Hopefully, But the majority is clearly in my favor.
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Percussion caps in period
- Thread starter CaptainKirk
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Hopefully, But the majority is clearly in my favor.
One thing we haven't considered is powder wasted maintaining a prime on a flintlock. Powder of the 1840's wasn't graphite coated, thus was more Susceptible to moisture and would need constant maintenance unless you went around with an unprimed gun. Of course, the mountains dry out very quickly, but still.
I like old movies and some old tv a lot. I always get a smile when I see a show like Perry Mason and some one is out in the country and of corse find a murder or some such deed. And they can’t just pick up their cell phone and call.
movies ain’t that old when cell phones show up.... the size of a WW GI walki talki .
some times things take over fast and we hardly notice as it goes by.
A young ship yard worker who would have worked on the Constitution or Essex could still be pretty healthy when steam powered ironclads traded iron.
I Think age would have a lot to do with it. A man born about 1800 or before may have no reason to change over to a new dangled system. Where as comming of age about 1830 a capper just made most sense.
movies ain’t that old when cell phones show up.... the size of a WW GI walki talki .
some times things take over fast and we hardly notice as it goes by.
A young ship yard worker who would have worked on the Constitution or Essex could still be pretty healthy when steam powered ironclads traded iron.
I Think age would have a lot to do with it. A man born about 1800 or before may have no reason to change over to a new dangled system. Where as comming of age about 1830 a capper just made most sense.
CaptainKirk
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Look at us...we could be shooting all the latest in modern weapons and are still burning charcoal.
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I read that Lewis and Clark also carried an air rifle with them ? If this is an accurate statement they must have thought in advance about running out of caps and powder?
Pemmican
32 Cal
And paddling canoes, hiking, and camping in tents......
Pemmican
32 Cal
You can pick a flint up off the ground in many places. Caps don't grow on the ground. 6 to 10 flints in your pocket and as you walk pick up another as they grow.
FWIW involving this discussion. A tin of caps weighs .7 of an ounce. No tin .4 of an ounce.#11,s A bare .495 round ball weighs .4 of an ounce. Aside from the lead not a lot of weight that would break a Mules Back. Im sure that what could be recovered from a harvested game Animal would be reused. A sensitive refrigeration scale was used.
You can pick a flint off the ground in many places, but not all. The trade of flint points was an important part of the pre Columbian commerce among native American tribes.
Its one skill set to be able to knap a gun flint to keep an edge. Its quite another to pick up a piece of flint and shape it into a blade and then into a gun flint. One Woods Walk at Fort de Chartres, we were asked to remove our flints and use one from the pile of flint shards laying on the ground. Getting something to fit in the jaws and draw sparks was quite a challenge. The shards were small enough to get to rough shape and we all made our flints. Some even made it through all the shooting.
Its one skill set to be able to knap a gun flint to keep an edge. Its quite another to pick up a piece of flint and shape it into a blade and then into a gun flint. One Woods Walk at Fort de Chartres, we were asked to remove our flints and use one from the pile of flint shards laying on the ground. Getting something to fit in the jaws and draw sparks was quite a challenge. The shards were small enough to get to rough shape and we all made our flints. Some even made it through all the shooting.
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Old Hawkeye
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I see the comments that "you can pick up a flint off the ground", "just look in any meandering stream & get a flint" & the general assumption that "flints are everywhere" through out this thread. Both the Oregon & Morman Trails pass thru were I live & I have paralleled their route along the Platte River across Nebraska (456 miles). There is NO FLINT to be found along that route. Flint & similar rock suitable for sparking is only found in certain formations in limited areas, which is why it was a valuable trade item even in Paleolithic times. If it was "everywhere" it wouldn't have been a trade item. Most rock in the areas pertinent to this discussion is sandstone, limestone, granite, & non-sparking metamorphic type. So the romantic idea of the independent mountain man or pioneer not needing to buy, trade, or carrying enough flint during his travels & only needs to pick them up as he walks along is preposterous! Two places I personally know where "sparking" rocks can be picked off the ground are the Oauchita mountains in Arkansas & the Flint Hills in Kansas but these, and other places like them, are small isolated areas compared to the vastness of "The West".
This forum is not the ways things were 200 yrs ago. We might like that era on this forum but having millions of folks live it day in and day is different. Folks back them lived it and knew how to do things naturally to live that we have to go to utube to see how to do it.
I read that Lewis and Clark also carried an air rifle with them ? If this is an accurate statement they must have thought in advance about running out of caps and powder?
The Indians were scared and in aw of the air rifle.
The Indians were scared and in aw of the air rifle.
"I see the comments that "you can pick up a flint off the ground", "just look in any meandering stream & get a flint" & the general assumption that "flints are everywhere" through out this thread."
Where I am in East Texas there is no flint. Have plenty of sandstone, iron ore and can find coal laying on top of the ground.
Neighbor was bull dozing a fence row and they discovered an area where they found the remains arrow heads where the Keechi Indians had knapped flints. The Indians had traded with Indians to the west for them.
Where I am in East Texas there is no flint. Have plenty of sandstone, iron ore and can find coal laying on top of the ground.
Neighbor was bull dozing a fence row and they discovered an area where they found the remains arrow heads where the Keechi Indians had knapped flints. The Indians had traded with Indians to the west for them.
As a person who was raised where Indians had lived and you could still find hammers and arrowheads, I've always been interested in finding Flint. I don't know if the arrowheads I've seen are Flint or chert, and I don't know how to tell the difference. Of course, I understand we don't have Flint, we do have chert. I was lucky enough to pick up a piece that was about the size of a flint, and sharp on one end so I put into my Muzzleloader and it works surprisingly well. A couple hundred miles from me there's quite a bit of chert, but not that common where I live. A friend gave me a good-sized chunk I just can't figure out how to break it and get something usable out of the pieces. We have other rocks that make sparks when struck, I just have never experimented with anything else. The chert that I found lasted as long or longer as any of my boughten flints.
Squint
In some areas, that is true, but in many it is not. Flints don't grow on the ground either. While finding flint can be easy in some areas, finding flint suitable for knapping into a gun flint is another matter. A Strike-a-light will work with many things, flintlocks are quite fussy. The flint found closest to me cannot be knapped into gunflints. How far are you going to walk to find your flint, 100 miles ? Not a lot of flint in the mountains, nor the prairie. Flint was one of the #1 trade items among the Indians, trading between tribes because many lived in areas where there was no suitable flint for making arrowheads or tools.
Folks back then were just as dependent on the technology and trade of the day as we are today.
The Oregon and California trials are littered with graves.
I currently have a piece of chert on my gun, very difficult to shape it was, from the piece of rock I used. I wound up shaping it by crushing in a bench vise. Prime flint can be shaped with a deer antler, but such flint is only available in a few areas of the country. other flint or chert is very difficult to shape.
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