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Question: I want to buy a gun to use in camp during our re-enactments.What featuresdo I need to look for before I buy one? What features might it have?
Answer: A flintlock rifle or a pistol(not a percussion cap) of any caliber with wood stock (not synthetic) is acceptable.
Flintlock is so named because the hammer has a piece of flint attached in it's jaws to strike the steel frizzen, which causes sparks to ignite priming powder in a pan beneath it.I know that may not help some folks so here are words taken from the Small Arms Lexicon and concise Encyclopedia.
Lock-the firing mechanism of a muzzleloading firearm. Can be identified by finding the hammer or in old term "cock" which will be attached to it.
Flintlock- a firearm ignition system, the highest state of development of a system that ignited priming powder by striking a spark.
It is credited to Marin le Bougeoys of France around the year 1615. The anvil is a hinged steel pan cover which, when struck a glancing blow by the cock, not only produces sparks but rises to expose the priming powder in the pan causing it to ignite. Other features gave it advantages not possessed by the snaphaunce. The flintlock reigned supreme for 200 years. In 1690 it became the official British arm, called the Brown Bess because of the color of the stock.
muzzleloader- a gun loaded by pouring a measure of propellant, in this case black powder, directly down the barrel and seating a projectile down on top of the powder.
priming powder- gunpowder placed in the pan of a matchlock, wheellock or flintlock, used to set off the propelling charge.
priming mixture for percussion caps- the tiny, highly combustible and explosive charge that is used in percussion caps and primers to ignite the main powder charge in fixed ammunition. Primers are no doubt the most dangerous component in small arms ammunition -- the hardened paste mixture is so sensitive that it is easily set off by a slight blow.When the forerunner of the modern priming mixture was invented by the Rev. Alexander John Forsyth in 1805, the inventor chose to call it detonating powder. Others , because of its unpredictable and often disastrous nature, simply referred to it as the "devil-mixture".The earliest priming mixtures were comprised principally of fulminate of mercury. Later, improved mixtures added chlorate of potash and powdered glass and, when fulminate of mercury was found to have a highly corrosive effect on brass cases,
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a mixture of potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide was substituted. Formulas for modern priming mixtures vary from one manufacturer to another but at least some of the chemicals figure pominently in most of then: sulfur, lead or coppersulphcyanide, TNT, tetryl, barium peroxide, barium nitrate and lead peroxide. Luckily today's percussion shooters may purchase these caps for a few dollars per hundred.
If you have any questions pertaining to buckskinning, guns, edged weapons, or frontier life.You can send your questions to: shawneetrail@hotmail.com
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