bajabuc

Chert is american for flint…there's not one lick of difference in the geology.  All sorts of rock works.  Pretty much if it makes a  concoidial fracture, it'll spark.  Agate makes a different fracture…straighter and without the bulbous struck end but it sparks good.  Don't know if you've been to the shoots south of Murfreesboro, but the boulders in his front yard have chert nodules.

One of the miracles of the world was a frizzen soled with a highly radioactive bit of metal from a scrapped reactor.  A fellow  bucksnorter had one on his .69.  Reached down and picked up a reasonably flat rock outta the streambed and stuck it in the cock…racked her back and produced a shower of sparks like you wouldn't believe.  He was holding the rifle like he was shooting at a target.  Sparks were snapping and bouncing ON THE GROUND!!  I want me one of those.

You got it…no matter how you  crank it…a small flint will move back…get one big enough to stay put.  Have I mentioned I hate Auto Correct?  Got a chipping hammer?  I found a nifty little brass one in my bag…I wonder how long it's been in there.   As for my highly modified CVA Mountain Rifle…a made in USA by the way…I finally got my lock in place.  It was a percussion…now it's a flinter…well…it will be if I ever find the barrel

^ this…been there, done that.  Worse is having the cleaning jag either unscrew from the rod…disaster is when the cleaning jag and the rod end pull of the cleaning rod…been there…done that.  Waited until the patch dried…since I couldn't get it out…and pulled the nipple.  Stuffed a little…too much…powder behind the cleaning jag renippled and recapped.  I never did find it again.

 Click…click….the cock.  (the deer is running at the first click)  Click (double set trigger...the deer picks up speed) Snap…spark…foof….(Large smoke cloud…the deer is booking!!)  Boom! (really big smoke cloud)  "Did I hit it?"  "Dunno…can't see.")   Or:   Click…click….the cock.  (the deer is running at the first click)  Click (double set trigger...the deer picks up speed) Snap…spark…foof…."umm…powder patch ball?"

If you're going the long lonesome road of building you own…I have a Doc Hataway lock

Sporterized.  must be you're going to shoot it for sport.  What kind of sport?  Target?  Hunt?  Hunting…close is pretty good.  Target…I'd use a different gun.

And totally off the wall…I been sick.

The reason there were so many European surplus guns is because War was the sport of Kings.  European countries went to war at the drop of a hat.  Weapons HAD to be stockpiled because no ruler wants an armed peasantry. Declare war on your neighbor...arm the farmers and city hoodlums and have at it.  when it's over collect the guns and get them ready for the next time.  America didn't work like that.  For the first hundred and fifty years we were hard to get at.  Our people were armed and very good at unconventional warfare.  And we were protecting us...not some petty tyrant.

The british hated the french because they used dismantling shot...Chains in canvas.  bar shot...things that took out the rigging and sails.  "It's not the gentlemanly thing to do."  We came along in 1812 and used the same devices.  One in particular...an iron ring with nine foot chains attached to the ring and packed in a canvas sack.  when fired the sack shredded and the chains became an 18 foot circle of death.

put all that at sea...make it any time from 1805 to 1815...the shooting is at point blank..."Board 'em boys."   Board em?   is there a ship in all that smoke?

When I lived in Wyoming,  the Sheridan blackpowder club hosted a regional shoot...Sorta like Friendship but smaller...one of the cannon shoot contestants showed up with a 120 mm rifled cannon mounted on a ship carriage.  The barrel was from a sawed off piece of a main battle tank barrel.  The barrel was about five feet long... shooting cast lead rounds that had the rifling cast with the round.  He shot one round...hit the target bullseye and packed up.  Nobody else even came close.  He spent the summer going to shoots...winning the prize and leaving.  Usually, the cannon shoot prize was 500 dollars and 25 pounds of powder.   The association outlawed rifled bores. 

check out E bay for cheap sailboats.  most...but not all have lead keels  There was one on recently that had 1800 pounds of lead and sold...the whole boat...for under five hundred dollars.

dropped a primer in shag carpet...and forgot about it.  Kirby vacuums make great grenades.  After that I made sure I had no little drips and drabs left over.  I imagine I had spilled a little powder to make the Kirby blow out the side like that.

Rocky Top in Seymour has two unopened crates....and one opened one.