Black Powder-the Trad Archery of Guns

[Captainkirk]

Ah yes , The Good, The bad, and The Kir.... I mean The ugly....

I resemble that remark!

[Captainkirk]

I don't know anything about BP guns but I can sure appreciate a fine collection! what got you started in old school pistoles? reading through this thread I cant help but think of old clint eastwood films.

Clay, I've been nuts about BP revolvers since I was about 9 and I borrowed a neighbor kid's encyclopedia of guns.I saw a Colt's Dragoon and that was it. "Self", says I, "I'm gonna own one of them some day". Now I have 3 Dragoons (plus a Baby Dragoon) and probably another 15 or so others.
Comes from watching too many westerns as a kid, I reckon, and reading about the Indian/Cavalry wars and ACW (American Civil War), which was pretty much entirely fought with black powder percussion revolvers as sidearms for the officers.
Thing is, you can pick up a decent percussion (cap& ball) revolver for a couple hundred brand new, even cheaper for a used one. It costs pennies to shoot when you cast your own round balls or conicals as I do. Plus it smells like rotten eggs and makes a huge cloud of smoke. What more could a guy want?

Here are some of the Lee conicals I cast...

[Graps]

At least your not obsessed with them.

[Graps]

Figured I needed a ball board.
And if your gonna make one, you might as well use some perdy wood.

[Captainkirk]

Pretty snazzy! I like it! You're gettin' mighty creative these days.

[Graps]

Made me an antler handle flash pan whisk broom.

[Shadowhntr]

Nice work Graps. When you say ball board, is that to hold them say on a flat surface like a table top to keep them from rolling off? Or am I way off?

[Graps]

A ball board is used in conjunction with a patch knife.
You short start a ball with a patch strip. Then cut the patch flush with the board using the patch knife.
This is done to center the patch perfectly on the ball and it saves the gun muzzle from getting the blue damaged while cutting the patch at the muzzle.
The reason for three holes; when shooting in a blanket shoot, there is usually two or three targets at each station.
So Jason, the ball is held tight in the board with the patch.

[Captainkirk]

I use pre-cut and prelubed patches, but I can see the usefulness of a nice ball board if cutting from pillow ticking.

[Graps]

In this fast paced world that we live in, it's nice to have something that slows us down.
That's the beauty of a good flintlock rifle.
To be outside shooting a flinter, the pace is slow and the time between shots is a moment of interacting with a good friend.
You take time to clean between shots and get the powder measures just right, patch the ball, short start and gently seat the ball down on the powder charge.
Then making sure the touch hole is clear and the flash pan is cleaned out, you put the charging powder on the flash pan, just enough to do the job and not cover the touch hole.
You also pay attention to the flint, that it is sharp and aligned up roperly.......
Even the actual shot takes a little time.
You draw up, pull the set trigger, settle into the sight picture and slightly squeeze the trigger.
Then the hammer drops, the charging powder flashes, the main charg goes off and that gentle shove against your shoulder with that all too familiar boom.
And you still have to wait until the smoak clears to see the results of the shot.....
Even when your shooting session is done, there is still care to clean it all up and put it away so carefully....
Yeah, you are spending good quality time with a good friend.
In this fast paced life, it's very good therapy.....