A lousy patent breech almost made me quit muzzleloading.
Parents not interested in those things, I set out at 18 years old to buy a Pedersoli Hatfield Flintlock Rifle. Even paid an additional 300 Marks for the maple stock for a total of 1000 Marks.
I got all the stuff, German Black Powder licence alloed to get black powder. .50 cal, .490 RB, some greased pre-cut patches etc.
German shooting house, 1 hour drive, 50m target area 24x24" fully enclosed, loaded it up with recommended load.
First shot fired, reload. Harder to load, prime the pan, flash in the pan. 10 more flashes in the pan. Left with loaded gun, pulled load at home. Very messy to clean.
Next weekend, same $#*&. Fired twice, then no more.
No other flintlock shooters. All other shooters said, flintlocks are unreliable and thats why they use percussion.
After this, the rifle was retired. Didn't want to make a complete idiot out of me each time.
Fast forward a few years. Been on bowhunting trip in the US and friend showed me how to shoot his percussion hawken.
I killed a few deer with the TC he gave me during regular gun season. Friend took me to one of his friends who is a National Champion Shooting flintlocks. He let me shoot his all afternoon. Not one misfire.
Result: Ordered custom rifle from a G.L. Jones, obviously a reputable builder. All internet dealings. Rifle took 2 years longer than I was told. Stupidity of paying in full at time of order. But, rifle went boom every time.
Took it back to Germany. Rifle went boom everytime.
Breath some smoke you percussion dudes.
Next time in the US, went hunting with rifle late November. Cold November. Missed deer I could have killed with my longbow. What the heck. I was very close to smack this rifle against a tree.
Back to the National Champion. He took rifle and bullseye everytime. Watched me shooting it and said. Length of pull too long, rifle moves while you reach front trigger when you have more clothes on than a T-Shirt. Ok, rifle did not get smashed against tree.
Went home with ToW German Jaeger kit, got me a plank in Germany and built a take down .62 cal Jaeger from scratch.
Went back hunting in the US, heart shot nice 8 point with it, off hand, cold November.
Fast forward, retiring from the Armed Forces left me a lor of time but limited funds. By then I knew more about the internals of guns than as a dumb 18 year old
Old Pedersoli Hatfield would be restocked and converted into a J. Beck Style rifle, stocked from the remains of the take down Jaeger Cherry plank. This included cutting the barrel off and installing a correct flint breech. When I cut this barrel off, the patent breech was not even a1/4 diameter and over an inch deep. No wonder this thing never fired well but the first time.
Since then, I am convinced, that percussion ignition was so successful because it improved the flintlocks ignition, but by converting to percussion, it kept the flint breech in most cases. That was making the guns very reliable and easy to maintain.
Even on Hawkens, the patent breeches create "snap a caps" during hunting. Experience shows, that if you store percussion rifles muzzle down, there are no issues with your first hunting shot. No oil will clogg the flash channel.