matchlocks and who shoots them
- Thread starter mrclean89
- Start date
I asked the local BP group about matchlocks one time. Turned out that a couple of folks in the group had one or used to have one. It was a novelty at first but as polaris replied it got tiresome after a trial or two. And this is from one of them that regularly shoots a Brown Bess at the meets.
I'm still keen on building and shooting one somewhere along the way though.
I'm still keen on building and shooting one somewhere along the way though.
Over 40 years ago, I made a reproduction of the ca1620 fishtailed butt musket in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum. The Feds bought it; probably is in a National Historic Site. I'd love to know where it is, see what it looks like now, after 40 years of handling.
Tested it a bit after it was finished. Managing the burning match requires care. You have to be really careful. I was surprised at how slow ignition was, compared with a flintlock musket. The pan is a basin, with a groove leading to the touch hole. Not right up beside the barrel like a flintlock. The match would disappear behind the flash shield, and then for a moment, nothing would happen. Then woof, woosh, boom.
Sometimes I think I'd like to make another. Would like to get a set of good drawings of a Japanese musket.
Great conversation pieces, fun to take out for casual shooting.
Tested it a bit after it was finished. Managing the burning match requires care. You have to be really careful. I was surprised at how slow ignition was, compared with a flintlock musket. The pan is a basin, with a groove leading to the touch hole. Not right up beside the barrel like a flintlock. The match would disappear behind the flash shield, and then for a moment, nothing would happen. Then woof, woosh, boom.
Sometimes I think I'd like to make another. Would like to get a set of good drawings of a Japanese musket.
Great conversation pieces, fun to take out for casual shooting.
It's the only one I'm aware of. And I've handled a lot of firearms in the federal museum system. One of the largest collections is at the Halifax citadel in they're private collection that's not open to the public I've spent enough time in there to say I've handled it all.
the problem I found with a matchlock was that the slow match did not keep burning for long. I started out with some braided cotton beading which turned out to have a thin nylon core. I soaked it in saltpeter and it would burn for a minute or so an then went out. I then when to some hemp rope or more correctly one of the three strands making up roughly 1/4" to 5/16" hemp rope and tried it both soaked saltpeter and not soaked. The saltpeter did not seem to make any difference and again it would burn long enough to fire the gun but not stay lit long enough to reload the gun and fire a second time.
I also found that slowly squeezing the trigger does not work; the trick seemed to be to tap the slow match into the prime in order to fire it and it took 2 or 3 taps to get ignition. Perhaps because of the tapping method, I was not aware of a delayed ignition once the priming lit. The gun was a commercial replica of the european matchlocks, with a deep notch for your thumb just behind the barrel. The catch was that the stock is quite short and under recoil the knuckle of my thumb was about 1" to close to the end of my nose, in my opinion or at least the sharp rap on the beak would indicate so. Maybe in the 1600s soldiers had shorter flatter noses or alternately their noses became shorter and flatter :>) :>)
the gun was quite accurate by the way
cheers mooncoon
I also found that slowly squeezing the trigger does not work; the trick seemed to be to tap the slow match into the prime in order to fire it and it took 2 or 3 taps to get ignition. Perhaps because of the tapping method, I was not aware of a delayed ignition once the priming lit. The gun was a commercial replica of the european matchlocks, with a deep notch for your thumb just behind the barrel. The catch was that the stock is quite short and under recoil the knuckle of my thumb was about 1" to close to the end of my nose, in my opinion or at least the sharp rap on the beak would indicate so. Maybe in the 1600s soldiers had shorter flatter noses or alternately their noses became shorter and flatter :>) :>)
the gun was quite accurate by the way
cheers mooncoon
I made match at one point in time that Burnt well and kept a smolder, I used it in a primitive Chinese style matchlock, I had to mess around a bit with the mix but I took an icecream container and filled it with water and mixed black powder in the water then soaked cotton wash line in it , it burnt about half an inch in 5 minutes. Anyway that worked great.
One option for a fuse that I know burns well and takes a lot to put it out is DT (DeThermalizer) fuse sold by mail order outfits that cater to free flight model airplane builders and flyers. It comes in a couple of different diameters. It burns at the rate of around 1/4 inch per minute and takes a fair amount of effort to extinguish. It's costly enough that I would not be using it for regular use but for the odd time you want to drag out the ol' matchlock the cost would not be that out of line.
Here's a link to one place that has it. The UK fuse is roughly 5/32" in diameter and is sort of stiff in nature. It's likely the all cotton or natural version of the old fashioned sash cord found in the old sliding windows that had counter weights in the frames. The Sig fuse is a softer and more limp sort of option which is closer to around 1/4 inch in diameter. For a matchlock I'm thinking that the slightly stiffer UK fuse would be the best option.
http://www.faimodelsupply.com/?product_cat=fuse
Here's a link to one place that has it. The UK fuse is roughly 5/32" in diameter and is sort of stiff in nature. It's likely the all cotton or natural version of the old fashioned sash cord found in the old sliding windows that had counter weights in the frames. The Sig fuse is a softer and more limp sort of option which is closer to around 1/4 inch in diameter. For a matchlock I'm thinking that the slightly stiffer UK fuse would be the best option.
http://www.faimodelsupply.com/?product_cat=fuse
For remote proof testing I'd likely use the cannon fuse as well instead of bothering to use a pull cord from behind the big concrete wall.... 
The fuse I gave the link for burns, or more accurately smolders more like the "match" that a matchlock shooter would want.
The fuse I gave the link for burns, or more accurately smolders more like the "match" that a matchlock shooter would want.
