Advantages of BP guns

Gator Weiss

Gator Weiss

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
104
Location
Texas and other places
I have several BP guns and several cartridge guns. I am finding over the years, BP gives many advantages, but not many folks show up at the range with BP guns. I wonder about it.

*I can change loadings on the spot. The rammer is my loading press and an adjustable measure is always handy

*My musket shoots ball, slug, buck, bird shot

*My flint fires without primers. For it, only a piece of flint - a common rock - or even an agate is needed and these materials are on the frigging ground, almost anywhere

*It will take a bird or a squirrell, rabbit, deer, elk, bear, anything and everything short of a whale if you load for it

*I can cast my own projectiles from salvaged lead any time I want, even over a campfire or in the garage, swanshot too

*Cleaning solvent consists of soap and water easy to find and basically cheap and non-toxic

*Tallow, shortening, canola oil, beeswax, lanolin, etc all of it works in the bore, just wash, dry, and coat it.

*I can shoot a lot for very little cost

*I can make accessories out of sticks, bones, antler, scrap leather, scrap cloth, old metal, just about anything

*BP shooters seem to be generally talkative, traders, willing to teach and share info with others. They are most often the best folks on the range

I can probably list dozens of advantages, yet I see very few BP shooters at the range these days. I am not an inline-gunner, give me the sidelocks and the old revolvers. I worry that BP sports will one day fade away permanently.
 
I love my BP guns.
Flinter, cap n ball, Hawken.....even my 12ga sxs.
So fun to load and shoot. You can enjoy an afternoon of shooting and fire 30rds. It's a slower pace, but you're busy fiddling g with your guns and shooting gear the whole time.
If you want real fun and comraderie.....join the nmlra and go to some actual BP shoots. You'll get a years subscription to MUZZLE BLAST magazine with your membership.
WIN-WIN.
 
Gator, you're a man after my own heart! Lots of those guys showing up on the range these days are members of the spray and pray crowd. I would rather do the job with one shot rather than a dozen. I love the black powder stuff too!
 
I have 18 black powder/muzzleloaders which include pistols, revolvers, rifled barreled guns and shotguns. Both flint and caplock. So far the only disadvantages I have found vs. modern firearms are distances beyond 125 yards and quick third shots on a duck or dove field with SxS shotguns. If I run out of percussion caps and can't buy any, I can always just use one of the flint guns. I can also buy a Mag-Spark conversion and use 209 primers.

Although black powder may be scarce, one can always make their own after trial and error. Muzzleloaders are the Anti's biggest enemy.
 
Besides the obvious thing that the vast amount of shooters want to shoot modern arms that load and shoot easily, the biggest reason I can see for not seeing lots of BP shooters is that it is it’s own whole ‘nother hobby so to speak. Yes it is shooting but it is a completely different subset of shooting that comes with its own skills, tools, tips, tricks, mindset and costs.

I shoot a lot of airguns and they are much the same in that while still shooting they are their own hobby in of themselves with their own knowledge, tools, skills and costs.

Shooting in general is a big tent with some pretty specific subsets within it.
 
I'd hunt with a flintlock but I live where birdhunting isn't abundant and big game (mule deer and pronghorn) is in open country at long ranges (typically 200 yards). If I was hunting within 100 yards, I'd love to do it with a flintlock. Besides hunting, I'm focused on my skills for defensive purposes and muzzleloaders or black powder of any kind don't really factor into that. I don't shoot recreationally. I can see bp being a lot of fun for recreation or for someone with a more serious approach from a historical perspective. If I were to get into it just for fun, I'd like some flintlock pistols, but the price of a good flintlock is pretty serious just for fun.
 
Blackpowder is the ultimate freedom for me pick up a rock flint make some powder from the farm and away you go.now I know it's not that easy but close. My smoke poles range from .36 to 3.0 and I started at the age of eleven
 
I have no skills at knaping but I have a few different kinds of Dimond saws. Rocks that will work are allover. Iron pyrite is easy to find for a wheel lock. Now sulfur is tricky.
 
JN01 said:
The ability to make your own flints is often touted as an advantage for flintlocks, but finding a suitable rock and transforming it into a usable, reliable rifle flint requires a good bit of knowledge and skill. Even back in the olden days, traders sold rifle flints for a reason.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it.

IMHO, for most people, a caplock is actually more sustainable long-term, providing you source a percussion cap maker and the chemicals needed to make priming compound before they are needed.
 
I will say this about shooting black powder, get good with a black powder arm and you'll be a rock star with a modern arm. Black powder is fun, but very unforgiving in errors in technique when shooting for accuracy. Reason is, the bullet is often still in the barrel as the arm starts into the recoil motion. A modern arm, not so much. Shooting basics like cheek weld, Natural Point of Aim, trigger control, stance etc, all contribute to being accurate with a black powder arm.

Past that, they're tons o fun.
 
I like shooting muzzle-loaders for two big reasons.

First, the guns have personality. A Glock is a tool, with about as much personality as a hammer. The old wood-and-steel cartridge guns have a bit more - but a muzzle-loading gun has it in spades. They can be cranky, frustrating, and annoying...but the satisfaction when you master the gun is great.

Second, the people in the community are fantastic. I've shot all over the world, and the muzzle-loading community is one vast, extended family. We take care of each other. Help each other. (FWIW, the U.S. International Team is recruiting)
 
I feel the same way, once you've seen one AR you've seen them all, same thing with the plastic fantastic pistols. Look at some of the golden age rifles from the mid to late 1700s, works of art.
 
Rustmangler said:
Blackpowder is the ultimate freedom for me pick up a rock flint make some powder from the farm and away you go.now I know it's not that easy but close. My smoke poles range from .36 to 3.0 and I started at the age of eleven
Click to expand...
3.0? You got a cannon? Pics? Awesome!
 
Gator Weiss said:
*I can shoot a lot for very little cost
Click to expand...

I'm gonna disagree with you on that one.

I mostly shoot Black Powder in cartridges these days, have not fired a flintlock in many years, and don't shoot much Cap & Ball these days.

But f'rinstnce in 45 Colt, if I load it with Smokeless, my standard load is 7.5 grains of Unique.

With BP, about 35 or so grains of Schuetzen FFg.

I can get over 900 loads from a pound of Unique, only about 200 loads from a pound of FFg.

I have not checked on the cost of powders recently, but I seem to recall 7.5 grains of Unique costs a whole lot less than 35 or so grains of Schuetzen FFg.

No, I don't make my own powder and I ain't gonna start.

So with store bought powder, I find it is cheaper to shoot Smokeless, but no where near as much fun.
 
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