Col. Batguano
75 Cal.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2011
- Messages
- 5,038
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The price of caps and flints is essentially a wash. If you pay $1.00 for a flint and get 20 shots out of it that's $0.05 per shot, which is in the ball park for the price of caps. Of course, you can keep knapping the flint to extend the life and decrease your cost / shot cost. Flints seem to be available when caps are scarce, but from fewer sources.
On the other hand, cap guns can shoot substitutes. Flint needs real BP. There are fewer sources for real BP than there are for substitutes. Real BP is cheaper than the substitutes at most locations. Basically, with flint you just have to plan ahead a little more.
Both types are equally reliable if you follow the procedures, but there is more to do with flint than there is with percussion. Due to the longer and generally more variable lock time, flint guns will not be as accurate as a cap gun shooting from an unsupported position.
Because of the touch hole, a flint gun will need about 10% more powder to achieve the same velocities.
When it comes time to re-sell the gun, an "average production" cap gun will sell faster than the same in flint. There are just more cap shooters out there, period. The flint gun will cost a little more on the front end, and cleaning necessitates removing the lock each time. Not a big deal, but there is again "more to do".
So all in all it's really something of a wash when you boil it all down. For simplicity's sake I would advise you start with percussion, and then graduate to flint when you think you're ready, budget permitting. But flint is cooler and more fun, period.
On the other hand, cap guns can shoot substitutes. Flint needs real BP. There are fewer sources for real BP than there are for substitutes. Real BP is cheaper than the substitutes at most locations. Basically, with flint you just have to plan ahead a little more.
Both types are equally reliable if you follow the procedures, but there is more to do with flint than there is with percussion. Due to the longer and generally more variable lock time, flint guns will not be as accurate as a cap gun shooting from an unsupported position.
Because of the touch hole, a flint gun will need about 10% more powder to achieve the same velocities.
When it comes time to re-sell the gun, an "average production" cap gun will sell faster than the same in flint. There are just more cap shooters out there, period. The flint gun will cost a little more on the front end, and cleaning necessitates removing the lock each time. Not a big deal, but there is again "more to do".
So all in all it's really something of a wash when you boil it all down. For simplicity's sake I would advise you start with percussion, and then graduate to flint when you think you're ready, budget permitting. But flint is cooler and more fun, period.
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