Rocks are more reliable than caps

[david w]

Flints are also hard to find.

Dixie Gun Works and Track of The Wolf has them. Local chert will also work. Not as good as the English flint, but they work.

 

[david w]

Which work better, caps of rocks, when you have no powder, shot or ball?

I hate to brag, but I have several pounds of powder, and somewhere close to 450 pounds of lead. My on hand supply of English flints is 5 dozen.

 

[deerstalkert]

i make both my own flints and my own caps.
takes me twice as long or more to make a cap and i am dependent on having the correct chemicals.
plus a flint is good for 5-50 shots.
but i will keep both and enjoy each flint and cap.

 

[billraby]

Unless someone can explain it to me I’m calling BS on taking a photo straight into a mirror without seeing the camera. Any camera photographs whatever it can see in front of it. So if it’s directly in front of the mirror it’s going to show up. I can’t imagine how anything else is possible.

Civil War cameras have the film and lens mounted totally independent of each other. You can set them at different angles and misaligned with each other. So they do not always photograph what is directly in front of them. You can set up the camera off to the side of the mirror, not in the reflection, and it will take the photograph as if it is looking directly at it. If the lens and the film are offset laterally it works. Modern photographers will tell you it is impossible. But it is not. Also possible to take a picture inside a room with people in it and get every detail in the room but have none of the people appear in the photo. It can be done.
Just like there are people that shoot muzzleloaders because they enjoy the historical aspect of it, there are still people doing photography with the same equipment and techniques used in the 19th century. There are also some professional photographers that still use them because they do things not possible with modern equipment. Civil War era cameras are still in production. They are very expensive. But there are also a good number of people that build their own. You can still buy film for them. Many people that use these make their own film. The photo quality of the finest modern camera on the market does not even come close to what can be done with a home made camera using home made film.

 

[Howard Pippin]

I find this whole thread to be a troll writers paradise, do you?
Squint

 

[FiremanBrad]

Operator error.

 

[SamTex1949]

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

happy Pi day !! (Pie too)

 

[kid_couteau]

Well I cant speak to rifles so much but my cap and ball revolvers have worked quite well.
I think it is just a matter of knowing what you are doing. I have seen many guys at matches get spent caps stuck in the cylinder and the cylinder seize up from fouling.
I do not have this issue usually.

 

[Huasser1]

Civil War camera used an 8x10 or larger negative. Sometimes much larger. They are capable of extremely high resolution. Photoshop filters often attempt to simulate what those old cameras did with chemistry. The biggest thing is that the old cameras used shift lenses that could do all sorts of neat stuff. Objects in focus at 1 foot away and 500 feet away at the same time. Or put specific parts of a photo out of focus. Take a picture of a tall building and the sides are parallel all the way up. You can take a picture looking STRAIGHT into a mirror and not get the camera in the reflection. All sorts of neat stuff.

Fascinating stuff. Thank-you sir!

 

[Mike]

Sorry billraby, but I'm going to have to disagree here. I refer you to this discussion back in 2004.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/when-did-percussion-replace-flint.1419/The British switched late in the Napoleonic wars because of ease of use and also because it functioned better in inclement weather.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

I see it time and again. At our monthly shoot yesterday, pretty much every cap lock shooter were having problems getting their rifles to fire, while the flintlock shooters went merrily on our way shooting targets. I've seen the same thing at shoots for years.
Why do people stick with cap locks, when flintlocks are so much more reliable?

Haha! This gave me a good chuckle! Way to stir the pot looking for a debate. Slow day at your place? Have no fear, Spring will soon be here and we can all get out more often to shoot our guns, bows, and go fly fishing.

 

[Coinneach]

I see it time and again. At our monthly shoot yesterday, pretty much every cap lock shooter were having problems getting their rifles to fire, while the flintlock shooters went merrily on our way shooting targets. I've seen the same thing at shoots for years.
Why do people stick with cap locks, when flintlocks are so much more reliable?

Just wait until those Devil spawned Cartridge gurns take hold, the demned things don't even smoke; how the hell can any self respectin Man enjoy shooting without the smoke ?

 

[Coinneach]

Sorry billraby, but I'm going to have to disagree here. I refer you to this discussion back in 2004.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/when-did-percussion-replace-flint.1419/The British switched late in the Napoleonic wars because of ease of use and also because it functioned better in inclement weather.

And your references are ?

"Discovered in 1805 by Alexander Forsyth (1786–1843), the percussion lock revolutionized firearms theory and opened the way to the development of self-contained metal cartridges and contact fuses in artillery shells....... ...Forsyth worked to improve his invention and adapt it to muskets of the day, but he received little support. In the year before his death, (my itallics) Great Britain and the United States finally began to manufacture military arms incorporating the percussion system."
(percussion lock | firearm ignition system).

The Napoleonic Wars concluded at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, well before the Percussion lock system became commercially available or utilised by any nations Army.

 

[SolidLeadSlug]

I see it time and again. At our monthly shoot yesterday, pretty much every cap lock shooter were having problems getting their rifles to fire, while the flintlock shooters went merrily on our way shooting targets. I've seen the same thing at shoots for years.
Why do people stick with cap locks, when flintlocks are so much more reliable?

That's not true at all. A few snapped caps prior to shooting and there is total reliability

 

[doubleset]

Well I cant speak to rifles so much but my cap and ball revolvers have worked quite well.
I think it is just a matter of knowing what you are doing. I have seen many guys at matches get spent caps stuck in the cylinder and the cylinder seize up from fouling.
I do not have this issue usually.

Well, we've all had that problem at one time or another. I hear that the flintlock revolvers are a lot more reliable mostly because they don't have any caps to get stuck in the mechanism.

 

[Hiddeninsmoke]

Flinters are great firearms, weather permitting.

 

[Mattmatt617]

I'm real old and don't know what a troll is. Otherwise, I might think this is one.

Nope, it’s the guy in the mirror

 

[Patched]

How else can a rocklocker assert his obvious undisputed superiority other than asserting his self appointed obvious superiority?….
Flinchlockers often indulge themselves in delusions of grandeur… I always let em.

 

[Southern Bamboo]

Lucky for me I live near the Flint River.

But I own a caplock .50 TC Hawken...

For now...

 

[FishDFly]

Not if you know where to look. I looked up where to find chert/flint here in NE PA, seems the area around Marshalls Creek has the proper types of stones.

Not everyone lives there.