Trends in Muzzleloading, a shift?

[Packrat]

I think a lot of us, being a little history wanting, have gone to Flint because there is more romanticism in them.
French & Indian , American Revolution, Lewis & Clark, etc. Percussion just seems to be so Civil Warish.
Even in the Mountain era, Flint was more reliable in all areas. Flints can get wet with no problem, not like caps And it takes a skill level higher than percussion to be good

 

[longcruise]

I have less than zero desire to do anything with a flinch lock.

C'mon Ron, I can easily visualize you sighting on a big mulie buck at 200 yards with your long barreled fast twist flinter. I think Rice will make the barrel.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

New to BP, own a cap lock....must admit that the flints are intriguing. See myself going that way at some point...

 

[Woody Morgan]

Really guys? I'll go ahead and recognize the elephant in the room...primer/cap availability.
How many threads have been started "looking for caps" vs "looking for flints"?
Ok. Some folks can make their own caps but what does one have to go through to do so? To make a flint one only needs to learn the age-old ability to chip a rock. I'm over-simplifying it (just a little) but you get my point.
Besides, flinters are just plain fun to shoot and get folks' attention at the range when you haul one out.

wm

 

[Cruzatte]

I've noticed over the last few years here that the interest (gauging by the total number of posts) is trending more and more toward flint than percussion. About 2-3 years ago, Percussion to Flintlock posts ran about 2:1, and now they're 176K : 159K. Similarly the General ML'er section ran about 3:2 relative to the Builder's Bench section. Now they're about even.

Does that connote a general trend in ML'ing toward flint guns? Or, that more people are building (or posting here), and most of the builders are building flint guns rather than cap guns?

Another reason could be that people tend to graduate "to" flint guns after they do the cartridge gun and then the cap gun thing. It could be that the ML'ing community is getting older / more mature, and we aren't attracting more (new) people in to it?

Just throwing it out there for general discussion.

You may be on to something here. A long time friend and shooting buddy went to the Nationals at Friendship in '19 and on the rifle line he observed that flintlock rifles seemed to outnumber percussion rifles significantly. This greatly surprised him.

The popularity of the flint lock might also be attributable to better manufacturing since the turn of the century.

 

[HiDesertHunter]

I have 'waffled' on the idea of a flinter off and on over my life of muzzleloading but never quite seriously enough to actually do it.

IF muzzleloading was my ONLY firearms interest I most likely would have gravitated toward a flinter long ago but I don't want to spread myself out 'too thin'.

 

[springfield art]

I've noticed over the last few years here that the interest (gauging by the total number of posts) is trending more and more toward flint than percussion. About 2-3 years ago, Percussion to Flintlock posts ran about 2:1, and now they're 176K : 159K. Similarly the General ML'er section ran about 3:2 relative to the Builder's Bench section. Now they're about even.

Does that connote a general trend in ML'ing toward flint guns? Or, that more people are building (or posting here), and most of the builders are building flint guns rather than cap guns?

Another reason could be that people tend to graduate "to" flint guns after they do the cartridge gun and then the cap gun thing. It could be that the ML'ing community is getting older / more mature, and we aren't attracting more (new) people in to it?

Just throwing it out there for general discussion.

The shortage of percussion caps underscores the reasoning for depending upon flint; no shortage of flints from the several fine suppliers advertising in the ML publications....

 

[sportster73hp]

My first was a flint and had no mentor to teach me the tricks to use it. Shot competition with a cap lock for years. Last year went back to flint but with a 45 tc, not my best year score wise. This year with a 50 cal. custom with a Davis lock.
Flint is harder to shoot but very satisfying when things go right. It’s not the flash, I don’t even notice it, just different. Have not even shot a centerfire in two years

 

[user 49399]

It is easier to make flints than caps.

 

[tenngun]

I have less than zero desire to do anything with a flinch lock.

That’s ok. I make jokes about matchlocks but honestly have no desire to get one. I don’t own any military arms although I have in the past. They just don’t sing to me
I think it was Maslow that did this chart in the shape of a pyramid modren ‘black’guns on the bottom, fine suppository guns next up, cowboy guns and then cowboys shooting black powder precision rifles near the top, only people of great personal growth attain this plane, then its flint and at the hirer levels flint smoothbore and so on.
The top only belongs to the one who has faced grizzly with a hand gonne

 

[Col. Batguano]

".......The top only belongs to the one who has faced grizzly with a hand gonne."

Posthumous category? A Darwin Awards recipient to be sure.

 

[EC121]

I have less than zero desire to do anything with a flinch lock.

Those who can do. Those who can't shoot percussion.

 

[griffiga]

For me, it depends on what I'm doing. I do a lot of reenactments from French and Indian to Indian War. Up through War of 1812, I use my Bess or 1803 Harper's Ferry flinter. Mexican war - Civil war I usually use my 42 smoothbore and Enfield rifled musket. And of course, Indian war sees me with Trapdoors and Sharps carbines in hand. I do have a slew of half stock mountain rifles but they are all cap locks. If I'm hunting game, I'm usually found with my GRRW .54 cap lock mountain rifle with a 36 inch bbl. Yes, it's a bit heavy, but I love the way it shoots with 90 grains FFG and a thick patched .520 roundball. All in all, I'm just glad I have a choice.

 

[Critter Getter]

I’ve started with cap guns back in the early 1980’s. Never even wanted a flint gun until maybe 3 or 4 years ago. The first shots out of my flinter made me giggle and I have been giggling ever since!! Honestly I can shoot my cap guns way more accurately but the flints are just more fun and exasperating at the same time. I’m still learning!! I’m thinking that Jim Kibler has a lot to do with the popularity of flint guns nowadays with his excellent kits. Greg

 

[Omahkapi'si]

The challenge of a flintlock is appealing to me. Also the history. The fact that it's not classified a a firearm here as well and is off the gov't radar is also an attraction.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

No change here. I've been shooting caps locks since I started and it couldn't be easier. Pour the powder, seat the ball, clip on a cap from the trusty capper hanging on a thong, full ****, BOOOM! Only 3 times can I remember a frustrating range session. Once, when Pyrodex came out, I tried some and had a lot of hangfires and failure to ignite. Once, when after storing the gun for several years and using Bore Butter patches regularly to wipe the bore, I found the gun would not go bang even after a careful dry swabbing to "remove the lube in the bore". I changed the nipple, added some 4F under the nipple and BOOOM! The third time was trying 2F 777. Same results as the Pyrodex only much less fouling. You do your job right with a cap gun and you won't have a problem. No locks that need tuning, no touch holes in the wrong position, no knapping flints and no hard surfacing the frizen. Oh, and no "how much powder do I put in the pan and where do I place it?" etc. I have several thousand caps that all work well still.

 

[JCKelly]

In the late 1960's I shot flint mostly because that's what I had. Our Westmoreland Co. matches were mostly percussion (with flint allowed) until the last, which was flint only.
By the time that match came up I was well used to snap-nothing and beyond flinching at the interesting things my rifle did. So I did quite well, relatively speaking, and in one match even beat the national champion.
As someone above said you gotta be better to shoot a flint well. I sure wasn't better, just a tad so than my percussion companions.