In March 1830 Ramsey Crooks wrote to J.J. Henry that "...Percussion Locks will not do at all for the Rifles, and I beg you will be most particular in selecting the Flint Locks required, price being a secondary consideration."
John Bidwell wrote one of the leaders of an 1841 immigrant party to Cal. wrote, "my gun was an old flint-lock rifle, but a good one. Old hunters told me to have nothing to do with cap or percussion locks, that they were not reliable..."
These two from "Firearms of the American West 1803-1865". Which also contains passages stating that the shot in the east converted to percussion rapidily circa 1830 and the eastern hunters went over to percussion rifles as well. But this was the east which was not remote in the same way that "Cross Creeks of the Yellowstone" was in 1830 or even 1840.
I have examined an 1840 dated Connestoga Rifle Works rifle that was obviously a trade item for the west, 54 cal, cheap lock, sloppily stocked for the time, never fired that we could tell. Probably "NOS" item.
The shotgun in England was taken by storm as the wing shooters, for obvious reasons, converted to percussion, but the rifle hung on as flintlock for awhile according to N. George.
I have read that its thought, by some, that Melchior Fordney never made a percussion gun. I find it a stretch myself, but I lack the knowledge to pontificate either way.
I shoot flint almost exclusively. In the matches I shoot I have far fewer ignition problems that some percussion shooters do. Nor do I spend a lot of time fussing with the vent or frizzen and pan.
Yesterday I was shooting my swivel breech and let the pan and frizzen get caked enough to let the priming run out of the pan if the if the pan was not kept up and level. But some spit on a patch fixed this. It was also a pain to load and prime with the wind velocity. But the percussion would have been no easier to load.
This rifle and my heavy rifle are so reliable that I never think about it much. In a long string of shots. 10-15 I may get a misfire if a piece of fouling blocks the vent or if the flint wears out. But this can be eliminated by loading procedures and looking at the flint. I never have misfires with a clean gun. Its been over 25 years since I have had one I can recall.
A good percussion gun is very reliable. But they still need a cover in wet weather.
I have had a percussion rifle that had ignition cycles that were hardly better than a flintlock, pop-bang every shot. Not typical but it did do this due to a poorly designed breech.
If a person had a good flintlock that was sure fire and his partner upgraded to percussion and it gave him fits would this guy be anxious to "up grade" as well? Especially if headed for the Upper Missouri?
In FAW cited above you will find people who wrote bitterly of their misfiring flintlock. But then I have to wonder at the quality of the lock (America was flooded with very cheap locks from Birmingham in both technologies) and its state of repair. And the shooters ability to know how to keep a flintlock shooting.
There was far more to the flintlocks long survival in the west than people resisting change. A good flintlock gives up very little to a percussion rifle and we need to remember that the American version of the percussion gun typically was not on a par with the English guns of 1830-1835. But many Americans were too cheap to pay for a high quality patent breech percussion gun. This cheapness carries over to today as well in many components we buy.
Either Dillon or Cline speak of finding an old timer in the early 20th c. and buying from him a flintlock rifle that he was still using as a hunting arm. This speaks volumes that almost 100 years after the percussion system was common in the east a few people were still using the flintlock. It may not have even been by choice. But the flintlock was still on the job.
Dan
