Every so often we want to know just what methods early users of flintlock rifles were using. Recently one of the members of my gun club had some issues of the "American Rifleman" from 1935. In the September 1935 issue was an article on handling the flintlock rifle by an author who had some experience. At one level it was like traveling back in time to 1935 and listening to someone who was taught by someone from a previous generation about the handling and usage of a flintlock rifle. What was fascinating to me was that so many of the questions we ask about the care, cleaning and shooting of flintlock rifles were answered with the same responses we are posting today. Sure, there are differences as he recommended the use of used 600 thread count linen for patching and he used terms that I had never heard before such as the flint chop (frizzen) and bulger (short starter). There were observations that we know today such as he advocated the use of cold water for cleaning of black powder fouling and seating the ball firmly on the powder. The hard bouncing of the ramrod deformed the ball, and shooting consistency and accuracy was impaired. Also interesting was the figures associated with the article showing names used for the parts of the rifle, the parts of the lock and the contents of a shooting bag.
His rifle was a 45 caliber flintlock with a 42" barrel, 1 in 54" twist that use a load of 75 grains of FFFg powder for the load and the prime.
I have copied the article into pdf format for us to read today.
His rifle was a 45 caliber flintlock with a 42" barrel, 1 in 54" twist that use a load of 75 grains of FFFg powder for the load and the prime.
I have copied the article into pdf format for us to read today.
