Flintlock firearms
“No recruit is to be dismissed from the drill until he is so expert with his firelock, as to load and fire 15 times in 3 minutes and three quarters.”
From an old military paper of the American Colonies dated 1768. If we work out the math, we can get an idea of just how quickly a soldier was expected to be able to reload his musket. This rapid rate of fire is one shot every 15 seconds. To be fair, this was for drill work, and probably impossible to replicate on the battlefield, but still helps us reflect that in those days they depended far more on the heavy volume of fire rather than accuracy. Thus a battle charge involving one regiment of 500 men on each side would mean that the attacking force would have to suffer the effects of 1000 bullets in two volleys in the 20 or 25 seconds that it would take them to charge less than 100 yards. The second volley would be at a range of about 30 yards. It must be remembered that the training was for firing in volleys at a compact and solid mass of men, a perfect target for rapid musket fire. Speed was everything!
On the other hand, a soldier might find it advantageous to learn how to load his rifle more carefully for shooting game to augment his rations, in which case a reload could take as long as three minutes. The basic method of flintlock musket fire (with variations for combat conditions in parenthesis) is as follows:
1) Wipe the bore clean of oil by putting a small quantity of primer powder in the pan and firing without loading anything in the barrel (skip this step).
2) Carefully turn the powder horn several times end over end to evenly mix the blackpowder (simply uncap powder horn with teeth and splash some powder into the pan; yes, you’re right, if there are still some loose sparks in the barrel, the pan will now ignite in your face).
3) Place butt of musket on left foot and clean out barrel of possible sparks and fouling from previous shots by wiping the bore with a moist patch using the ramrod with a cleaning swab on the end (skip this step).
4) Place butt of musket on left foot and measure an exact quantity of blackpowder into measuring tin, recap powder horn, then pour powder down the barrel (pour an approximate amount of powder straight into barrel. Recap horn with your teeth).
5) Get a canvass patch and wipe it with a small amount of thick grease. Place musket ball in center and form a small sack shape (spit on a patch and wrap a ball with it).
6) Place patched ball in barrel so that ball is flush with barrel end and cut-off excess patch material with knife until patch is also flush with barrel end (skip this step).
7) Gently, with just two fingers and thumb, use the ramrod to slide the patched ball until it has reached the end of the barrel and is sitting against the blackpowder charge. NEVER pack the powder. (Ram the ball down the barrel)
8) Gently bring the musket to solar plexus level and pour a small amount of very fine grade (FFFFg) powder into the priming pan, then close the frizzen and then close the primer horn (skip this ‘cause you don’t bother with a separate priming horn and you already took care of the priming in step 2, providing you still have fingers and a face).
9) With musket pointed towards the target, pull the flintlock back to “full cock”, or two “clicks” (the same except that the musket is held close to the body and pointing straight up).
10) Raise the musket to shoulder level and fire when ready (when ordered to and not a second before).
The most dangerous part of the rapid fire drill shown in parenthesis is that it violates the cardinal rule of muzzleloading – load the barrel first, then the primer. But it does reduce the number of positions that the musket must be held, and therefore speeds up re-firing considerably.
Most armies finally eliminated the need for several containers and powder horns by making pre-loaded charges. At first linen and later paper cartridges containing one ball and one load of blackpowder, the cartridge itself serving as the wadding. For those soldiers, they had no need for the powder horn or pouches for the lead balls and wadding, but would need either cartridge boxes on the belt or the individual cartridges hung bandoleer style on a sash.
With pre-loaded cartridges, the steps are reduced considerably:
1) Place butt of musket on left foot, hold barrel with left hand and remove one paper cartridge with the right.
2) The paper cartridge has the ball on one end and the powder in the rest. The end with the powder is tied-off. Tear that end off with your teeth and pour the powder down the muzzle.
3) Since the ball is already half-wrapped in the paper, stick the whole thing in the barrel. Because of the excess paper, it will stick just inside the muzzle opening.
4) Remove the ramrod and use it to shove the ball all the way down the barrel.
5) Return the ramrod to its place underneath the barrel.
6) Raise the musket with the right hand and have the muzzle pointed towards the target, as you pull the striker (hammer) back to “half cock”, or one “click”, and flick open the frizzen (strike plate).
7) With the left hand, pull out the primer flask and pour a small amount into the priming pan, then snap the frizzen closed. (The primer flask is filled only with very fine gunpowder and has a simple spring release spout, allowing for one-handed use.)
10) Raise the musket to shoulder level (ready), pull the striker all the way back to full-cock as you bring the musket up to eye level (aim), and then squeeze the trigger (fire).
This brings back the couple of previously eliminated musket positions, but made for faster loading overall.
As you can imagine, combat conditions led to many accidental firings and misfirings, and sometimes outright explosions of the men’s powder horns or cartridges. With no time given to clean out the barrel between firings or even to allow the barrels to cool off, the muskets were close to ticking time bombs during a pitched battle. But generals usually assumed a 20% casualty rate on a victorious battle anyway, so they weren’t too concerned with a few “technical losses” along the way.
Realistically, a lieutenant would give the order to fire every 20 seconds, but a soldier could only expect to hit an individual target at distances of less than 80 yards. (That’s why, during the American Revolution, the early militia was told not to “fire until you see the whites of their eyes”. The farmer-soldiers of the first battles had their own hunting rifle-barreled muskets, so could only fire about once every one or two minutes. They had an advantage in accuracy and distance, but could not expect to effectively fire in volley, nor to reload quickly. Each shot had to count, and then they had to run like hell for a couple hundred yards until they could stop again to reload and shoot. They weren’t being crafty; they were making up for a lack of training and inappropriate weaponry.)
It would be most unlikely that a soldier would have his weapon loaded for an extended period of time when off of the battlefield, the exception being limited for the hour or two of guard duty. What with the powder becoming damp, the primer settling or seeping out, the ball dropping out of position, and the danger of unexpected fire, muskets and pistols were best left unloaded until the last possible moment.
As with any weapon, always assume that it is actually loaded at all times and never point it at or in the direction of a human or other animal. Never place your body or face over the barrel end of the musket and never place your finger inside the barrel, which not only is stupid but also deposits salts and oils, which will rust and foul the weapon.
If you must actually fire a weapon on stage, know that even without a bullet a blank charge is still a loaded gun. When the musket fires, a lot of force comes out of that barrel, enough to kill. Another danger point is the right side of the gun near the lock. The vent hole where the sparks travel from the priming pan to the barrel is also where some of the explosion is going to come out. Not nearly as much as from the muzzle of course, but you can get a very thin jet of superheated air from that little vent hole, so keep everyone at least eight feet away from the right side of the musket.
Always treat a misfire as a potential time bomb. If a failure to fire should occur, point the barrel to the sky and get it in the hands of the stage manager as soon as possible. Allow at least three minutes to pass before attempting to unload a misfired weapon, and do so keeping the muzzle from pointing at anything you want to keep, including your fingers.
Blackpowder should be introduced with extreme caution to a weapon that has been fired within the last three minutes. (The barrel could still be hot enough to cause an explosion if there are any loose sparks from the previous fire.) Never hold the ramrod with a firm grip while sliding the wad down over the blackpowder charge. If the blackpowder goes off, that ramrod is going to fire into the sky like a Trident missile, and it’s going to take the skin from your palm off with it, so hold the ramrod as loosely as you can with your thumb and two fingers. Always use protective eye covering when possible, and at the least, have the actors aim completely away from anyone or anything, and to close their eyes when pulling the trigger.
There are three ways of using blackpowder on-stage for flintlock firearms: pan-only, powder-and-wad, or flash cartridge.
Pan-Only – Often it is enough of an effect to simply put some powder in the pan and none in the barrel, and this is certainly the safest choice. The big drawback is that nothing comes out of the barrel and that the sound is more “poof” than “bang”.
Powder-and-Wad – always measure the powder before pouring it into the barrel(start with 1/2 tablespoon and increase until you get the effect you desire), and then “set” the charge by pushing a patch or wad with the ramrod all the way down to the end. If the wad is just a tad oversized, it will hold the powder in place. You’ll need enough powder to make a “crack” sound, but never a “boom” sound. The big drawback here is that the wad will either burn or fly or both, and it will certainly come out with a heck of a lot of force. Obviously a safety concern. Flash paper is best choice for the wad.
Flash Cartridge. – Using Zigzag (roll your own cigarette) paper, or better yet magician’s flash paper, fill with powder and seal it as if making a stubby little cigar. If packed sideways down the barrel, it will stay in place until you fire. You may need a drop of glue here and there to keep the cartridge closed, and you may need to pack more than one at a time on some of the larger rifles. Crack open the cartridge as you load to let some loose powder spill around the cartridge within the barrel. Magician’s flash paper is the better choice, for although it is more expensive and availability varies nationwide, it does burn completely as it leaves the barrel.
Go back to the percussion section for instruction on cleaning a muzzleloader, and for troubleshooting misfires. To those instructions we should add a couple of others that are specific to flintlocks. There is a considerable time lag between pulling the trigger, the pan flash occurring, and then the sparks actually igniting the main charge. Many times it can take a full five seconds, or it can be instantaneous, so be ready for anything. The frizzen (strike plate) must be kept oil free and the piece of flint in the hammer must be kept very sharp or you are not going to get any sparks. When you need to clean them, use isopropyl alcohol. And when you do get sparks and it ignites the powder in the pan, the “flash in the pan” can be unnerving to the shooter, for all he sees is a wall of flame erupting just inches in front of his face. I once saw an actor scream in terror and throw the musket out into the orchestra pit when he fired a flintlock for the first time.
By the way, the hammer on a flintlock is not really called a hammer. It is called a “cock”, because the shape and the movement is vaguely suggestive of a rooster pecking at something. That’s why we call it cocking a gun. The piece isn’t called a hammer until the invention of the percussion cap, at which point the hammer really does act like a hammer.