• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades
  • Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Flintlock vs Percussion Cap

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Do you have a favorite? What do you like about them? I personally really like not having to search for caps to shoot my Hawken when I can just go shoot my Jaeger flintlock. Plus the extra poof of smoke next to my face is always entertaining.
Depends. For pure shooting pleasure with a mechanical device, I have to go with a wheel lock. Love the slow but predictable lock time. For a surprise factor, like a match lock. Currently don’t own samples of either, but have shot both. For long range accuracy, say over 500 yards and beyond, a percussion gun shooting paperpatched conicals is very interesting to me. Inside 125 yards, a flintlock can be both challenging and rewarding. Hunting in nasty wet or snowy weather, will likely pick a percussion. Or maybe a flintlock for the challenge. Depends on my mood and what I used the day before. Shooting sheet or trap, it’s going to be a percussion double. Most of the time. Flintlocks are too slow to keep up with centerfire crowd I shoot with. Shooting CMP competition, it’s going to be a 1917….. forget it, wrong forum, but I am using an original 100 plus year old gun.

Back to the OP. Do I have a favorite? Yep. The gun I’m shooting at that moment in time.
 
I much prefer a caplock. I like flintlocks because they ARE very cool and as close to being a " self sufficient " firearm as I can get,but I can't shoot them worth Cranberries,and I've found mine far less reliable than my caplocks. I've also found that shooting my flintlock gives me a flinch that transfers over to all my other firearms and thats just not cricket.

If you want it to work then you've got to work on it, Flintlocks arent difficult to master just different.
An unreliable Flintlock isnt a common thing, all Flintlocks arent the same.
 
If you want it to work then you've got to work on it, Flintlocks arent difficult to master just different.
An unreliable Flintlock isnt a common thing, all Flintlocks arent the same.
I've heard every tip and trick for the last 6 years,and the simple fact is I can't get used to it,and it stuffs me for all my other guns. Plain and simple.
 
I was at a shoot the other day and we were looking at our 50meter targets , someone looked at my group and said " that is accurate for a flintlock " I come across that all the time , people just don't expect a flintlock to shoot as well as or better than a caplock .
 
I much prefer a caplock. I like flintlocks because they ARE very cool and as close to being a " self sufficient " firearm as I can get,but I can't shoot them worth Cranberries,and I've found mine far less reliable than my caplocks. I've also found that shooting my flintlock gives me a flinch that transfers over to all my other firearms and thats just not cricket.
I gave a guy a shot with a flintlock he had watched me shooting , he got such a shock when it went off he dropped it in the grass , I gave him another go and he dropped it again , :doh:
 
Very well put Coinneach!! And thank you for your service!

“I liken a Flintlock persuasion to a retired Jet Pilot reverting to a piston engined Biplane sans high tech luxury, embracing the sound and smell with a developing hands on skill; and a demanded patience that can't be dispensed with.

When we go the Flintlock path then we accept a discipline, not a mere hobby.
The journey is very much a solo experience, yet also a blending with like minded souls who mentor and challenge you to rise above just squeezing a trigger.”
 
I love my .54 flintlock longrifle.
I loved (ok still love) my .54 caplock New Englander with the extra 12 gauge barrel.
BOTH are very accurate rifles
"Only accurate rifles are interesting" Whelen Townsend

OH fear not... my New Englander went as a graduation gift to my son four years ago..., hence some of my past-tense references. I get to use it whenever I wish.

Sometimes we have very very wet deer seasons where I am, and I use a caplock for such times. I can only do so much and then I end up with a wet charge in my flinter..., as flintlockers know....

I also use a caplock SxS 20 gauge for upland birds and small game...

LD
 
100% percussion guns for me. Never shot a flintlock. I have zero interest in being historically accurate or reenacting. I just enjoy shooting and especially hunting with them. I’m a sucker for a nice piece of walnut and usually try to buy guns that I really like the wood on. 99% of my guns are T/C with nice wood. I do it for the enjoyment I get, so I may as well get what makes me the happiest.
 
Fraid so!
But then again as long as the discussion is about guns and which ones each shooter likes I'm okay with it and don't get terribly bored.

Aw I dunno, I think there should be a segregation between those who only shoot Percussion and the rest of us adventurous spirits.

How about P for Percussion wear Pink Bib and Brace Overalls and at least 3 different colours in their hair ? LOL
 
Aw I dunno, I think there should be a segregation between those who only shoot Percussion and the rest of us adventurous spirits.

How about P for Percussion wear Pink Bib and Brace Overalls and at least 3 different colours in their hair ? LOL
How about powdered wigs with pigtails and knickers for effete flinchlockers…?
 
I have both. Cap guns are easier to shoot and maintain. Flinchlock mechanisms are perty much all the same. Seen one seen them all.
Need to go out and shoot a flintlock. No sense having one unless you use it.

BTW, Flinchlock threads 9.6K. Percussion 13.3K.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top