Black Powder guns for "Black-Heads" or "Pin-Heads"?

GUNS .. The Past May Be The Future:

I ain't no expert - being very much a student of ballistics .. and it's interesting, that the older I get, the more I like old stuff.

The current inane punitive attacks on law-abiding gun owners are making it so difficult - expensive and "anti-social" to own & use 'modern' firearms - that any other legal option becomes very attractive.

Under NZ's much amended ARMS ACT 1983 certain original 'antique' firearms made before 1900 that generally cannot fire metallic cartridges (and other black powder miniature cannon etc.) are exempt from the legal requirements (and police regulations) of the Act. 

- Legal to possess as antiques but NZ police say that it is not legal to fire them unless registered ..

In recent years I became even more interested in shooting registered "Black Powder Firearms" as a slower cheaper and more absorbing form of HANDS-ON hobby interest.

Please do your own detailed research into the law - as it is written by lawyers to enable lawyers to make money - and for enforcers to be paid to make arrests ... but the answer shown linked here is pertinent ..

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.nz/f15/law-regarding-ownership-pinfire-pistols-70798/

"Modern" Six Shot Ruger Percussion REVOLVER:

Other Brands Are Available ..

The percussion system was invented in 1805 eventually displacing FLINTLOCKS - that were the main-game for personal arms for around THREE HUNDRED YEARS.

- Simply put, the PERCUSSION CAP contains a little explosive compound that when hit makes a FLASH that ignites the Black Powder propellant. If you just want to make as much noise as you can quickly - these are not for you - but if you relate to the finer things of life such as slow sex and Escoffier dining - together or seperately - you likely will enjoy the art of perfecting 'cap and ball' shooting.

Gathering together your well crafted firearm .. your choice of propellant, percussion caps, soft lead balls, lubricant grease, inert fillers, wads, patches, rammers, cap-dispensers, flasks or horns, powder measures, prickers, and swabs ... then LEARNING how to shoot them effectivly can be a character-forming pleasure that is wasted on the young and ignorant.  *BOOM*

'Stuff'' doesn't generally leap out of thin air as a perfect *NEW* wonderstick .. some joker has an idea then other thinkers improve on it stage by stage eh ..designs move forward & materials improve little by little tweak.

NOW .. there is a somewhat neglected and generally unknown upgrading of the Cap'n'Ball system called 'PINFIRE'  - where the percussion cap is inserted (sideways) into a metallic cartridge together with the powder and bullet as one self contained case that is fired by an integral brass FIRING PIN that is struck by the hammer where it projects at right-angles.

SYSTEM LEFAUCHEUX As Modified By HOULLIER of Paris:

Over a short number of years from 1835 (60 odd?) - this pinfire system became very popular in Europe with pinfire guns being made in many calibers from 2mm, 5mm, 7mm, 9mm, 12mm and even 15mm (.590 inch), - plus there were various bored shotguns using the pinfire system .. but eventually competition from both the 'Rimfire' and 'Center-Fire' cartridge systems came to dominate the self contained cartridge usage.

Indeed there were tens of thousands of military pinfire arms exported to America for both sides of the American Civil War where they were efficiently deployed - but it has not often been seen as profitable by U S writers and experts to show & tell of historic European guns to prospective consumers in U S home Trade magazines. - Who is familiar with the many large bore Webley Bull-Dog revolvers used in winning-the-west?

- Consider that within U S the Austrian GLOCK pistol is now called "AMERICAS' GUN".

Those middle years of the 1800s saw fantastic advances in technology .. and because nobody then seemed to like anybody else - the machinery for killing each other and all animals, birds & whales really grew it's market appeal.

Now Extinct American PASSENGER PIGEON

One Shooter Could "Bag" 5,000 a day:

Bison Skull Mountain .. They were ground-up for fertilizer:

I recently saw a cartoon suggesting that instead of looking at intelligence in animals ... we should look at stupidity in humans.

I was once showing a damascus barrelled antique percussion pistol with drop-down triggers to some target pistol shooters - when one commented "That's RUBBISH - it hasn't even got a trigger".

Marty K.