Dear List,
A couple of members of your list asked us to comment on our muskets. We normally try to avoid lists because it can hamper discussion and is very time consuming for us.
It is surprising this is only taking place now. A number of other lists had these decisions (mainly living history groups) quite some time ago. These decisions have always started out with someone having a very well defined opinion on the products without ever seeing them. Conversations go back and forth for weeks until someone buys one, fires it and comes to a conclusion on three subject areas:
1. Safety
2. Reliability
3. Authencity
In the end the main question the client him or hership is "did I get good value for the amount of money I paid?"
Until someone has tested, and examined one of our muskets it is impossible for any conclusions to be drawn until you have seen ANY musket from ANY manufacturer.
Yes we sell musket not vented. There are a number of localties, shipping companies, nations that do not allow active muskets. Examples of this is New Jersey, and the City of New York. We ship our muskets for the past 7 years to over 18 different nations. Most shipping companies will not handle an active musket. If they are active they would have to be shipped to a local airport and picked up by the client. This is expensive, and inconvenient for both the client and us. Veteran muzzleloaders will point out many muskets were sold in the 1970s not drilled. For this inconvenience we factored in a price reduction as compensation.
As for the issue of liability, presently under U.S. law gun manufacturers and dealers are not liable for use and misuse of their products by the purchaser. An attempt was made in the US Congress to make gun manufacturers carry liability insurance on each firearm they manufactured. This would have caused the price of firearms to almost double, hence making guns unaffordable and therefore restricted through economic means.
Safety is always the first question. Some individuals day dream a little too much and come up with all sorts of unusual ideas. To answer everyone of these would be a full-time job in its self.
The manufacturing of the barrels is exactly like any other manufacturer. The steel used has a 80,000 - 85,000 pounds per square inch (PSI) tensile strength rating. There is a taper in wall thicknesses: from the muzzle (thinner) to the breech (thicker) just like any other musket. The thicknesses are greater than muskets from Italy and are closer to wall thickness measurements found in originals, BUT with modern steel (originals are made of mild steel and were made over a form and seamed).
Has anyone said how strong is black powder? So how much p.s.i. pressure is generated by black powder in its most constrained situation? Well I have heard everything from 1,000 psi to 20,000 psi (the first SMOKELESS rifle had a 42,000 psi strength rating).
If you want to discover how much pressure black powder can generate there is an interesting calculator for the aviation industry. To them 100 grains (6.5 grams) of FFFFG in a CLOSED tube of .75 inches by one inch creates 28,513 psi pressure. In a closed/sealed tube the length of a musket barrel (say 44 inches) at a dimeter of .75 inches the results are 650 psi. Remember no vent and no pressure allowed to escape around the ball. Calculator is found here:
http://www.info-central.org/recovery_powder.shtml
Unfortunately it only calculates FFFFG and not FFG which more commonly used in black powder shooting. So that is the science.
As for client experience this is what a client wrote in 2002 on another discussion board:
"I had a few minutes so I went out back and fired 5 balls out of the Discriminating General's 1728 French Musket. This was an issue about a month ago, and some wondered could you shoot live. Don't ask me the load I fired. I just rummaged around til I found some 120 grain blank rounds, and eventually found a few balls. Anyway, loading was interesting. I am used to just casting my Bess about, and holding it onto the swell, not letting it touch the ground. However this one will have to touch the ground. Not only that but I had to move the butt into what would have been the second rank's area to ram it down. Fired good. About a half an inch low at 25 yards, but that may have been me getting used to the new weight. 5 shots, one right after another, and it looks good."
Our clients cover a wide range. Teachers buy our muskets because they are not drilled so they can use them in a classroom setting without breaking any board rules against firearms. Militaria collectors like them not drilled because they can display them without having to adher to firearm proper storage regulations in their locality. National parks service, State parks, Parks Canada, etc. use them in demonstations. Then there are reenactors, hunters, target shooters, film industry, etc. who acquire them. If you want to see our muskets work just watch the new Alamo movie. The majority of the muskets in that movie came from us.
As for reliability we use a richer carboned steel on the frizzens so when they are case hardened the carbon is both added and drawn from the steel. A client said the problem with sparking longivity on the Italian muskets is that they use mild steel so the case hardening is only adding carbon and not taking it from the steel as well. With regards to springs everyone seems to have experienced broken springs with various muskets. Well after 7 years with countless muskets sold there has been only one mainstring broken and one sear spring... and both were done by the owner in taking it apart and messing with them. They are strong strings and will not soften like over mass-produced muskets.
Authenicity is always a challenge because of the variations found in the originals and that many originals have been altered through the years. However we are continually updating them. Someone mentioned our 3rd model bess (india pattern). It is one slated for changes. This bess is a copy from an original. However we wish for it to represent the first issue of this model not the later issue (stepped nose cap). In addition there is too much wood in the stock. We continually improve our products by talking with our clients. If a measurement is off we hear about it and change it.
As for price, will you get a $2000.00 custom made piece for $500.00? No. However we think you get a better musket for what you pay. That is why we confident in offering a money back guarantee. About one to two percent of our muskets come back because it did not meet our clients expectations or was damaged in shipment. We are proud of that rate. Usually when there is something a client does not like about the musket they usually change it. For example if they don't like the stain the restain it. If there is a stock finish detail they aren't crazy about they sand it. People do tweaks like this to cars all the time.
At the end of the day, all of what I have written here just adds to the noise because a musket can only be evaluated "in the flesh". We have tried to take the risk out of the purchase by offering a money back guarantee. From a pure greedy business perspective it is not in our interest for someone to get one of our muskets and not like it and be forced to keep it. It may be hard to believe in this day and age but we do act with honesty and we work with the client if there is ever an issue with any our hundreds of products. If you can find one client who says we acted otherwise, I will eat a musket!
I hope this helps. I should say the main complaint from clients is we can be hard to reach. The problem is our phones ring non-stop and we receive over 50 e-mails a day. Plus museum and film projects take us out of the office. We are not
[url] Amazon.com[/url] and just do not have the resources to handle the questions and inquiries. We are doing the best we can.
So I will leave you to your discussion and I am sorry if I interfered in any way with the exchange of ideas. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Robert
http://www.militaryheritage.com
You'll have my purchase order in just about 3 wks.
