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Education / Training Teach me to shoot: Part 14

Teach me to shoot: Part 14

by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13

This is the continuing fictional saga and guest report of a man teaching a woman to shoot. Today Jack continues to teach Jamell how to shoot a muzzle loading fowling gun.

Our guest writer is reader, Jack Cooper. Take it away, Jack.

Teach me to shoot

by Jack Cooper

This report covers:

  • How a flintlock works
  • The vent or flash hole
  • Tow?
  • Not a rifle
  • Her reactions
  • Jamell’s turn
  • Not accurate

DANGER: Today’s topic talks about loading and shooting a black powder firearm. Black powder is explosive, even in the open.

I haven’t written about this subject for a couple months because BB was having problems with a video I wanted for today. He has it finished now, thanks to blog reader Kevin in CT who edited three video clips into one movie. The edited video is online today!

How a flintlock works

A flintlock works the same as any firearm — burning gunpowder creates expanding gas that propels the projectile. It’s the ignition of the powder where the difference lies. I asked BB to film several things for me to show you today. These are the same things I showed Jamell, and indeed they are the same things I would show anyone who I was teaching to shoot a flintlock.

The video you are about to see has three parts. First BB cocks and fires the gun to show how the flint sparks against the frizzen. Next, he primes the pan with black powder and repeats the cocking and firing. When he does that, the sparks from the flint ignite the black powder in the pan and you get a small explosion. There is almost no sound when this happens, because the powder is not contained. This small explosion is what ignites the main charge of powder that’s in the barrel.

The vent or flash hole

I showed you the vent or flash hole in Part 13. When the powder in the pan explodes, the hot gasses go in all directions. Some of them hit the vent and actually go through the tiny hole. At the other end of the vent hole is the main powder charge, waiting for the spark that starts it burning. Only now the gasses are contained, except for the tiny open vent hole. Black powder is a low explosive, and the main charge now “burns” so fast that everyone calls it an explosion. This time, though, because they are contained, the expanding gasses can only go in one direction — behind the bullet (or shot charge) and out the barrel.

It took you a couple seconds to read that paragraph. But the black powder that’s burning at 11,000 feet per second burns in a few milliseconds. To our eyes, it’s an explosion. And because of the gun’s barrel, the explosion is both powerful and directed. This will all happen quickly in the video, so you might want to watch it several times.

Tow?

One more thing before you watch. BB talks about using a pinch of tow several times. What is tow? Tow is/are the fibers of the flax plant, before they have been spun into something useful. They are fibrous, cottony and bulky, so they make a great natural stuffing for a black powder gun.

Not a rifle!

In the video, BB refers to the gun as a rifle, but it’s not. It’s a smoothbore — a fowling piece that is a primitive shotgun. BB loads it with a single ball instead of shot, but I told Jamell that I would teach her both loading processes — ball and shot. A fowler is what she has, and it’s the principal gun that Americans used in the 18th and early 19th centuries. She got it both because it is historically authentic and also because the one she got is a work of art in her eyes.

Her reactions

Now that you have watched the video, let’s see how Jamell accepted all of this. First, she immediately comprehended how the lock works. She only needed to see it one time and she remarked, “It’s like a lighter!” Which it is. In fact, in the day when flintlocks were the principal firearm, people started fires with their gun locks. That small explosion will catch anything that’s combustable on fire right away. But there were also purpose-built mechanisms that had just the flint lock but no barrel. They were called fire starters.

fire starter
The real deal! An antique fire starter that uses a flintlock.

Now that you have seen the small noiseless explosion of the powder in the pan, you understand that it can start anything on fire. It isn’t limited to gunpowder. Anything that will burn readily can be set on fire this way. Or, lacking a fire starter, a flintlock firearm can also be used. It’s clumsier, but will work if you handle it right.

Jamell’s turn

Now it was Jamell’s turn to try shooting her new gun. You saw how the gun performed when BB shot it. I watched as she loaded it, step-by-step. Then she shouldered it like BB did and fired.

Her first impression was that the explosion in front of your face is startling, but the gun fires so soon thereafter that you don’t have time to react. She said she thought she might flinch on the second shot. Most shooters do. In fact, it takes a lot of practice to hold a flintlock steady when it fires. Some never get it right. The way that a percussion gun operates is so similar to any other kind of firearm that experiencing a flintlock for the first time is usually startling. Shooters think that because they are loading their percussion guns from the muzzle they are Daniel Boone. In fact, they are nothing like Boone until they feel the fire from the lock on their face and experience the double pulse of a well-managed flintlock.

Not accurate

Jamell missed the 50-yard target altogether on the first shot. On shot number two she landed on paper, but about a foot from her aim point. We have to remember her gun has no rear sight. She is using part of the barrel aligned with the front sight as a reference.

I told her that accuracy wasn’t important at this stage. She was learning how to manage a flintlock, which takes some skill. And each lock operates differently, so you really do have to learn your gun. Her third shot was a misfire that caused her to clean out the vent with a pick before priming and trying again.

In all Jamell fired about 10 rounds in one hour. That averages out to 6 minutes a shot, which is pretty much par for the course for a new shooter. In the future she has to play with patched balls, setting flints in the cock, increasing the powder charge and several other things. All of this to both learn her new gun and to learn how to shoot it accurately

Next I will teach Jamell how to adjust her techniques for accuracy.

author avatar
Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier)
Tom Gaylord, also known as B.B. Pelletier, provides expert insights to airgunners all over the world on behalf of Pyramyd AIR. He has earned the title The Godfather of Airguns™ for his contributions to the industry, spending many years with AirForce Airguns and starting magazines dedicated to the sport such as Airgun Illustrated.

21 thoughts on “Teach me to shoot: Part 14”

  1. Very nice.

    That’s one of the things about muzzle loaders I love.

    You can spend a day at the range with your buddies and not shoot 25 shots all day.

    It’s not about speed, it’s not about shot count, it’s about a day with your friends enjoying a piece of history.

    Or several pieces of history, if they brought their smoke poles.

    And introducing the new shooters to the sport that come over when they see the clouds of smoke and hear the boom on the line..

  2. A Brown Bess replica is on the list of things I will have one day. 45Bravo lists several of the reasons for this.

    The series always reminds me of the first time my wife shot an air rifle (actually, her first time shooting any type of gun): First shot, right into the bullseye. Second through fifth shot pretty much the same thing. This was offhand with a fairly inexpensive springer equipped with basic open sights.

  3. Very nice and a big thanks to Kevin in CT for the video assistance. That is the first time that I have seen one in action. Nice touch with the Daniel Boone music too.

  4. So the tow acts as a wadding. I was surprised that the lead ball went in so easily. I had always imagined it to be shot with either a cloth or paper patch to enhance it’s fit to the bore.

    VLC is a good program to use if you can download the video to slow down the actual point of firing.

    B.B. second paragraph last sentence of Jamell’s turn there are two (2) like in the sentence. Computer stuttering?

  5. BB

    Think old western movies. A perfect trail of black powder is trickled on the ground under perfect conditions over 2 miles to a keg of dynamite. When the powder is ignited at 11,000 feet per second the keg will explode one second later?

    Decksniper

      • BB

        Maybe that helps explain why the vent or touch hole does not receive the full brunt of the igniting powder in black powder guns.

        Really like your video. Every safety conscious shooter should experience black powder shooting. Streaks of fire and smoke very late in the day is a sight to behold. But having said that, black powder shooters should be especially attracted to air guns for the sheer convenience factor alone considering the time and fuss required.

        Decksniper

      • Smokeless powder burns very slowly in the open air, but as the pressure increases due to a confined space, the speed and pressure spikes into the tens of thousands of psi.

        Black powder burns at pretty much the same speed with little difference in being confined or open, and the pressures are significantly lower than smokeless.

        Here is a video that compares many types of powder, and demonstrates their burn.

        The action starts at about the 8:00 minute mark for those that just want to see.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTAKr3Y2EV0

        Black powder is listed as an explosive, and smokeless is listed as a flammable solid.

        Siraniko, the ball in a smoothbore is normally undersized, in a rifle, you would use a patch so it fits tight in the bore, so no wadding is needed to hold the ball in place.

        When the flintlock fires, there is a hot jet of powder/particulates that is expelled several feet out of the vent hole as the main charge burns.

        If you are standing inline of the hole, you will be peppered, they made (and still do) vent guard that shields the shooter to the right of the gun,

        • 45Bravo,

          Reading the article again I note that it is a smoothbore and as such no need for a tight fitting projectile. All I know is from reading a subject. Very big difference from actually experiencing it.

          Thanks for the explanation 45Bravo.

          Siraniko

          • You are welcome, that’s what we are here for, to share knowledge..

            My father told me,
            EVERYONE you meet knows something you don’t know.
            So learn something from them..

            Ian..

        • To quantify these burn rates just a little more scientifically, black powder burns in the open at exactly 1 ft/s faster than Yosemite Sam tiptoes away with the powder keg.

          -Jan

  6. B.B.,
    I’ve shot a blackpowder rifle often, my .50 caliber Hawken replica; but I’ve not primed and shot a flintlock; I found the part about using tow interesting; thanks!
    dave

  7. Years ago I had a friend who had a smoothbore flintlock fowlling piece. We often shot together, at my club range. When he used a tightly patched ball, his groups were as good as my Hawken (both cal .45) . When he loaded his gun like BB, without a patch, his groups went from 2-3″ (at 50 yards) to 6-8″. You can use a Daisy 499, or a Gletcher 1944 for a similar test. Avanti ground shot will give you tight groups. smaller diameter bb,s will give you larger groups. A tight fitting ball in a smooth bore will leave the muzzle of the gun the same way, shot after shot. An undersize ball will contact different parts of he muzzle, shot to shot. For example, one ball contacts the top of the muzzle, the next one, the bottom, the next shot the side, etc. —Ed

  8. B.B.,

    You will like this. Last week I showed one of my film studies classes a clip of a battle from Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, an adaptation of King Lear set in (I believe late) feudal Japan. It is the single most visually powerful battle scene I have ever scene in any movie (I’ve pasted the URL for the clip below, I urge you to check it out.) My students were stunned to see Samurai on horses with swords and foot soldiers with lances running alongside them, fighting an enemy in formation shooting both long guns and bows. Afterward I explained that bladed weapons and firearms had a significant overlap in many parts of the world.

    They also had never heard of Matchlocks, which the Japanese had used going back to the early 17th century, probably 16th century:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQczO-YzMZ8

    Michael

  9. michael—We have low information voters and non-educated students. Michael, thanks for your efforts to educate your students. I faced the same problem when I was a teacher. The lack of basic education and skills that so many children and young adults have is astounding! The future of our country and western civilization will soon be in their hands. —Ed

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