hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1219.txt

Episode: 1219
Title: HPR1219: The Care and Feeding of the Flintlock Muzzleloading Rifle
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1219/hpr1219.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 21:52:37

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Hello, this is Russ Wender from the Techie Geek Podcast, and I'm recording an episode
for Hacker Public Radio.
I saw an appeal by email for some shows on some topics that might be non-computer-related,
and I have one I've been meaning to do for a while.
When I was at the Northeast Linux Fest this past St. Patrick's Day weekend up at Harvard
University, I was at the Hacker Public Radio table, speaking with Claude Tue's companion.
Sorry, I forget her Hacker name, but she was lovely, and I was talking with her about
this idea I had for an episode of Hacker Public Radio where I would speak about a hobby
I used to be very involved in.
That was using and shooting flintlock muzzleloader rifles.
For a period of about six to seven years, 1989 through 1995, I was heavily involved in
my area of Pennsylvania shooting flintlock muzzleloader rifles in a type of competition that
is referred to, at least in my part of the country, as a rifleman's walk, or a woods
walk.
And what this is where you would navigate an obstacle course of very challenging shots
that would vary in difficulty of the shots, normally about 20 shots.
And you would go through this course with a group of five to ten other shooters.
And there might be two, three, four squads go through the course depending on how many
which show up that day for the shoot.
And it might take you two and a half to three, four hours even to go all the way through
the course.
And then when you return to the clubhouse, you would wait for all the squads to come in.
And then the scores would be tallied.
And prizes would be selected.
A lot of times these were what they called blanket shoots, which means every shooter arrives
with a prize.
You put the prize out on the blanket, or most of the time it was a table.
And then the first place shooter got first choice of the prize on the table, so on and so
forth until the last place shooter got what remained.
They were a lot of fun.
I used to do this with my dad.
We would go muzzleloader shooting.
And it was great fun.
At one time I was really good at it.
Those who know me know that I'm normally a pretty humble person.
But when my eyesight was perfect and everything was spot on for the day, I would routinely
get 17, 18 shots on.
And some of these shots, the scoring was always done simply hit or miss.
And these were steel targets.
So if you made the target even wiggle, it was considered a hit.
And if it was miss, it was pretty obvious.
So many of these targets would be out 50 yards or further.
And I could routinely hit a six inch plate at 100 yards.
I've been able to hit three quarter inch rebarb steel hanging vertically at 50 or more yards.
One of my favorite targets would be a baggy of lime.
Like you would put on your lawn, lime powder.
And this would be inside a tube, a steel tube at maybe 50 yards or further, you know.
And you would shoot at it, try to get your ball inside the one inch tube.
And when you hit it, there'd be an explosion of weight powder from the lime dust going
out.
So it was great fun.
Now the main thing I want to talk about is the flint lock ignition.
And why it was so popular in its day and remains to be so.
I'm quite fortunate that I live in an area that is steeped in history and about 45 minutes
from my home.
There's a firearm shop that is primarily dedicated to muzzle loading firearms.
It's called Dixon's muzzle loading shop.
And it was and still is the place where I acquire most of my shooting supplies.
And every year, the last weekend of July, they have a free event called Dixon's gunmaker's
fare.
This is a topic that interests you and you can get there.
You definitely want to go there.
It's an amazing show.
People from all around the world come to this weekend event.
It's free.
They charge a little bit for parking like two bucks to park.
Admission to the event is free and you will see the best of the best at this show.
Now because it's for gun makers, it's primarily the art of gun making, but also like powder
horns and possible bags and flints and all the supplies you would ever need to acquire
for flint lock muzzle loading.
So if there's any way you can get to Dixon's gunmaker's fare, you definitely want to.
So the history of the flint lock, I'll put some links in the show notes, but when you
begin to research this, you'll see that it's widely disputed when the flint lock first
came into existence.
But considering up to and including the time of the American Civil War, it enjoyed a
period of several centuries as the primary form of firearm ignition.
So as far as the history of firearm ignitions go, it's been around longer than any in popular
use.
If you consider the center fire cartridge became popular maybe in the early 1900s.
So we're talking a little more than 100 years ago.
The flint lock ignition system rained for possibly as long as three and a half to four centuries.
And if you consider its popularity today, it's still a very popular ignition system.
Now it's interesting, I used to go to these muzzle loading events, those in technology
are familiar with the disputes that go on between people who are into Windows versus Linux
versus Mac or within Linux, what distro you prefer or haven't forbid your favorite
text editor, you know, the famous disputes between the eye or e-max.
Well let me tell you the spirited discussions that go on about whether your preference
is for percussion cap or flint lock ignition, they go on and on.
Why was the flint lock preferred even through the years that the percussion cap rained?
Well, you know, this is interesting because you know, you would think, you know, the percussion
cap is so much easier and supposedly more reliable, right?
You have a tin of percussion caps and basically all you need to do is put it on the nipple,
cock your firearm, fire and you're good to go.
But there's a lot of problems with the percussion cap ignition system.
Just to name a few, there's no way to fire that weapon without a supply of percussion caps.
If your supply of caps goes missing or gets wet, you might as well use your rifle as a
club because you're not firing that.
With a flint lock, if you happen to run out or lose your flints, you can get by with just
about any stone off the ground that's of the approximate size.
You might only get one or two, three shots out of that stone versus a quality English
or French flint, but you know, it will be able to shoot.
The other thing is in wet or rainy or snowy weather.
You would think that a flint lock would be a lot more trouble to keep dry than a percussion.
But not necessarily so, especially keeping your caps dry or getting a dry cap on the nipple
while it's raining or snowing or something.
With flint locks, there's a leather cover called a calzny because they used to be literally
made out of a calzny.
They're roughly shaped to go over the flint lock area.
With using things like grease or beeswax or other, you know, commonly available, wood
or repellents, you could keep your powder dry, which is a popular term among muscle odorshooters
to keep your powder dry.
Also if your flint lock got wet, there were ways to get it dried out relatively easily
at least compared to getting a percussion cap gun dried out.
Some of the other reasons that flint locks are preferred, if you look on YouTube or, you
know, just Google, you'll find some high speed videos, some are better than others, but
you can actually see that a flint lock, one properly tuned and set up, is actually able
to fire faster than a percussion cap.
And the reason for this is a percussion cap cannot fire until that hammer is all the
way down on the cap and fires the cap.
A flint lock, when properly tuned, is already producing sparks, perhaps less than half of
the way down the frizzin, and those sparks are entering the pan.
And when it sets off your priming charge, the radiant heat goes through what's known
as the touch hole ignites the main charge, and it is possible for a flint lock to fire
before the hammer is all the way down.
Now tuning your flint lock with such precision takes a little time, but it's actually fun.
I mean, if you're listening to hacker public radio, you're interested in hacking and
tuning your flint lock to fire properly is surprisingly a lot like hacking.
So let me talk a little bit about the flint lock itself, the actual ignition part.
So I'm mostly familiar with custom built guns, and especially the lock mechanisms made
by the siler lock company.
And little side note, if you ever watched the TV series Heroes where the villain was known
by the name Siler, I got a special kick out of that.
But anyway, the siler lock company is my favorite manufacturer of locks.
I've bought pre-built ones and I've also built locks from kits, which are also fun.
Basically, what you are looking for, you know, the lock is a relatively simple mechanism,
but each mechanical part plays a very specific role.
And I could do an hour long episode just on the lock mechanism itself.
But primarily the most important thing for the lock is the flint that you choose.
Okay, a lot of people mistakenly think that the flint is which sparks, but actually the flint
is just the abrasive mechanism that comes down on the hard metal known as the frizzin.
And it's actually metal sparks coming off the frizzin that ignite the charge.
First, finding a supplier of and then selecting the proper English or French flint is probably
the most important part of getting your lock tuned.
Because if you choose a flint that's too large or too small, you already have problems.
You want the flint that has the proper edge and the proper size for your lock.
Also, a mistake that a lot of people make is they put much, too much powder in their priming pan.
When you fill the priming pan with priming powder, you'll get a lot of the powder inside the
hole that goes from the pan to the main charge. That hole was referred to as a touch hole.
And you do not want powder to go in that hole. That creates a fuse. You will get delayed fire,
also known as a hang fire or among people who shoot flint locks regularly, we call that a hang bang.
You don't want that that's going to increase the likelihood that you're going to miss your target
or flinch. Again, a properly tuned flint lock is going to fire before the hammer or cock is
all the way down. And that's what you want. So it's the radiant heat of that charge going off.
And the radiant heat goes through the touch hole and sets off the main charge.
One of the things, and you can see this in videos, is if you've never shot a flint lock before,
getting accustomed to that flash going off about 10 inches in front of your face,
takes a little bit of getting used to. And I mean, if you don't follow through or you flinch,
you know, you're going to miss your target. One way you can practice getting used to that is by
not loading your firearm and just, you know, of course, in a safe location, just practice setting off
priming charges. You never want to work the flint lock mechanism with no flint in the jaw.
You'll bend the jaw screw and, you know, it's like dry firing a bow or something without an
arrow. It's just not good and you shouldn't do it. But when you're building or working on your
flint lock, especially when it's out of the gun, it's safe to put a flint in there and just,
you know, work on tuning your gun. A little safety tip. It is quite possible. And I've seen it
demonstrated that you can fire a flint lock without any powder at all in the priming pan.
What'll happen? There's two different ways this can happen. Again, I saw this demonstrated
probably 15 years ago at a gunmaker's fair. So some people think that when you come in from
hunting with a flint lock or something that you can just dump the priming powder out of the pan,
maybe blow away some of the powder that might seem to be stuck there. And then you're safe
leaving the charge in your gun. What I would warn you against is even when you blow away,
the powder you can see there's microscopic powder stuck to that pan and that's all that's needed.
Okay. Also with a completely clean pan, it is possible if you're making lots of sparks for a spark
to make its way into the main charge and still fire the gun. It only takes us also when you're
firing your muzzleloader, you want to keep all your priming powder and main charge powder far
away from where you're shooting because the flash, you know, fire coming out in the direction
of the touch hole, there's gases escaping so you don't want anybody standing. Like if you're
right handed, you don't want anybody standing off to your right side, they're going to get sprayed
with exhaust gases coming out of the touch hole. And if you're shooting benches off to your right
and you've got a can of powder or your priming powder there, it's happened. If you go to Dixins,
you'll see exploded powder horns and priming cans and stuff where accidents have happened. So
after you load and pry in your gun, you want to walk a good distance away from your loading table
before you shoot. A little bit about the proper charges. Most people, when they start out,
use way more powder than they need to. You know, if you get like a Thompson center or Lyman
production made gun, the manuals that come with that will recommend that you use a powder charge
is probably about twice as much as you need, maybe more. My primary gun that I used for target
shooting and hunting was made by Cabin Creek muzzleloading in New York, PA. Known as their New York
Town model, I've probably put thousands of rounds through this gun and the charge that works
best for target shooting and hunting is 55 grains of 3F. I've killed many deer with that charge
and I've also won many competitions with that charge. So it produces plenty of accuracy and power.
Now developing your charge, a couple things that really come into play is selecting the proper
patch and ball. This takes a little bit of experimenting. What I would recommend if you have
the ability to get into a muzzleloading shop or maybe you have to order your supplies online,
I would suggest starting with a ball that is 10,000s of an inch smaller than your bore
with a patch that's 12 to 20,000s in thickness. And selecting the proper patching or ticking or
pillow ticking is as sometimes known as is an art form. So I can say I'm working up this
combination especially with lube you use. There's production lubricants made by a company called
Wonder Lube that are good. A lot of old timers make their own from beef tallow or you can
even use a Crisco vegetable shortening which will work well. The primary thing is you never want to
use anything petroleum based. It needs to be a natural fat based lubricant.
So I often used Wonder Lube ticking. I had very specific need for my ticking. As I recall I was using
ticking that was 14 to 16,000s thick and about once a year or so I would go to my local fabric store
with a micrometer and would actually measure the thickness of pillow ticking and then buy a
yard or two of pillow ticking that was the perfect thickness. And then I would make my own patches.
I've molded my own balls and I've also purchased what are known as swedged lead balls.
Basically it's just a lot easier to buy them already made if you're into hacking and you like
to do things yourself by all means consider you know molding your own balls but the swedged balls
are a lot easier. I settled on using Hornady brand and my load would be a 490 Hornady swedged
lead ball with a 14 to 16,000s patch in my 50 caliber cabin creek. You worked down with 55 grains
of 3F and just a tiny bit of 4F powder in the priming. Just a little tip in a pinch you can use
any powder for the priming charge. I've already used the 3F that I use in my main charge
for a quick follow-up shot if needed. So what else can I tell you? A little bit about the accuracy.
A muzzleloader when it's properly set up has amazing accuracy. There's a lot of urban legends so to
speak that muzzle loading rifles were you know very inaccurate especially against today's
production guns and I would argue to say quite the opposite. Also back in the day when people
can only afford to have one gun people only had one gun knew how to use that gun well and they
used it for sport and for hunting and for putting meat on the table and for protecting their
homes and their livelihoods or freedoms and liberties so you better believe they knew how to
use their guns. You know the famous Sergeant York legend of World War One he was an expert
muzzleloader shooter that's where he learned to shoot and even after the war he remained active
in the muzzleloading sport right up to the time of his passing. So a very interesting person you
never saw the movies or read anything about Sergeant York. You need to look into that.
So I'm going on about 20 minutes about this and if this is something you found interesting send me
a note I could go on and on and on about the Flintlock muzzle loading ignition system pistols
and long rifles and shotguns. I've enjoyed many years of shooting them in competition just for
fun in the backyard and also for hunting. It's a great sport really gets you in connection with
with history. There's a lot of reenactments that go on. I used to also kind of soft core
participate in something known as primitive trekking which was basically what I would do is
overnight camping where I would just head out into the woods with the bare minimum of things
no food. Maybe just a little water and if I couldn't get a squirrel or something I didn't eat for
a day but I slept on the ground. It was and is probably one of the most interesting ways to see
what our forefathers dealt with when they first came to the Americas. Again I could do special
episodes on that too. If you're interested in that probably one of the most well-known authors
that writes about trekking his name's Mark Baker put a link in the show notes and you can
you can read about some of his trekking adventures. So that's going to do it for this episode of
Hacker Public Radio. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you like to contact me you can email me
at Russ at theTechieGeek.com. You can also check out mine and Tracy Holtz podcast at theTechieGeek.com.
I'd love to hear from you. So for now, good night and God bless.
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