gcouger
Pilgrim
I turned 81 last month and am looking for a new project or two to keep me busy. It's been 50 years since I shot any black powder guns. I had two a Remington 1858 Army kit from Dixie Gun Works and a beer can caliber motor made from a piece of drive shaft tubing. The mortar threw a can full of dirt over an ounce of FFG about a half-mile with a rapid whirring noise as the soft drink can tumbled end over end in its 45-degree trajectory across my pasture,
I have an almost finished .54 caliber Hakin rifle kit, I started 45 years ago, and a couple of economy 50 cal. Knight Bighorn rifles. I picked up the pair of Bighorns in a pawn shop for less than the 4x Leupold scope one of them sported was worth. One uses shotgun primers, which I have, so I need to get some powder, ball, and caps to see if the rifles shoot worth a damn.
In light of the current shortage of primers, percussion caps, and almost everything else I have given a lot of thought to designing and building a modern wheel lock/flintlock using ferrocerium and a hardened steel striker in a lock that can be made almost waterproof. Waterproofing something as hygroscopic as black powder in a firearm that has so many openings and requires freely moving parts will be a challenge, if not a bridge too far.
Gordon
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. - Plato
I have an almost finished .54 caliber Hakin rifle kit, I started 45 years ago, and a couple of economy 50 cal. Knight Bighorn rifles. I picked up the pair of Bighorns in a pawn shop for less than the 4x Leupold scope one of them sported was worth. One uses shotgun primers, which I have, so I need to get some powder, ball, and caps to see if the rifles shoot worth a damn.
In light of the current shortage of primers, percussion caps, and almost everything else I have given a lot of thought to designing and building a modern wheel lock/flintlock using ferrocerium and a hardened steel striker in a lock that can be made almost waterproof. Waterproofing something as hygroscopic as black powder in a firearm that has so many openings and requires freely moving parts will be a challenge, if not a bridge too far.
Gordon
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. - Plato
