The Enduring Percussion Muzzleloading Rifle

[Bright Cerulean]

About 14 years ago, I had a chance conversation with my maternal grandfather about my interest in muzzleloading rifles. He mentioned an old man by the name Applewhite that he knew in the 1920's. It seems Mr. Applewhite always carried a percussion muzzleloading rifle (PMR) everywhere he went. It was his all-purpose rifle, and Mr. Applewhite was proficient with it.

Books by Ned Roberts, Walter Cline, and others have confirmed that the PMR was not tossed aside by everyone after the Civil War.

While we think of the PMR as being supplanted by repeating cartridge rifles, it appears to have been retained, even preferred by some users for its economy and accuracy.

I have endeavored to learn if there was a final form of the PMR that users believed was the high point of its development, but there did not appear to be consensus.

Has anyone else explored this lasting popularity of the percussion muzzleloading rifle?

 

[necchi]

Uhm, Yes,,
That's why we're all here on this site.

 

[Bright Cerulean]

Good point!

Perhaps I should have clarified that the PMR remained popular as an everyday tool with some non-enthusiasts, people who saw their rifle in a light similar to their farming implements

 

[Grenadier1758]

As far as naming the perfect muzzle loading rifle is concerned, I believe that we are still working on it.

The perfect muzzle loading rifle is the one we as individuals determine is the ultimate in design and function.

 

[cynthialee]

As far as naming the perfect muzzle loading rifle is concerned, I believe that we are still working on it.

The perfect muzzle loading rifle is the one we as individuals determine is the ultimate in design and function.

This.

By the time suppository guns came around the world had a number of centuries to figure out BP rifles.

The best BP gun ever is the gun that fits you properly and delivers consistent accuracy. For some that may be this gun and others it will be that gun.
So much goes into that call. LOP, Comb, barrel length, trigger pull, stock style and on and on....it is a bit of a science, and no one gun will serve all people equally.

 

[matt denison]

My maternal grandfather, Thomas, who raised 9 kids through the depresion on a dairy farm had a percussion shotgun up until he died in 1959. He said it was the only gun he ever owned or ever needed. Loaded it with shot for varmints and hunted whitetail deer with buckshot. My grandmother named it the "scare 'em stiff" because if you missed with it it would scare whatever you were shooting at with the noise and smoke stiff enough that you could walk up and smack it with the gun.

He stored shot and gun powder in one quart milk bottles on the top shelf in the pantry and the gun hung on nails above the kitchen door. I was too young to remember much about the gun itself but do remember some of the many stories of Gramps prowes and adventures with it.

 

[excess650]

Cartridge Sharps and Ballard rifles were merely modifications to the original percussion breech loader versions. Percussion MLers were still being built into the 1890s, and the cartridge repeaters were very popular by then.

There is a Western Pa fullstock with back action percussion lock willed to my nephew that has been in the family since originally made, likely in the 1860s. Its a slender, curly stocked beauty with rather nice patchbox. I wish that it was willed to me....

 

[nkbj]

Any more I prefer percussion and flintlock rifles and percussion revolvers to cartridge guns.
Telling people I've done gone caseless.

 

[artmechanic]

suppository guns :rotf:

I am SO using that. Thank you.

 

[Ames]

What year was the percussion lock introduced?
That's why I'm here. To learn.

 

[Zonie]

In 1807, Rev. Alexander J. Forsyth in Scottland patented a type of percussion system.

His patent was basically about using a fulminate powder that would explode from impact. His design was not for a percussion cap.

The metal cap idea came along around 1814 and by the early 1820's it was starting to be recognized as a usable system.

By the late 1820's the popularity of the percussion system was making it a commonly used device, so much so that flintlock owners began having their guns converted to it and new guns that used the percussion cap were offered for sale.

For a fairly good explanation of the percussion system, check out the Wikipedia link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion_cap

 

[Pete44ru]

The practice still continues, to this day. :hmm:

I know of two different parties that take only a muzzleloading caplock rifle on their out-of-state & out-of-country ($$$) hunts to Maine & Canada - where just about any CF hunting rifle is allowed - for many years (30+), now.

 

[sidelock]

I know a young man who hunts every day of the year somewhere in the world with a kit TC .50 cap lock made by him. Many of you have seen him on TV. He is real.

 

[Nativearizonan]

As far as continuity of percussion rifles, there was a gap in my family. My dad never owned one that I know of, only owning cartridge guns, but my grandfather said his first gun looked like a kentucky rifle, long barreled and full stock, but was a smoothbore that he used shot or pumpkin balls in. He used it when running around as a young boy in north Alabama around the turn of the century. He didn't keep it, unfortunately, so I never saw it or a picture of him with it.

 

[Ames]

Thank you.

 

[jferguson]

Any more I prefer percussion and flintlock rifles and percussion revolvers to cartridge guns.
Telling people I've done gone caseless.

I'd like to be able to say this, but I doubt I ever will, for this reason. I live on a farm. My 12 gauge pump is always loaded, and ready at hand. I grab it at the opportunity to shoot food, or shoot a varmint a the drop of a hat. Because of the unavoidable necessity of the full cleaning process when using BP or substitute for a single shot, I would pass up many such opportunities, and therefore my life pattern would be altered by the inconvenience. I also have a hard time believing that our ancestors (who did not have the choice of using BP) actually did all this cleaning EVERY time they took a shot or two. It is just not practical in a rational lifestyle. For that reason, I have to be satisfied that we DO have modern ammo. If anyone else has a viewpoint that addresses my view, please, lay it on me. I just cannot see how deliberate complication of life can be acceptable to anyone.

 

[hanshi]

Well, for one thing, the wrought iron barrels of long ago did not rust as quickly or as badly as the steel barrels used today. One can swab out a wrought iron barrel with a wet, then dry patch or two followed by whatever grease or oil that was used back then. In five minutes it's done. Any damage done by fouling corrosion could be cured by a "barrel freshening" later.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

My maternal grandfather, Thomas, who raised 9 kids through the depresion on a dairy farm had a percussion shotgun up until he died in 1959. He said it was the only gun he ever owned or ever needed. Loaded it with shot for varmints and hunted whitetail deer with buckshot. My grandmother named it the "scare 'em stiff" because if you missed with it it would scare whatever you were shooting at with the noise and smoke stiff enough that you could walk up and smack it with the gun.

He stored shot and gun powder in one quart milk bottles on the top shelf in the pantry and the gun hung on nails above the kitchen door. I was too young to remember much about the gun itself but do remember some of the many stories of Gramps prowes and adventures with it.

Very nice tale about The Americana experience in your life.
Share these memories and share them often.
As time passes so shall these tales of the past.

 

[Gene L]

My uncles used Percussion rifles up to, and probably after WW 1. My father used a ML shotgun well into the 20s. Although they'd be surpassed technologically, people in GA tended to be poor and used what they could.

 

[MtnWolf]

I recall a story told to me by my Grandmother, who was just 8 or 9 years old at the time the ocurrance took place. Living along Coffee Creek, California, in a tent house around 1912 most cooking was done outside. After cleaning up and seasoning the frying pans they were hung in a pine tree outside the house to keep the bears away from the house. My Grandmother told me a story of where her mother used the old muzzleloader to shoot at a bear in a tree trying to get to the frying pans. My Grandmother described the rifle as being taller then her mom, always kept by the door, and when fired belted out lots of smoke. The amusing part of the story is how my Great Grandmother hit the frying pan instead of the bear, but the bear did slide down that tree fast and took off running. That old rifle was nothing more than a tool to hunt with, and protect the family.