Flint and Ball

Maybe a decade ago I bought my first muzzleloader. At thr time I wanted a flintlock but was daunted by the learning curve so went to the other extreme and got an inline. It satisfied me for a while but eventually I moved to caplocks. I shot a few animals with my hawken before deciding I'd have to just bite the bullet and get a flintlock.

It was certainly a learning curve but I haven't looked back, and do pretty well all my hunting with one now.

My main gun is a custom 54 longrifle, running patched balls it does a great job on anything up to red stag size.

I have a couple of smoothbores, my fusil de chasse 62 cal is my favourite gun and I've got it shooting well enough to take a deer at 50 yards but haven't done so yet.

Sold a couple of caplocks to fund a custom build, due to be finished next year. It'll be an English styled hunting rifle I'm 58 cal. Slow twist to accommodate 0.570 round balls that weigh around 280gn. Should kill most things in the southern hemisphere pretty easily.

I don't dress historically correct, but all my gear is. Adds to the flavour and enjoyment for me.

50m shot, dropped on the spot to the 230gn roundball.
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My kit.
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Smoothbore hare.
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Lot of fun shooting hares with a muzzle loader:cool:

Awesome!

that looks like a hell of a lot of fun. thanks for shareing.

I'm glad you're shooting .54 and .58 balls because that's good for deer and other game

.45 and .50 balls are a lot lighter due to diameter and not really up to ethical hunting.

My .72 percussion musket is my fun gun and everyone enjoys shooting it.

But my Dickson 14 gauge belted ball double rifle is the next one to go shoot a deer.
It would be on the west coast hunting right now if it wasn't for the gale norwester blowing and heavy rain over there

I really admire guys who persevere with flint and master it
I guess I'm just a bit too impatient and have so many guns I never really master any of them

@akaroa1 I've got some friends stateside that hunt whitetail regularly with a 45. I wouldn't hesitate to use it as a fallow gun personally, and may someday but I just prefer larger calibres.
If anything I'd love a 40 for foxes and varmints someday.

Do you have any pics of your 14? Sounds like a beauty. Good to see I'm not the only muzzleloader hunter left
!

14 bore Dickson belted ball double rifle

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And this is where the magic happens
Belted ball rifling and very good bores for a pre 1850 BP rifle
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Originally Posted by akaroa1

14 bore Dickson belted ball double rifle

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And this is where the magic happens
Belted ball rifling and very good bores for a pre 1850 BP rifle
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You really do need to get a better camera you know they don't do justice to it.

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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

You really do need to get a better camera you know they don't do justice to it.

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Yeh vintage mobile phone
Vintage rifles

Bit of a theme

Yes I really do need a better phone / camera but always another rifle to spend money on

@akaroa1 I've never seen a belted ball gun, I suppose it works on the same concept as a whitworth rifle. How is it accuracy wise?

Stuff the photos
U need to visit @akaroa to appreciate what he has

In akaroas absence as I understand it, the projectile is sort of the same as whitworths in having the rifling already on it but I doubt that it influenced whitworth. It was an attempt to make a military rifle cheaper, quicker and easier to load than the Baker. Brunswick's were all percussion whereas the baker was flint. The belted ball reduced loading resistance but meant cartridges couldn't be used as the belt has to be aligned with the grooves to load the ball after the powder had been charged, however the military ones were the same bore diameter as the service musket so at a pinch that ammunition could be used. Accuracy was similar to the Brunswick's at realistic ranges but the rate of fire higher. Other systems were trialled such as oval bore which had some success later with mine and pritchett style bullets.
Akaroas double switch barrel one is the first commercial one I've seen and next time I'm there I want a go with it please😁

Looks like this

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Originally Posted by akaroa1

Looks like this

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Belted balls were a very early type of mechanically engaged rifling

The service rifle type was called Brunswick Rifling
It's circa 1840-50

Accuracy is ok for what it is and its age

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I was more referring to the whitworth's integrated rifling that matches the projectile.

So for the belted ball, is it loaded bare? If so is it lubed? do the deep grooves get hard to load quickly? I imagine they're pretty good fouling traps?

After the belted ball the next big thing in mechanical rifling was the Whitworth hexagonal helical rifling.

The Whitworth is very cool.
I do have a Whitworth rifle, mould and was punched.
But haven't shot it much.

Just about to dust it off and get my head around it properly and see how it goes at 400m

Funny that I got a whotworth projjie and a belted ball, only need a rifle to shoot em
Wasn't into muzzleloaders . 2 hrs qith akaroa stuffed me ;)
How many toys can u have - and use

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Originally Posted by Bavarian_Hunter

I was more referring to the whitworth's integrated rifling that matches the projectile.

So for the belted ball, is it loaded bare? If so is it lubed? do the deep grooves get hard to load quickly? I imagine they're pretty good fouling traps?

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It was loaded patched, the military stuff had it wrapped and sewn into a pouch with marks to show where the belt was. Big groove with rounded corners it didn't foul badly by accounts of the day.
The whitworths a whole world away in terms of precision machining . The oval bore rifling concept is an interesting mechanical "rifling" system one that showed much promise but never went anywhere really.

Then it was Alexander Henry Rifling which was a giant leap forward and lasted for several decades as the go to in BP cartridge rifles.

Then Metford rifling slowly took over from Alexander Henry rifling.
I don't yet have a vintage rifle with Metford rifling. Never found one with a good enough barrel and exposed hammer that was worth buying

funny I was dreaming of oval type rifling the other day....concept of squeazing a .12ga barrel in vice move ,turn squeaze move turn squeaze etc etc etc oh so much to go wrong ....

Sorry I told a lie !

I do have a Metford rifled barrel on my Webley 500 3"

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