Mountain men & Plains hunters

[F.G. Ford]

Picture yourself 200 years ago outfitting yourself to hit the trails ( if you can find one ) getting ready to make your mark ( like Hugh Glass )
Gearing up to go to the mountains and find what is out there, now to choose your gun, .45 or .54,the new cap ( percussion ) or flint, choices, choices......then like now, caps then .10 cents for a hundred, or like now $11.00 a hundred they were pricey and unreliable in form and supply.
Which way would you go? :hmm:
Fred

 

[larryp]

200 years ago, in 1815, I don't think caplocks were available quite yet. But even if we move forward just a few years the scarcity of them before trading posts were established on the frontier and cost would make me choose a flintlock. As for caliber I'd go with the .54 for western big game. And as a matter of preference, a full stock Lancaster type with about a 36"-38" barrel and double set triggers.

 

[will5a1]

200 years ago, if I could lay my hands on a 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle I'd be a happy man, that rifle just feels right to me.

 

[Zonie]

Assuming we're talking about the 1830-1840 time period, I would buy the percussion rifle.

The caplock is much more weather proof than a flintlock.

Not only is rain less likely to keep the gun from firing but the high winds often found out on the plains are less likely to blow the prime out of the pan (Something that has been documented many times).

The percussion ignition also fires faster than the old fashioned flinters.

 

[will5a1]

Yeah, 175 years ago I'd go with a caplock, but in 1815 it would be the HF 1803

 

[F.G. Ford]

Caps were not out yet in 1815, we would have to wait 15 years.
But today 200 years later were still short of caps :cursing: and they ain't cheap.
Today, I can still get my flinters to work well in the foulest hunting weather.
My percussion guns still outnumber my flint guns.
:shocked2:
Fred

 

[wayne terry]

Percussion here also for the Mountain Man Era, just have to buy plenty, no businesses in the mountains then.

 

[mooman76]

Seems to me you(I) would be taking several guns if you could afford it. Maybe both. New one to try out and old reliable.

 

[gwalker]

Easy response...For the past 30 years, I've been shooting only one rifle - my 54 cal flintlock Pennsylvania longrifle (Lancaster School) with large Siler lock and 42 inch Green Mountain barrel. I know my rifle well, she still shoots plumb center and I can hit a gong at 200 yards shooting offhand and a rabbit in the head at 40 paces. I load from my bullet pouch, and clean my rifle with tow and a tow worm, using water only. I take my rifle out shooting in the Wyoming winds several times each week throughout the year, regardless of weather. I once shot a caplock for a short time until I learned better. Sold it while building my flintlock and I will never again look favorably on caps as ignition sources.

"Beware of the man who shoots only one rifle; He knows how to use it!"

 

[Tom Compton]

.54 flinter.
TC

 

[tenngun]

Assuming we're talking about the 1830-1840 time period, I would buy the percussion rifle.

The caplock is much more weather proof than a flintlock.

Not only is rain less likely to keep the gun from firing but the high winds often found out on the plains are less likely to blow the prime out of the pan (Something that has been documented many times).
The percussion ignition also fires faster than the old fashioned flinters.

I think it would depend on your age. A 20 something would likly pick. a new styled gun, an older man might pick a gun he used all his life. I like a flinter an think it's every bit as reliable as a precussion, but is a lot more needy. Caps were being sent west before 1830, flint lock guns were being sent west well after the 1850s. Let's not forget economics. An older large caliber rifle could be picked up used. A lot cheaper then a brand new precussion rifle. Being of Germanic or British ancestory you may be drawn more to a rifle. The Mississippi valley was full of French Spanish and "civilized" Indians. Many would be drawn to a fusil. Any one coming out of the Canadas would also often been drawn to a fusil. The wreck of the Arabia was loaded with 3 precussion guns and 100 fusils in the late 1850s.

 

[Enfield1]

A man after my own heart. I have an 1803 Harpers Ferry built from a Track of the Wolf kit and I love it. When people talk about "personas", I fancy myself having served in the War of 1812 and headed west with my rifle, not having turned it in or maybe they let me keep because they lost my pension application. It is a robust and reliable .54 rifle with which I have learned to make good shots on deer-sized game out to 100 yards.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Assuming we're talking about the 1830-1840 time period, I would buy the percussion rifle.

The caplock is much more weather proof than a flintlock.

Not only is rain less likely to keep the gun from firing but the high winds often found out on the plains are less likely to blow the prime out of the pan (Something that has been documented many times).

The percussion ignition also fires faster than the old fashioned flinters.

Many say 1830 was the end of the mountain man era. Percussion may have been coming into it's own by then but flints were, no doubt, the more prominent. I have shot my flint rifles in the rain. Not the best conditions for a flint but possible.

 

[Dewey]

Many say 1830 was the end of the mountain man era. Percussion may have been coming into it's own by then but flints were, no doubt, the more prominent. I have shot my flint rifles in the rain. Not the best conditions for a flint but possible.

Don't you mean 1840 ???

Anyhoo, flint for me. In 62 cal smoothbore !!!

A well supplied company or working near a fort would be a must if using caps for re-supply. As they say, "if God wanted us to shoot caplocks, He would have put caps all over the ground instead of flints"!

And historically, they DID overwhelmingly choose flintlocks until the 1840s.

 

[tenngun]

Got to say that I think flints would remain more popular then modern myth implies until after the war between the states. How ever 1000 caps it's no bigger then a beer bottle. A tin of caps in your shooting bag and maybe a tin in a pocket or your smoking kit as a back up would provide you as many shots as 3 or 4 extra flints in your bag.

 

[BrownBear]

I have shot my flint rifles in the rain. Not the best conditions for a flint but possible.

Actually lots more than possible with some practice and preparation. Really no more troublesome or difficult than a capper once a guy gets his act together.

But how many guys actually go to the range on rainy days????

Guy living out in the weather and using his gun all the time would have that figured out. Lots more than a modern man sitting out the rain at home making excuses.

In my experience with lots of weather days in the woods, strong winds are much more troublesome than rain. But again, preparation and practice trumps the problems.

But how many guys go to the range on days when the wind is howling?

My pick for a rifle if I was reenacting? Something real anonymous and cheap, figuring only rich man trappers would be shooting premium guns. If I was portraying an average Joe Schmoe trapper trying to get his act together, it would certainly be a "cheap" smooth trade gun rather than a rifle.

 

[hanshi]

Some of those guns that came up with the Arabia looked good enough to be fired again. Not to mention hats and shoes in incredible condition.

I'd choose a longrifle flintlock, 38" barrel in .54. If I could afford a second gun it might be a percussion smoothbore .54 with a shorter barrel.

 

[nwtradegun]

72 CAL SMOOTHBORE TRADE MUSKET. caps where only avaleable at rondavoses, or trading posts. hard to put on a nipple in the dead of winter. flints were easaly made.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Don't you mean 1840 ???

No. I meant 1830.
But, I am aware that is a hotly debated issue.
I go with the earlier date cus'. Just cus'.

 

[Dewey]

Well, if you want to disregard a decade of rendezvous ....

Actually, a case could be made the the INDIVIDUAL mountain man era (as opposed to the COMPANY era) was AFTER 1840, with such folk as Rufus Sage (1841 to 1844) and "Liver-Eating" Johnson.

Anyhoo, "The evidence is overwhelming that the Hawken was in no way a typical gun on the 1820-1835 frontier. - Hanson". And the same could be said for any caplock, IMHO.