Firing A Flintlock Rifle In Twelve "Easy" Steps
It was not always so simple.÷ In the 17th and 18th centuries, before the advent of percussion ball and cap and long before metal cartridges appeared on the scene, loading a flintlock rifle was an involved process at the best of times.÷ It"s hard to imagine how those shooters of long ago were able to perform all that involved business with an enraged grizzly or a determined enemy rushing at them!Here are the twelve steps it takes to load and fire a flintlock rifle or musket:
1. Bite down on the paper cartridge and tear it open with your teeth.
2. Push the striker (called a <i>frissen</i>) forward and pour a small amount of powder into the flash pan.
<i>The powder in the pan was intended to ignite the main powder charge inside the firing chamber of the barrel, which would then propel the lead ball out of the barrel.÷ However, the spark struck from the flint often caused a quick explosion in the pan which failed to ignite the main charge.÷ This is where we get our expression, a "flash in the pan."</i>
3. Push the <i>frissen</i>÷ back into position to cover the flash pan.
4.÷ Hold the musket with the muzzle pointing up.
5. Pour the rest of the powder into the barrel from the muzzle.
6. Insert a lead ball into the barrel.
7. Push the cartridge paper into the barrel (called the "wadding").
8.÷ Remove the ramrod from its storage pipe beneath the barrel and use it to push the wadding and the ball down the barrel.
<i>This was easier to do with a musket than with a rifle.÷ The musket barrel had a slightly larger diameter, and its interior surface was polished smooth. A rifle had spiral grooves cut into the metal inside the barrel, which made the ball spin as it exited the barrel, thus increasing the accuracy of its flight.÷ The fit of the bullet inside the barrel had to be tighter to impart the spin, so the grooves and smaller diameter made it more difficult to ram the wadding and ball all the way down to the firing chamber.÷ Even though the rifle shot farther and more accurately, its slower rate of fire was the primary reason muskets continued to be used by military units until the late 1800s. Rate of fire was an important consideration in a battle where speed of firing was a matter of life and death. The invention of metal cartridges and breech loading (loading the bullet through an opening at the rear of the barrel near the firing chamber) finally put an end to the musket"s dominance in military use.</i>
9.÷ Replace the ramrod in the storage pipe.
10. Raise the musket to a firing position, bracing the butt against the shoulder.
11.÷ Pull back the hammer.
12. Aim and fire.
<i>We"ve all seen scenes in movies where an intrepid frontiersman, pressed for time by an approaching danger, simply left the ramrod in the barrel and fired, rather than removing it from the barrel and replacing it in the storage pipe.÷ The ramrod then became part of the ammunition propelled out of the barrel when the charge fired. In an extreme situation where those extra few seconds were a matter of life or death, this may well have been done.÷ But unless you had time to recover the ramrod from wherever it flew, the loss of it would render the weapon useless, so it seems unlikely that those frontiersmen made a habit of doing this. Whatever÷ became of the ramrod once it was used, though, it is clear from the steps above that loading and firing a flintlock was far from a simple proposition, and Dan"l Boone and countless other frontiersmen and soldiers who used them certainly deserve our admiration for being able to do it with such a high degree of dexterity and skill.</i>