One thing I learned after hunting with muzzleloaders in the Adirondack Mountains for going on 30 years now, if you come into deer camp or something for lunch or a mid-day break, don't stand your muzzleloader straight up. If the barrel was really cold and warms up, the condensation can run down on the powder charge just like it was rain and dampen the powder. I was reading a book recently on Robert Rogers and how during the French & Indian War would go out on raids & one of the artifacts they found in the ruins of old Fort Edward was the remnants of a cow's knee for someone's flintlock.
Hello from Pennsylvania love the late season flintlock hunt shoot competition all summer and fall hunt all winter we call them cow knees, love your video it's a challenge in nasty weather
If your keeping power out of your pan in wet weather stick a buck tell feather in your tuch hole and close the frizzin on ti the oil in the feather will help to keep water from keeping in to your power charge
Can you imagine the look on the faces of the sentries stationed at Ft. Ligonier as you came walking in with those camo padded insulated coveralls, boots with vibram soul boots, that style of hat and eye glasses? I have been shooting flintlocks since I was 16… that was 48 years ago now (you have me beat by a few years)… I build and hunt with all my leather works, clothing and as a gunsmith… I build my flintlocks also… all the while as I hunt back home in Wyoming… I wonder what it was really like. I have killed black bear, elk, deer and antelope with my flinters. You offer some really good tips… I do like to dab a little chapstick around the top edge of the pan before I lower the hammer (frizzen to those modern folks) over my priming charge. It really gives added protection to “keep your powder dry” in the pan. But only in the snow and rain. Running your flash hole pick through the vent hole before you prime the pan it really important so you clear the flash hole best you can… that helps with the hang fires cause by the “fuse” effect of stacked powder in the flash hole tunnel.. I know the old timers didn’t… but I also file the leading edge of my flints with a diamond file to help with that most important first spark. Great video sir.. I subscribed as I never saw your channel before. God bless
Tough weather conditions require a little preparation. In a cold rain or winter snow everything is more difficult in the outdoors as Mike Reed points out here. I don’t hunt with a flintlock rifle, but I can appreciate what he is preaching here because he is speaking from his own experiences. Mike certainly knows what he is talking about. As Uncle Sasquatch always says…. “Keep your powder dry.” Thanks! - Tennessee Smoky
@@Mik854 We got a couple of inches of snow with about an inch of ice on top of it. Temperature down to about 26 degrees tonight. That’s in the teens on the windchill chart. Everything will be frozen in on Tuesday. How about Bland, VA?
