood

 

[Woody Morgan]

OOPs ,got way out in the weeds this time..........oldwood

If you aren't "out in the weeds", many times you aren't learning anything, imo.

wm

 

[Rudyard]

The in lines are pure cheating a hideous abuse , disgusting articles nothing more . I never seen one in New Zealand but we don't have any seasons for deer or wild pigs all such being introduced and classed as' Noxious animals '. but no fear need be entertained that they will ever be eliminated . But they are bred by the nature of such things to be' spooky'( Since the dozy ones got barrelled years ago.) It was once normal to find truck drivers had a rifle in the cab to knock off the road side deer hop out gut it then drop it off at the then common meat buyers who had freezers in less populated areas . Them days are gone but government cullers are still employed I used to be one in 1968 if not with a ML ( The department wouldn't have gone for that ) if un be known to them I had a old 310 Cadet brl made up to load ball at the breach per La Chuamette or the same s g buck pushed through to give me' mechanically fitted projectiles ' per Jacobs it took down , if All I recall shooting was an Opossum good meat and a change from the venison no other meat being provided as we where after all hunters all other food stuffs being chopper dropped to the huts in your block. We made bread and just had two big meals a day after the' morning shot' & the' evening shot' mostly . What dose this relates to hideous in lines ? Good question, just came out of my metaphoric pen.
Rudyard

 

[Crow-Feather]

I won't necessarily argue with that. Welcome to being an American regardless. I'm more concerned with how I do things rather than worry about my fellow man whom I don't even know.

wm

Thank you, I don't know these people either. I don't wish them harm. But I have gone to a few funerals with a smile on my face.

 

[SOLANCO]

I think Hanshi makes a good point regarding newer technology. We can see it in many examples of how new firearm technology was adopted. I suspect finances figured into it then as it does today. if you or your family had a decent flintlock and the new percussion cost several months total wages, the flintlock was good enough.

Look how slowly military is to adopt a new arm even when a new technology is developing. When the ball started rolling though it didn't take long for first the percussion technology and then relatively quickly cartridge guns to displace flint technology that had been around for several hundred years.

Over the course of history, the pace of change accelerates. The closer you get to modern (our) times, the faster change occurs.

 

[toot]

I have heard that soldiers have caught Taliban guys over in Afghanistan fighting with original Brown Bess muskets left there by the British. Its easy to find pictures from the 1930s of people in rural parts of USA still using flintlocks.

I beleave that they were captured being used in AFGANISTAN, by the TALIBAN also. a rock was easier to come by than a percussion cap? although they did use both. I wonder hoe in heck they made the percussion caps?

 

[Belleville]

Those percussion gadgets won't catch on, I heard that you can not buy caps.

 

[Dave James]

Seems "we" in the BP community are having the same argument the bow hunters had/ have , I don't think I would ever use this firestick thing and I never saw the use for flintlocks, but we all need to find common ground

 

[desi23]

I beleave that they were captured being used in AFGANISTAN, by the TALIBAN also. a rock was easier to come by than a percussion cap? although they did use both. I wonder hoe in heck they made the percussion caps?

I'm guessing that caps come from Pakistan where they have been known to make their own ammunition for modern firearms for many years. I've seen films and read reports on the arms industry there. They've been known to make cartridge primers using various chemicals, probably not difficult at all to make percussion caps for those who still want them.

 

[toot]

ROGER THAT.

 

[flashpoint]

I wonder more about how many made the change to the caplock,,, and then regretted it. Fumbling with tiny little caps, running out of caps while out for extended time (maybe used up, maybe a bunch dropped from cold or old fingers), a more difficult flash channel to clear. Any of them have "buyer's remorse?"

Just the ones that dropped their caps during a fight.