you may find this interesting ! http://www.flintriflesmith.com/WritingandResearch/Published/priminghorns_mb.htm
Interesting article. I rarely use a priming horn simply because I usually forget it and 3fff seems to work just as well.
I carry around enough stuff when hunting with my flinter. I don't use a priming horn but I prime with 4F from a small brass cylinder with a dispensing tube. Just push it down on your pan and enough 4F comes out to prime the load. It hangs around my neck.
https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/73/1/FLASK-PP-3
I stopped using 4 f powder about 20 years ago ! saved me a lot of cash ! and I get to shoot more 1
I prefer 4F powder for prime and have a couple of "brass thingies" for it. But I also have a nicely crafted priming "horn" which is made from a small piece of deer bone and walnut. When I don't have any 4F (like currently) I use 3F. But I don't prime from the main horn, too messy. I'll carry a tiny container that works with the 3F for zero spilled waste.
I too have some of the bras things for priming. At one roundy I was told that pirming horns and spring loaded valves on horn were forbidden. The arris that was telling me all this that was standing there with powder running out of his powder horn. I reached down put his pin in place and reached down with my flint and steel ignited the power it ran down the full length of the firing line. t Then explained to him that is why I had the spring valves on my horns
Quote from: old salt on April 22, 2020, 09:36:49 PM
At one roundy I was told that pirming horns and spring loaded valves on horn were forbidden. The arris that was telling me all this that was standing there with powder running out of his powder horn. I reached down put his pin in place and reached down with my flint and steel ignited the power it ran down the full length of the firing line. t Then explained to him that is why I had the spring valves on my horns
Good for you! dntn
Quote from: old salt on April 22, 2020, 09:36:49 PM
I too have some of the bras things for priming. At one roundy I was told that pirming horns and spring loaded valves on horn were forbidden. The arris that was telling me all this that was standing there with powder running out of his powder horn. I reached down put his pin in place and reached down with my flint and steel ignited the power it ran down the full length of the firing line. t Then explained to him that is why I had the spring valves on my horns
those spring valves on powder horns date back to about 1600 , and were used through the revolution , the fur trade ,and the civil war, they are period correct ! so you should have been allowed to use it !
Quote from: beowulf on April 23, 2020, 12:56:58 AM
Quote from: old salt on April 22, 2020, 09:36:49 PM
I too have some of the bras things for priming. At one roundy I was told that pirming horns and spring loaded valves on horn were forbidden. The arris that was telling me all this that was standing there with powder running out of his powder horn. I reached down put his pin in place and reached down with my flint and steel ignited the power it ran down the full length of the firing line. t Then explained to him that is why I had the spring valves on my horns
those spring valves on powder horns date back to about 1600 , and were used through the revolution , the fur trade ,and the civil war, they are period correct ! so you should have been allowed to use it !
I'd like to have the documentation on that - I have a shoot I like to go to and that I need to educate these guy's ...
https://www.nps.gov/vafo/learn/historyculture/upload/PowderHorns-with-arrowhead.pdf
Quote from: beowulf on April 29, 2020, 10:14:17 PM
https://www.nps.gov/vafo/learn/historyculture/upload/PowderHorns-with-arrowhead.pdf
Thank you !
Interesting sight, good information on horns and they didn't show a date on the priming horns but did on the earlier powder containers.
Here is my primer, full of 4f. I've not been shooting flintlock long enough to say that one way or one powder works better or worse than another. I just dig the elk antler and all.
Nuther
reminds me of the elk antler flask I made a few years back !
Quote from: William on May 01, 2020, 04:17:26 AM
I just dig the elk antler and all.
Me too, but I think you will switch to something lighter and less bulky if you carry it a lot while hunting.
This very neat little primer was a gift from a member on another forum sent to me years ago. It only works with 4F, which is what I usually prefer.
(https://i.ibb.co/9pr5rmr/5ef46249-8073-452f-92b6-4aaa8c3949d2-zpsa430a117.jpg)
Filling those little guys can be a bithh, but drs offices have a whole rack of little funnels in their exam rooms..They misuse them and poke them in facial orifices with their little viewing light. Go figger.
I usually use the brass ones and 4f, but one day when I ran out a friend loaned me his which I found out had 2f in it. I used the 2f for prime by removing the head each time and dumping a little in the pan. I could have just primed from my flask of 3f, but on the odd chance of it catching a spark from somewhere I would rather have a 1/2 ounce go off instead of 1/2 pound.
I don't remember having any trouble getting the 2f to catch a spark.