How do you choose a musket?

saskgunowner101 said:
Holy moly, did I miss the fight?? Just looking for opinions, and I welcome them all, no need for things to go sour.

I'm going to steer away front flinters off the hop, even if that limits selection.

Tyockell18: Is your musket rifled or smoothbore? What kind of accuracy should be expected of either with an average shooter?
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Well...its not normally like this to be honest. Just one person expressing his opinions, which is fine. After all its a free country. Its just that his remarks were from an ill informed biased opinion and were inflammatory. Good luck and i think you are on the right track starting with a percussion. Keep your eye on the equipment exchange. There are always things popping up. Take your time and do some research first as well. Take care. SJ
 
plinker 777 said:
You've never taken such positions (that the 3 that shall never be spoken of again had) with people on this forum,
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I will limit myself to saying that I disagree with several of the things that you have said. I am not impressed with Indian reproductions but from a safety point of view, they seem to be safe enough with moderate charges. In terms of reliability of flintlocks, drizzle or moderate rain can be a nuisance but I have also experienced damp caps not to mention tilting my head down to select a cap from the tin and having all the water on my hat pour into the cap tin. :>( Pouring rain can be a challenge for both caplocks and flinters. Burning myself; have done it twice. Once had to shoot the gun upside down and the butt resting on top of my shoulder --- why you ask? Because that particular shot you had to roll the dice and select which loop hole in a wall you shot through. I rolled the high hole and could only see my sights by shooting my gun (flint) upside down. Other time was when dumping the load in the left barrel of a flint shotgun and without thinking held it with extended arms while shooting it into the ground.
Around here many rendezvous have weak hand shots on their trails and I don't recall anyone scorching themselves that way. Also have seen a number of sinister people shooting right hand locks with impunity.

Some people have commented on inexpensive guns and their quality. With the exception of some spanish guns with a drum to support the nipple, most foreign imports (which includes imports with american distributor names) seem to work well enough up to a point. Their frizzens are usually or always case hardened and will have to be recased at some point. The internal lock parts are case hardened mild steel and if the case wears through, the parts will have to be rehardened or replaced. I seem to recall breaking several sear tips when shooting italian replicas and had to make new ones. I don't recall breaking a sear on my current higher quality commercial locks.
How long have I been shooting --- I started in 1980

cheers mooncoon
 
Wow ?...... Lots of opinionated black powder folks here ? ......wonder how many actually shoot ?
I'm in no way an expert..... I own a few flinters as well as percussion. I have a Chareleville from Loyalist (guessing it was made in India) and its a great quality repro , it has never failed but I only use it as a fowler (shotgun). I also have a Pedersoli 50cal Plains riffle in percussion cap that is a gorgeous looking rifle with all its fancy brass work and very nice to shoot........but my favourite go to gun and the one I take hunting is my cheap Traditions Deer Hunter 50cal flintlock (I think made in Spain) It has never failed and is accurate as any inline ! Contrary to popular belief Flinters are not a pain or need any special Doctorate Degree to operate. They are fun and simplistic. Even after all the years of shooting black powder muskets I still get an adrenaline rush each time I pull the trigger. The only downside I can see is the cleaning part.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
Holy moly, did I miss the fight?? Just looking for opinions, and I welcome them all, no need for things to go sour.

I'm going to steer away front flinters off the hop, even if that limits selection.

Tyockell18: Is your musket rifled or smoothbore? What kind of accuracy should be expected of either with an average shooter?
Click to expand...

My .75 bess is a smoothbore. I like them because they are versatile, can shoot shot, buck or ball. I can easily keep a decent group in a chest sized target at around 70-75 yards with a .735 patched ball and 100 grains of 1F with mine now after practicing and because I know how to get almost instant ignition out of my lock.

I would recommend a percussion gun for you honestly, they will provide much better accuracy with less practice. I have been practicing for a few years with my flinter and still have lots of room to improve.

They are a lot of fun though, try out a flinch lock some day.
 
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Brown Bess muskets were fired and primed with 1F. I have tried it in the various muskets I have owned and it seemed to work just fine but the priming "seemed" longer. One noticeable
difference was recoil, which was greatly reduced. Cheers. SJ
 
I use 2F in my Bess and prime with either 2F or 3F. My preferred priming powder is 3F. I have never used 1F for a main charge, but would expect more fouling than with 2F. Perhaps someone who has used 1F can comment on that.
 
mooncoon said:
I will limit myself to saying that I disagree with several of the things that you have said. I am not impressed with Indian reproductions but from a safety point of view, they seem to be safe enough with moderate charges. In terms of reliability of flintlocks, drizzle or moderate rain can be a nuisance but I have also experienced damp caps not to mention tilting my head down to select a cap from the tin and having all the water on my hat pour into the cap tin. :>( Pouring rain can be a challenge for both caplocks and flinters. Burning myself; have done it twice. Once had to shoot the gun upside down and the butt resting on top of my shoulder --- why you ask? Because that particular shot you had to roll the dice and select which loop hole in a wall you shot through. I rolled the high hole and could only see my sights by shooting my gun (flint) upside down. Other time was when dumping the load in the left barrel of a flint shotgun and without thinking held it with extended arms while shooting it into the ground.
Around here many rendezvous have weak hand shots on their trails and I don't recall anyone scorching themselves that way. Also have seen a number of sinister people shooting right hand locks with impunity.

Some people have commented on inexpensive guns and their quality. With the exception of some spanish guns with a drum to support the nipple, most foreign imports (which includes imports with american distributor names) seem to work well enough up to a point. Their frizzens are usually or always case hardened and will have to be recased at some point. The internal lock parts are case hardened mild steel and if the case wears through, the parts will have to be rehardened or replaced. I seem to recall breaking several sear tips when shooting italian replicas and had to make new ones. I don't recall breaking a sear on my current higher quality commercial locks.
How long have I been shooting --- I started in 1980

cheers mooncoon
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I don't want get into your fight but I left tin of #10 out and open all winter on tge picnic table. In the spring I found and dried them out. Used them all last fall with no misfires. I was impressed.
 
warrenlikesboats said:
is the 1F necessary for the brown Bess? Or can u use 2F? Isn't the 1F a little hard to ignite ? What do u charge your pan with then ?
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The pan is generally charged with 3 or 4 f. 1 F is more like a cannon powder...I've never even seen it for sale where I buy Goex (not that I was looking for it). Your Bess will appreciate the 2 f. Don't be surprised if even the 2 f doesn't entirely burn at the higher charges.

is
:wave:
 
fraserdw said:
I don't want get into your fight but I left tin of #10 out and open all winter on tge picnic table. In the spring I found and dried them out. Used them all last fall with no misfires. I was impressed.
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On a few occasions l have had caps that were reluctant to fire. I put the tin out in the sun for 1/2 hour [ lid off] and the were back to normal. I am not sure just how wet you can get them and still have them fire after drying out.

Cheers mooncoon
 
B_noser said:
I use 2F in my Bess and prime with either 2F or 3F. My preferred priming powder is 3F. I have never used 1F for a main charge, but would expect more fouling than with 2F. Perhaps someone who has used 1F can comment on that.
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I haven't really noticed much difference in fouling, it's all dirty as hell in my opinion. I agree, 3F is nice and fast for priming but I use 2F for priming all the time and it's plenty quick. I don't bother with 4F anymore, never saw a benefit and sometimes I get a fuse effect filling the flash hole and causing a delay.

I find personally that I am a little more accurate with a 1F load versus 2F but I do have and use both. I have fired main charges of reduced 3F before as well but only occasionally experimenting.
 
fraserdw said:
I don't want get into your fight but I left tin of #10 out and open all winter on tge picnic table. In the spring I found and dried them out. Used them all last fall with no misfires. I was impressed.
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I have too dried out percussion caps and they seem to do alright.......
 
deckerhead said:
OP...you state "Musket"........so I'm guessing you are enquiring about a smoothbore Flintlock ?
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I was using musket as a generic catch all for military (or I suppose the trade guns too) type rifles from the 1600-1860's area. I think cap locks came about in the 1840's? I'm not sure the different designation between smoothbore or a rifled firearm, I just thought they were all considered muskets.
 
warrenlikesboats said:
Would you trust a Loyalist Arms made in India rifle to fire a full cal projectile with a full charge ?? some shooters in this Forum appear to be skeptical about those...
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Yes I would if i needed a HC rifle that no one had and have had. The firm that makes the guns for Loyalist are done in a factory and not in a back alley or back yard. They do have QC. Due to Indian Federal laws, the guns made are done so without a touch hole to circumvent the law as it is not deemed a firearm. IIRC, I believe the law makes it illegal to manufacture firearms in India.

From talking with a lot of re-enactors, Loyalist Arms gun apparently are more HC than most of the Italian models.
 
Tyockell18 said:
My .75 bess is a smoothbore. I like them because they are versatile, can shoot shot, buck or ball. I can easily keep a decent group in a chest sized target at around 70-75 yards with a .735 patched ball and 100 grains of 1F with mine now after practicing and because I know how to get almost instant ignition out of my lock.

I would recommend a percussion gun for you honestly, they will provide much better accuracy with less practice. I have been practicing for a few years with my flinter and still have lots of room to improve.

They are a lot of fun though, try out a flinch lock some day.
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Tyockell18 said:
On another note. Watch Murpheysmuskets on Youtube, that will show you lots of examples of what these old guns can do.
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Thanks for the input, I'll check that out on youtube.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
Thanks for all the input guys. I'll check with the local club to see what they have going on for BP shooting, although I think not much in the way of musket type shooters.

Pedersoli does have a lot of nice rifles, but they're out of my price range for now.
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That is a good way to start. Look at the different forums to see what comes for sale used. Also you can buy muzzleloaders in the US and have shipped to Canada. You need to check state law (ie: IL, MD, NY, DC, NJ etc) as it may vary from Federal law which does not classify muzzleloaders as firearms.

Good luck let us know how you make out.....
 
plinker 777 said:
Flinters are a huge pain in the a$$ imho. Very unreliable ignition. That's not to say that they can't be made to be reliable, but it takes a tonne of tinker, tweet, adjust, knap, surface harden/temper, change out mainspring, clean, dry...and you haven't even shouldered the gawd damn thing yet.

Although shooting a RH flinter left handed wouldn't be ideal I don't think that it would set your face and hair on fire (That's if it ignited:p). RH or LH you don't want to fire a flintlock into a strong head wind. That will send unburnt/burning powder back your way but that's just part of BP fun...you end up dirty:).

I prefer caplocks. All the fun of BP with only 30% of the fuss. ;)
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I must disagree with you my son. I have several black powder rifles in both flint and cap. I also own a 1723 Bess. It goes bang every time all the time if I do my part. Attention to fixing the flint, and where it strikes the frizzen, keeping the touch hole clean, and ensuring I have proper loading procedures. All of this becomes 2nd nature after a while and does not require a great deal of effort. In fact the lock time on my Bess and my Hawken flinter is shorter than the lock time on my Hawken cap lock. You probably will not believe that. Now be that as it may every time I bring the Bess out to the range I am the center of attention. Folks line up to shoot it and the smiles are a mile wide.
I use a felt over powder wad to help seal the gas and I use a 10thou greased patch (beeswax and Lard) to take up wind age on the 75 cal ball. I get reasonable accuracy as I can hit a 10 inch gong at 50 yards 10 out of 10 times. The important thing here is to have fun, be safe and teach others at every opportunity to advance our hobby of holy black front stuffers no mater they be cap lock, flint lock, or match lock.
Now as to getting to your question. Which musket? Look at all the pretty pictures of the muskets being offered by Marstars. It comes down to which period in History and the style of musket you like. They are all smooth bores with the exception of the rifled muskets. and yes there was such a thing. One advantage to the musket is you can shoot ball, shot, or buckshot in them if they are smooth bore.

Did the Indians put you here? ""Twernt Mormans"".

Cheers & Tighter Groups: Eaglesnester
 
I used to prime with 4F but did not want the nuisance of carrying an extra small priming horn. I now use 3F in most rifles and moothbores and prime with 3F as well. 2F to me is noticeably slower than 3F when used for priming. I use 2F usually in shotguns 16 guage and 8 guage and use 1F in my 5 guage smooth rifle. I do still keep a small pistol flask in my truck in case I dry ball (fortunately not often) or cannot get a charge to ignite. I have almost never used the 4F in many years but still keep it available just in case

cheers mooncoon
 
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