RAEDWALD
40 Cal.
Now this is nothing new, nor is it really my idea.
Thanks to the wonders of free e-books I have been reading a lot of 18th and 19th century books on guns.
The idea of shaking the powder out of the touch hole is nothing new but it caught my eye when a work was talking about slanting faced breech plugs (i.e. at 45 degrees as seen from above) with the narrow end near the touch hole.
This sparked a memory that pyrodex pellets have a black powder base for initial combustion.
So I wonder if it would be reliably feasible for a flintlock, made with such a slanting base and a generous touch hole, to be used together with a pre made charge (as they did with paper cartridges) which has some finer black powder at one end and the rest in normal granulation.
The idea being that one raises the barrel vertically to load it in the normal way. Open the charge and pour it down the barrel fine powder first. Possibly tap the butt on the ground once. Then load the ball as usual.
Now would this routinely let enough priming powder enter the closed priming pan during the loading?
Now someone will comment that they load and prime with 1F and never need a finer primer but I would not want the touch hole any larger than necessary.
So, just a thought. Discuss. As they used to say in examinations.
Thanks to the wonders of free e-books I have been reading a lot of 18th and 19th century books on guns.
The idea of shaking the powder out of the touch hole is nothing new but it caught my eye when a work was talking about slanting faced breech plugs (i.e. at 45 degrees as seen from above) with the narrow end near the touch hole.
This sparked a memory that pyrodex pellets have a black powder base for initial combustion.
So I wonder if it would be reliably feasible for a flintlock, made with such a slanting base and a generous touch hole, to be used together with a pre made charge (as they did with paper cartridges) which has some finer black powder at one end and the rest in normal granulation.
The idea being that one raises the barrel vertically to load it in the normal way. Open the charge and pour it down the barrel fine powder first. Possibly tap the butt on the ground once. Then load the ball as usual.
Now would this routinely let enough priming powder enter the closed priming pan during the loading?
Now someone will comment that they load and prime with 1F and never need a finer primer but I would not want the touch hole any larger than necessary.
So, just a thought. Discuss. As they used to say in examinations.