I had the great privilege of firing a gorgeous flintlock rifle yesterday. My friend was very patient in explaining everything as he loaded it and let me fire a blank round. He also lit some synthetic and 'real' black powder so I could appreciate the differences.
I wish I could go back to the books and add some fun details, but I have to keep moving forward or I'll make myself crazy.
The other nifty work of art I got to play with will go into the next trilogy that follows the Lord Jester's Legacy. I fired six rounds out of a revolver that used caps. Watching G. load it not only made me appreciate the potential difficulties of trying to load an archaic weapon quickly, but how dangerous it must have been for people working under duress.
The revolver, though a great advance (and several steps beyond) the flintlock I used, created a new danger for its user. While G. blew away as much excess powder as he could after sealing the chambers, he explained how, if some powder caught and ignited under a neighboring chamber, it would go off, bounce off part of the weapon and send the bullet at more or less 90 degrees (with great variety in that approximate angle) to the barrel. It could end up hitting the user depending on how they were situated when it went off, or someone beside them, or their horse ….
Both weapons had issues with not firing when asked. They weren't being rude or uncooperative, it's just that the mechanics of their workings were only exactly as reliable as, say, how often you get a spark when flint strikes steel. That doesn't happen every single time, as anyone who's lit a fire with flint and steel can attest to. Caps, also, don't seem to want to stay on nipples. I remembered reading somewhere how commanders didn't like to give caps to their soldiers because they'd just lose them. This made no sense to me until I used the revolver. Not only were they tiny and difficult to manipulate, once placed on the nipple they would fall off at the slightest excuse. So, basically, giving these things to troops did them no good because they would still be, for all practical purposes, unarmed, and unarmed at great expense for that matter.
I didn't have too much trouble with the caps coming off because I'm really cautious and move slowly when I have a firearm. I don't have enough practice to feel comfortable with them. Another person using the same firearm kept losing the caps because he shifted and firmed his grip in the process of adapting to the firearm before and after firing, and 'punched' because he'd trained to do so as part of his extensive marksmanship training. (I think that's what it's called.) So my slow, careful lifting, my reluctance to jostle the firearm, and my care in handling it before and after firing, though signs of a novice, helped me keep caps on nipples and powder in the pan on the flintlock.
Although I didn't smell the black powder right after firing the weapons, I got a taste of it when we walked downwind. So now I know that the scent doesn't scatter all around the weapon. There's no 'blowback' that puts the smoke in contact with the face, and it didn't curl around me and linger. The smoke from a single shot would either arrive or just blow away with the predominant movement of air.
Which, btw, black powder makes a lot of nifty white smoke that's a lot more sulfurous than the modern stuff. And it burns quick and bright and the flames go much higher and wider. Regular powder when burned smells pretty much like fireworks, and it's relatively (though not entirely) smokeless.
I have to say that between the two, I preferred the flintlock, and not just aesthetically. I could wrap my mind around it. I responded to it like it was a tool in the same way that swords feel natural and useful in my hand. The revolver was nice because I could see how full the chamber was and whether there were pits, etc. whereas on the flintlock rifle, anything could be going on in the barrel and I'd have no way of knowing it unless it could be revealed by probing with the ram rod. But despite this blindness, I appreciated its simple, exposed workings. It gave me the same pleasure to watch the flint strike the steel as I feel when I can observe the workings of a transparent watch.
I'm hoping to have similar fun with a cannon next month, and also I'll have a chance to fire live rounds with the flintlock and revolver. Thank you G. and A. for hosting me and putting up with my ridiculous questions.