need info on muzzle loading rifles

[hunterjack]

hii im a new member here. this is my first post. i wanted to know about muzzle loading rifles. basically everything history, its mechanism, are they still used and how do you take care of these rifles. also would love to know if anyone owns it.
sry if there has been any mistake on this topic here. Mods if hav posted sumthing wrongly im really sorry.

hunterjack

[Vikram]

Hunterjack,

Welcome to IFG. You posted in the correct section.Please post an introduction in the introductions section and do tell us about yourself,interests and guns you own etc.

I am very under informed about muzzle-loading rifles and much less about modern ML rifles.

These links should provide you basic info about the history of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle-loading_rifle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle

Modern ML rifles are quite sophisticated,reliable,accurate and efficient.Many makers produce them and there are special muzzle loading rifle hunting seasons in USA for various game. Our American members should chip in shortly. Sorry for being of little help.

Best-
Vikram

[timmy]

There are a number of mechanisms associated with muzzle loading firearms. I say "firearms," because rifles did not begin to come into widespread use until the first part of the 19th century, with the development of the Minie Ball. Before this, the smoothbore long arm was the more popular form.

The first "hand cannons," a tube with a plug and a touch hole at the breach end, attached to a stick, was fired by placing some sort of lighted match on the touch hole.

The first version of true long guns was the matchlock. In this, a priming pan was mounted on the breach end of the barrel by the touch hole. The "trigger" interacted with the match holding cock in a 3rd class lever arrangement, allowing a small movement of the trigger to flip the cock and its lighted match into the priming pan. The priming pan, being filled with a fine-grained black powder, then ignited, sending a flame into the touch hole and setting off the main charge, firing the weapon. The key ingredient here was the slow match, held by the cock. This would be somewhat similar to a fuse, a braided cord soaked in a saltpeter (nitrated) solution and allowed to dry. It would smolder until blown upon, which would cause it to glow red hot.

For an army, having many lighted match fuses burning was a key element to a musket force's potency in battle. Such matchlocks, like the arquebus, were large, heavy weapons that were usually used with a rest.

For a hunter, keeping a slow match lighted while trying to creep up on game would be a challenge, even if it was not a rainy day, due to the scent of burning match.

However, the simplicity of the matchlock made it very attractive for the fitting out of large military forces, and they continued in use in the Orient (China and Japan) until a fairly late date. You can see them depicted in use in the classic Akira Kurosawa film, The Seven Samurai.

I still think about making a matchlock, myself, just for fun.

The next major advancement was the wheel lock. This used a rotating steel wheel that was powered by a main spring. The wheel was connected to one end of the spring by means of a chain that wrapped around the wheel's axle. The wheel was wound up with a key, like an old clock. When the trigger was pulled, it allowed the spring to decompress, spinning the wheel rapidly. A cock with a flint was mounted above, and when ready to fire, was moved to allow the flint to contact the rotating wheel. A priming pan full of fine powder was ignited by the resultant sparks and set off the main charge.

Wheel locks were complex and expensive mechanisms. Their chief advantages were that they allowed the burning slow match to be dispensed with, and they had a very fast lock time -- the time from the pulling of the trigger until the weapon went off. It is my understanding that only the very best flintlocks could even hope to compete with a good wheel lock in terms of lock time. (Here, you realize that, the faster the lock time, the better the weapon's potential accuracy was. Consider that you can never hold a gun really still, so you want it to go off when you pull the trigger, not a second or so later!)

Wheel locks were about in the 16th century and were chiefly the weapons of the rich nobility (Who were the only ones that could afford them). Many were rifled, with lands and grooves that imparted a spin to the bullet. The quick lock time of the wheel lock could then be used to advantage.

However, the cost of wheel locks made matchlocks the choice of military forces until later developments: In the Netherlands, there was the snaphaunce, in Spain, there was the miquelet, and in France, there was the firelock, or flintlock.

With the snaphaunce, the priming pan has a frizzen, or steel, mounted above the priming pan. The priming pan has a separate cover that is opened when the weapon is to be fired. The sear, or locking mechanism for the cock (think: hammer) moved laterally, or from side to side, to release the cock and flint, which struck the frizzen, creating a shower of sparks. This, in turn, ignited the priming power in the pan and set off the gun.

The Miquelet combined the priming pan cover and frizzen into one assembly. This allowed the pan to remain covered until the trigger was pulled, and eliminated the preparatory step of opening the pan to fire.

The flintlock borrowed the miquelet's frizzen/pan cover and used an improved lock for the cock, and became the longest lasting ignition method in the history of firearms, stretching from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It was fast enough to be quite accurate, yet cheap enough to equip large numbers of military forces. This allowed it to take over from the matchlock, wheel lock, and all other designs in most cases.

In the early 19th century, a Scottish minister named Forsyth was not happy with his flintlock shotgun and developed a method of ignition that used a priming compound that ignited when struck sharply. This resulted in the development of the percussion, or cap lock. This form of muzzle loader is most often used today because of its very quick, reliable ignition (relative to the earlier lock/ignition methods), and because of its inexpensiveness.

Also in the first half of the 19th century, a Frenchman named Minie developed what we today call the Minie ball in the USA. This was a conical bullet with a hollow base. The reason smoothbore muskets were used to such a great extent by the military was that it took so long to load a rifled bore. The round ball bullet had to be patched, usually with fabric, so that it would be easy to load, but still engage the grooves of the rifling when fired. A smoothbore did not require tedious patching and could be reloaded and fired much more quickly.

(Regarding patching, I would refer you to the history of the outbreak of The Great Uprising, and the immediate cause for it.)

The Minie Ball could be easily and quickly pushed down a rifled bore. When the rifle was fired, the hollow base of the bullet would then expand to catch the rifling grooves. The speed of smoothbore loading was combined with the accuracy of a patched ball in a rifle and after this, smoothbores were generally confined to weapons like shotguns.

This is a little overview that will get you started in learning about these muzzleloaders. It has enough to allow you to browse such sources as Wikipedia to learn more details. Black powder muzzleloaders are lots of fun and quite interesting from many perspectives!

[hunterjack]

thanks a ton people. that was alot of information. also i would like to know if there is anyone here who owns it. actually i saw this gun while i was touring south india.
saw i got curious to know more about these rifles. are these kinds of rifles still used??

[MoA]

Muzzle loaders are still popular abroad. A lot of people shoot them. I shoot cap and ball revolvers, and would be happy to answer whatever questions you have with my limited knowledge. BTW if I am not mistaken I did a thread on cap and ball revolvers a while back.

[shooter]

Muzzleloaders are common in Rural india.

In my (ex) neck of wood it is also called 'thoku bharu' (literally slam down to load) or 'topidaar' (cap lock). MAtch locks were called 'toradaar' (or something like that) (dont know why).

Lot of old rifled ones had octagonal barrels. Villagers didnt realise this (or maybe they did) and used it as a smoothbore with shot. It is called 'athpahloo' (octagonal).

Then there is something called 'maaskut' (a musket). This is a name given to a foreign muzzleloader (from what i can gather).

'Athpahloo' and 'maaskut' were considered superior to 'desi thoku bharu' (country made muzzleloader) and villagers were willing to pay more for these.

Even the blackpowder used is of two type the less expensive 'desi' variety which gives out more smoke and this smoke makes you cough more and the more expensive one which gives out (comparatively ) less smoke.

I dont know the technical difference between the two types.
Maybe the seniors can help.