Muzzleloading

Information

	Muzzleloading - the basics by Chuck Dixon
	Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Black Powder (and more!)
	Gauge (balls per lb.) to Caliber (measurement in inches) Conversion Chart
	Swiss Black Powder loading data

	Longarm Types - musket, trade gun, fowler, Schimmel, etc.
	The Schools of Pennsylvania Longrifles - Northampton/Lehigh, Berks, Bucks, Lebanon, etc.
	Ron Gabel's Antique Guns & Firearms - an expert!

	Muzzleloading Shotguns - loading and shooting the front-loading scattergun
	Shotgun Dimensions - gauge to caliber
	Shot Size & Weight Chart
	Dram to Grain Conversion Chart - and equivalent volumes of shot

Links

	How Flintlock Guns Work
	Beginners Guide to Flintlock Shooting
	Tuning the Flintlock
	The Flintlock and the Percussion Lock
	Beginning Muzzleloading - The Basics - from Maine Hunting Today
	On Cap Poppers and Flintskinners
	Bob's Black Powder Notebook - nice website with good technical info and personal "musings" of a man who loves to "trek" & hunt with a flintlock in colonial garb.
	Pattagaussett Muzzleloaders - black powder experiments including a good round ball ballistics calculator
	Muzzleloader Magazine's Hints & Tips page - "Gather 'round the Stove" - lots of good do-it-yourself projects
	Lots More Blackpowder Links from Muzzleloader Magazine
	National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association - the NMLRA
	Muzzleloading Forum - I joined this forum in Dec. '04 - another great way to learn - some of my favorite discussion boards are: Flintlock, Smoothbore, Traditional Muzzleloader Hunting, Historically Correct Clothing & Equipment, and Historical Trekking.
	For everything else "period correct", our "18th Century" page

Purveyors

	Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop - in Kempton, PA
	Swiss Black Powder - cleanest & hottest burning
	GOEX Powder Company - American black powder
	Donelson Custom Muzzleloaders - gunmaker
	Eric Kettenburg, Gunsmith - gunmaker
	Early Rustic Arms - Larry Williams, gunmaker

Jacob Dickert, Early Lancaster (c. 1770) Rifle, built by R. Thomas Caster

.50 caliber, 42" swamped octagonal Getz barrel, Chambers Early Germanic lock, curly maple stock, brass furniture

Club Butt (Massachusetts, c. 1720) Fowler built by L. E. Williams

.75 caliber (12 gauge); 48" smoothbore round barrel, jug-choked "full"; Rifle Shoppe #554 doglock; walnut stock; plain brass thimbles, primitive sheet brass nailed-on butt plate, hand forged iron trigger guard.

New England (Connecticut Valley, c. 1770) Fowler built by L. E. Williams

.62 caliber (20 gauge); 46" smoothbore, octagonal to round barrel; L&R Queen Anne lock; plain maple stock; brass furniture, early butt plate with inletted finial, icanthus type trigger guard. Taken from an original pattern made by Joseph Chapin near Windsor Connecticut, (#115.MM in George Neuman's "Battle Weapons of the American Revolution"). The sharply curved stock (of French influence) achieves an extremely delicate and graceful profile and shoulders and balances surprisingly well.

Early French Infantry Musket (1728, St. Etienne) built by Ed Woodland

.69 caliber (15 gauge), 46 3/4" smoothbore, walnut stock, iron furniture

Accoutrements

(Left to right: hunting bag & horn for rifle; bag contents; hunting bag & horn for smoothbore; bag contents; short starters - .62 & .50 cal.; powder measures - 65 gr. antler tip, 70 gr. antler base, 80 gr. antler tip, 100 gr. turkey wing bone - shot pouches - hunting bag & horn for 20 ga. smoothbore - bag contents - hunting bag & horn for rifle - hunting bag & horn for 11 ga. smoothbore)

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