Besides climbing mountains here’s another feat you should attempt while you’re out in the wilderness: loading a muzzle-loading rifle on the run, like your other frontiersman idol Lewis Wetzel.

Now if Lewis Wetzel did this with a common smoothbore musket, this was something that was well within the capability of the average man who was willing to practice diligently at it. General “Mad Anthony” Wayne likewise drilled his soldiers in reloading their muskets at a run. This put them in good stead at the battle of Fallen Timbers (1794). Especially since they used paper cartridges with premeasured powder charges and multiple projectile “buck and ball” loads (one large musket ball of .69 caliber combined with 4-6 smaller .30 to .33 caliber buckshot pellets). The musket charge did not have to fit the non-rifled barrel precisely, so it took less force to shove it down the barrel with the ram rod. The buck and ball rounds gave Wayne’s troops increased hit probability against the Shawnee warriors fighting in the rough terrain at Fallen Timbers.

Here is what it takes to load and fire a smooth-bore flintlock musket:

(Brown Bess Musket drill)

On the other hand if Wetzel performed this loading on the run with a Pennsylvania / Kentucky long rifle, then it was an incredible feat of arms! The long rifle’s patched ball had to fit the barrel very tightly in order to ensure the rifling would impart the necessary spin to the ball to make it hit what it was aimed at with predictable reliability. Lewis Wetzel would have had to have had tremendous strength in his hands, arms, chest and back to accomplish this at a dead run.

Here is a video demonstration illustrating the difficulty involved in properly loading the long rifle.

(Pennsylvania Long Rifle Loading Firing).

Much the same procedure was employed to load and fire the larger caliber and more powerful Hawken plains rifles that Jeremiah Johnson used. Although by Johnson’s time percussion cap lock rifles were used in preference to flintlocks. Fitting the percussion cap on the nipple of the cap lock was more of a fiddly task and thus a little slower under stress than priming the pan on a flintlock would be. Nevertheless percussion cap ignition is much more reliable and weather resistant. You didn’t have to worry about rain soaking the powder in the pan and causing a misfire as you did with a flintlock.

(The Rifled Musket and Percussion Lock)

(The Pedersoli Traditional Hawken rifle test)

There is a third possibility. Wetzel might have used a sub-caliber ball that fit the bore of his long rifle loosely like a musket ball for those times he needed to load on the run. This would have enabled him to load his long rifle as smoothly and quickly as you saw the soldier load the Brown Bess in the first demonstration video. This technique was used by the Royal Green Jackets with their Baker Rifles during the Napoleonic Wars (See the “Sharpe’s Rifles” TV series, 1993-97, starring Sean Bean). For sniping and skirmishing the riflemen of the Green Jackets would use a tight-fighting, groove diameter, ball for optimum accuracy at long range, while for volley firing in formation they would employ a smaller more loosely fitting ball that could be loaded with the ease of a musket ball.

Perhaps Ishmael or Shayne know someone willing to lend you a traditionally styled muzzle-loading long gun so you can try it out for yourself. Or maybe you want to acquire your own. You ARE allowed to own a muzzle loader even in the People’s Republic of Maryland.

We look forward to hearing of your exploits James.

FYI: A good source of historically accurate reproduction flintlock muskets and smoothbore flintlock pistols.

“As with all our other flintlock black powder muzzleloaders, the vent is not drilled so we can ship easily to your door throughout North America and to Europe and the UK. Aside from that they are exactly like the originals.”

Because the vent hole in the pan is not drilled out the firearm is essentially non-operational and therefore can be mailed right to your door, even in Maryland. To make the firearm operational you have merely to drill out the vent hole. You can do it yourself or take it to a gunsmith. U.S. Federal law allows muzzle loaders to be ordered through the mail. Most states have no restrictions on this either. However, some states like New Jersey and Maryland prohibit this. Military Heritage, a Canadian firm, gets around such legal restrictions by shipping out their guns in a non-op condition. Nevertheless, they sell well made authentic looking stuff. Very reasonably priced too.

This company also takes great care to ensure the frizzens are properly hardened. This is important if you want to be able to fire the gun, since if the frizzens are not properly hardened they will not create sparks reliably when struck with the flint and you will have more misfires.

-Jeremy