When did muzzleloaders fade out in the old days?

[jderrick]

I hope I'm not overlapping with any other thread (I did a search, but didn't see anything)... but I've got a kinda historical question....

I've read that classic muzzleloaders were being produced in numbers even into fairly modern times for European colonies where they wanted native folk to have good enough weapons to subsist, but not necessarily overthrown their colonial government... and that in some cases folks stuck with their old-fashioned guns out of conveneice (easier to get loose powder in the jungle than fancy, new-fangled cartridges...).

I do blackpowder because I like it, but I could go down to the store right now and get a more modern piece. Are there still folks in the world producing/using muzzleloaders for their daily work...? If not, how recently were they?

Thanks.... John

 

[Gary]

China has an underground muzzleloading industry in China that is patronized by sportsmen. It's by having connections and keeping your smoothbore outside the cities that one can take the king's game. I had an article in Muzzle Loader last year about it.

 

[musketman]

and that in some cases folks stuck with their old-fashioned guns out of conveneice (easier to get loose powder in the jungle than fancy, new-fangled cartridges...)

With the advent of the self-contained metallic cartridge, (remember the paper cartridge was in full use), builders started making guns to accompany the new system... (around the mid Civil War)

The new system was expensive and most people were dirt poor at best after the war ended, so they had no choice but to cling on to their muzzleloaders longer than the few that were wealthy enough to upgrade to the "improved" system...

Then there were a few select people that just loved the muzzleloader and refused to let them die, we own much thanks to those men and women who kept the ember glowing...

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Back woods deep south gunmakers were still cranking them out during the depression. 1930's

 

[kentucky bucky]

I have an old friend who is 85, and he used the family ML shotgun until about 1940, when he joined the Coast Guard. His grandpaws used caplock rifles until they were too old, then the guns were just discarded. The old timers in my family used to tell about livestock days in towns in Southeast Kentucky in the 20's and 30's. There was commonly someone trying to sell "grandpaw's old hog rifle", often flint, for about $5.00- $10.00 With the horn, pouch and contents.

I need $1000.00 and a time machine!!!!!

 

[Ridge]

The last of the Hudson Bay fowlers were sold in the early 1900's. My family still used a muzzleloading rifle that was made in the mid 1800's until the 1930's.

I dont' think they've ever stopped.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

True, London made NW fusils were still being sold for the Canadian frontier trade into the 1920's. Why, because they were a good and practical tool for their needs.

 

[David Teague]

Back woods deep south gunmakers were still cranking them out during the depression. 1930's

Yep, the old Fox Fire books cover a bit of that as I remember. It was cheaper to shoot than a 22 at the time and po folks could bring home a bit of meat for the pot with one cheap...

I'm the son of a ozark mt. depression era sharecropper... it was very tough I guess as my dad never talked about it.(They were too poor to have any kind of gun for hunting and went days with out food sometimes. My uncle and aunts have said a thing or two about it, but not my dad)

 

[tg]

Members of my family homesteaded in the costal mts. of Oregon before the turn of the century and still used at least one small cal ML into the late 1930's I am told, unforunately it got handed down on the other side of the family fence so to speak.

 

[Bob J]

My grandfather was raised on a farm in west Tennessee. Although he hunted small game with a .22, he told me that the general store sold blackpowder and shot to locals still using muzzleloading shotguns (circa 1910).

 

[jderrick]

Well, it kinda warms some corner of my heart to think that daily use and scale production of MLs never really went away.... Thanks

 

[faw3]

I can just remember a family reunion in the late 50s ( I was 9 or 10) and 100 or so people showed up(this is north west Mississippi) and they cooked a cow, deer, hogs you name it, I went out with my dad and his brothers and they still used 2 MLs to shoot squirrels. Last time I went over they still had this 20g shotgun and a 32 that are now very old. I guess for some people they(MLs) have never gone away. Then again we still have "stuff" from the battle at Vicksburg. Fred :thumbsup:

 

[ronrryan]

When I was about thirteen or fourteen, say 1945/6, my cousin and I went by train into New York City to Bannerman's store. I still remember racks of old guns going up to the dim recesses of the ceiling for what seemed like miles to me. I bought a 50 Rem rolling block cavalry carbine in great shape for five dollars. They had hundreds and hundreds of civil war muskets with all accessories, plus some balls and powder, for three bucks each. Couldnt give them away. Excuse me whilst I rend my clothing, etyc.. Good smoke, ron in fla

 

[Wehrmacht]

When the Soviets went into Afghanistan Christmas of '79,many Afghan resistance fighters in the very early stages of the invasion were using an old English muzzleloading musket from the 1870's against the Soviets.Very effective,too,on occasions when conditions were right for the Resistance :winking:. I have seen a number of photos of this,and I know it to be factual.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I remember seeing something fairly recently where tiger poachers in Burma (I believe?) were using a flintlock. The projectile was made from a melted metal toothpaste tube! Conical, by the way. The bullet "mould" was a stick pushed into the ground and the powder was crushed match heads.

 

[Zonie]

Sometime back as I recall, a member of this Forum brought back a couple of muzzleloaders from South America. These were not old discarded firearms and were still in use there.

When one stops to think about it, why wouldn't muzzleloaders still be used in some of the poorer parts of the world?

I know it's hard to believe, but I heard that muzzleloaders are still being produced and used in one of the most advanced Nations on earth!
Yup, my next one will be a .45 caliber Tennessee. :grin: :grin:

 

[Bartek]

Flint knappers in Brandon, England (world's flint making center) made in 1935 flints for Abissinia's army (Etiopia today), and in 1950's about 2000 flints a day were made for African countrys :shocked2:

In Kongo for example, former Belgian colony, all fire weapon were forbiden exept flintlock rifles and it was typical registration in colonial Africa. I seen in some magazine the picture of gunsmith in some african village making flinlock.

 

[akapennypincher]

I hope I'm not overlapping with any other thread (I did a search, but didn't see anything)... but I've got a kinda historical question....

I've read that classic muzzleloaders were being produced in numbers even into fairly modern times for European colonies where they wanted native folk to have good enough weapons to subsist, but not necessarily overthrown their colonial government... and that in some cases folks stuck with their old-fashioned guns out of conveneice (easier to get loose powder in the jungle than fancy, new-fangled cartridges...).

I do blackpowder because I like it, but I could go down to the store right now and get a more modern piece. Are there still folks in the world producing/using muzzleloaders for their daily work...? If not, how recently were they?

Thanks.... John

Well your question is interesting, but would you ride a bicycle, or walk cross county if it was 1910 when an automobile was available you? I am sure not unless you were retired, and not in any hurry.

Muzzleloaders followed weapons like throwing a rock, the sling shot, the bow and arrow, an other low tec devices before the muzzleloader.

Muzzleloader went from hand held gone, to match lock, to dog lock to flintlock, to percussion cap muzzleloader, to more modern firearms that replaced front stuffers.

People always seem to want them new fangled things especially if it is for waging war.

That is just the way it is, and if you enjoy shooting Muzzleloaders for fun, have fun and do not worry about New Fangled Technology.

 

[aragorn]

My gr gr grandfather was an officer in the Royal Engineers (British Army), and his first posting as a subaltern was with the Madras Sappers and Miners in India - a typical Indian army regiment, with British officers and Indian enlisted men (sepoys). They were still equipped with muzzleloading muskets when he arrived in 1876 and only converted to breechloaders in the course of the 1878-80 Afghan War.

The reason was a policy following the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8 of keeping the Indian regiments one step behind the British regiments, just in case. The Indian army - i.e., the local army of the Raj in India, British officered but 95% native Indian troops - was one of the best in the world at the time, with more extensive active service than most of the main European armies, so this is not the case of a 'backward' force being equipped with out-of-date weapons.

The Indian army had many flintlocks in its arsenals until late in the 19th century, and my gr gr grandfather and his fellow officers had to learn how to use them.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

When I was about thirteen or fourteen, say 1945/6, my cousin and I went by train into New York City to Bannerman's store. I still remember racks of old guns going up to the dim recesses of the ceiling for what seemed like miles to me. I bought a 50 Rem rolling block cavalry carbine in great shape for five dollars. They had hundreds and hundreds of civil war muskets with all accessories, plus some balls and powder, for three bucks each. Couldnt give them away. Excuse me whilst I rend my clothing, etyc.. Good smoke, ron in fla

As of 1900 Sear still sold Civil War rifles for $3 bucks each. I have the 1900 catalog.