old blackpowder guns

[Mortblanc]

Most of those Nepalese muskets were the East India Pattern, which was the same model that was used by the Mexicans at the Alamo and in the 1848 War. They were retained in service in remote areas until the late 1800s, even after the adoption of the SMLE, sometimes skipping the adoption of the cap-lock system and single shot cartridge guns altogether.

Most of the "Kits" they are speaking of are the metal remains taken off the decomposed stocks and sold with a 90% finished replacement stock made from Beech. The barrel, lock and hardware are mostly original.

One of the things the recent movies have gotten correct is the rate of fire for these muskets. A well trained and practiced trooper could get off 3-4 shots per minute using the paper cartridges.

The young man in the video is doing things the safe way. The original procedure was.

1. place the lock in half cock position
2. tear open the cartridge with the teeth
3. prime the pan and close the battery
4. pour the rest of the charge down the barrel
5.ram the ball on top of the powder

I have one musket with a drilled out flash hole modified so that the main powder charge will flow into the priming pan by gravity. That eliminates the priming step altogether, but it does create a weapon that shoots fire 6 feet to the right from the flash hole!

Most folks do not realize that our popular shotgun sizes are directly descended from the ML muskets of past eras.

Brown Bess was 10 gauge
Officer's Carbines, assorted light infantry muskets and Sea Service pistol were 12 gauge
French issue musket was 16 gauge
French militia musket was 20 gauge
British and U.S. cap-lock .577 musket was 28 gauge