Misfire Rate

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Based on your first-hand experience shooting black powder muskets:

1. What is the typical misfire rate of percussion cap small arms?

2. What is the typical misfire rate of flintlock small arms?

 

[Lampasas Bill]

I reenacted regularly for more than ten years and never had a percussion cap misfire. Never used flintlocks.

 

[captaindrew]

I can only comment from experience on percussion. You really shouldn't have misfires if you're using quality powder and caps and your weapon is well maintained. There are variables though that can cause misfires. A dirty gun is the most common culprit. If you don't clean your gun properly after every use you're going to have problems. Moisture or excessive oil in the barrel can cause misfires. If you heavily oiled your gun and stored it away for a while it's a good idea to run a few patches through it before use. Powder and caps are not created equal. There's what they call reenactor grade powder, a lot of guys use it because it's cheap, but it's junk. I swear it's the leftovers they sweep off the floor after they've packaged the good stuff. If you use good quality 3F or 2F powder you shouldn't have a problem. Some brands of caps are better than others. I see alot of guys having trouble with CCI caps. Schuetzen aren't bad. The old RWS caps are the best if you can find them, aren't made anymore but keep hearing rumors they're coming back but haven't seen any in a few years. I hoarded them when they started getting scarce, lucky I did. Different weapons can perform differently as well. I use a P53 primarily while doing Confederate and it never misfires. I use a M61 primarily when doing Federal, with it's 90 degree bolster if it's been fired a bunch that bolster gets really dirty and will misfire occasionally. It's important you take the clean out screw and clean the bolster thoroughly every use or you'll have misfire problems. So there's not an exact answer to your question. It should be 0 but do to variables involved it does happen, to some people more than others.

 

[Dan Kohli]

Most of musket misfires I had were fixed by clearing vent blockages or cleaning the breach area of the barrel.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I've never had a misfire while firing either percussion or flintlock weapons live. Blanks are a different story. I think the most common cause of reenacting misfires is too light a powder charge. Not enough powder makes it's way to the breech and you don't get good ignition. After around 20 blank rounds in a row, either of my muskets will start to act up and misfire. This is just due to fouling. With the percussion lock, you need to keep the nipple clear. With the flintlock, there are a lot more things that can go wrong. Powder fouling on the face of the flint and frizzen (the steel thing that sticks up and the flint strikes to cause sparks). Worn face on the flint. Sometimes a flint will last for a hundred ignitions; other times it will shatter on the first one. Unpredictably. So you knock a new edge on the flint with the back of your gun tool, wiggle it around a little or pop a new one in entirely. (I keep a new flint in my cartridge box as a spare.) The frizzen might be worn and the face needs to be "hardened," that is heated to change the molecular structure of the face of the frizzen. You can't do this on the fly. You can have a blacksmith do it, or do it yourself but you need a fire and time. So you can really see what an improvement the percussion lock is over the flintlock. Oh, flintlocks don't like rain either, but the percussion will still fire. Then there's the issue of a weak or cracked mainspring. The hammer will still fly forward, but without enough force to strike the cap or cause sparks. You can't fix that in the field either; you need a new mainspring. Some of these parts issues, like mainsprings and frizzens are worse with reproductions arms than with originals because the steel is not the same quality
So, being wildly unsystematic and highly anecdotal, I would say that maybe a misfire rate of 1 in 20-30 shots might be ballpark.

 

[PrivateBrooke]

Other than cheap caps or powder, I've only had issues towards the end of a couple of really heavy fight due to fouling. Except one time I let my captain cleaned my gun after borrowing it and used too much oil so it took a few caps to get the first shot off.

 

[Mississippian1861]

I have a early 2000's Armisport M1861 that I have always had issues with misfires. Even when being perfectly clean and with good caps and powder. I have heard that the there was a manufacturing defect in the bolster in that era that causes it.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I have a early 2000's Armisport M1861 that I have always had issues with misfires. Even when being perfectly clean and with good caps and powder. I have heard that the there was a manufacturing defect in the bolster in that era that causes it.

Did you drill out the nipple? I had to do that with mine. I used to have a Navy Arms 63 that would fire on 35 grains of powder! My 1861 prefers around 70.

 

[RedRover]

Based on your first-hand experience shooting black powder muskets:

1. What is the typical misfire rate of percussion cap small arms?

If it is clean they work fine. After a certain number of shots, the fouling in the barrel renders loading difficult. The US issued a Williams patent cleaner bullet in the package of ten cartridges, designed to blast fouling out of the bore when fired, and relieve that issue. Every package of ten cartridges also included 12 percussion caps to make up for dropped caps or misfires.

live-firing a reproduction Enfield rifle-musket, with modern .58 minie type balls (very closely fitting in the .58 bore of the replica) on one occasion in the late 1990s, I found ramming became difficult after about 20 rounds. No problem with ignition.

2. What is the typical misfire rate of flintlock small arms?

When clean, and the flint fitted correctly, they work fine. A well knapped gun flint was generally good for about 50 shots, if well and securely fitted in the jaws of the hammer. One flint to 20 cartridges was apparently the common issue.

Firing a replica Charleville musket, I've found that maybe 25 shots with a perfectly tuned up and clean musket can be achieved (the US cartridge boxes for flintlocks generally had provision for 26 rounds in the wooden case, with a reserve below in the tin.

Things start to go wrong fast. The ball was sub-calibered (.64 inch for the .69 inch bore) so loading despite the fouling in the bore was not a big problem. But the fouling can jam the vent hole at the breech, and at least with replicas and modern powder, in some conditions the cake of fouling on the underside of the flint or frizzen can flake off onto the powder in the pan, causing misfire if not wiped off between shots (R.S. Dorsey claims in his gun tools books, that modern powder fouling is distinctly different in a manner than mid-1800s, so maybe that was not as bad back then). The flint can break or loosen in the jaws or fall out, etc.

Friends who shoot original flintlock muskets have demonstrated they are less liable to misfire than the replicas for reasons beyond the point of this thread.

The British in 1834 estimated perhaps all told an average of one misfire in 6.5 shots for a flintlock, and one in 165 shots for percussion from their experiments:

 

[7thWisconsin]

After 3 rounds, my flintlock .45 rifle starts to become hard to load. You can actually feel the powder fouling giving way under the patched ball as you push it down the barrel. I wouldn't say it "slides down the barrel." Of course a musket firing an undersized ball will fire a lot longer. Just to introduce another variable, our flints are not as reliable as the historic English and French flints, There are still flints around that were knapped to fight Napoleon. They're prized for reliability.

 

[RedRover]

After 3 rounds, my flintlock .45 rifle starts to become hard to load. You can actually feel the powder fouling giving way under the patched ball as you push it down the barrel. I wouldn't say it "slides down the barrel." Of course a musket firing an undersized ball will fire a lot longer. Just to introduce another variable, our flints are not as reliable as the historic English and French flints, There are still flints around that were knapped to fight Napoleon. They're prized for reliability.

Indeed. From some reading of period sporting, rifles were supposed to wipe their bore between shots if possible.

That's even with the finer "rifle" grade of powder, which apparently gave less fouling than musket powder. For military purposes, the Duane's handbook of 1812 suggests wiping the bore at least every 8-10 shots...

The US rifle-musket in .58 caliber loads with a minie type ball of .577 diameter.

The excessive windage of the common old smoothbore musket certainly reduced the problem of charging and ramming despite fouling in the bore, but in the firelock setup, the keeping of the vent clear, the flint in good order, etc. apparently took up the lions' share of the time between shots. In percussion they certainly were improved, but then in a skirmish against rifle-musket armed opponents, the lack of accuracy at range might be a problem.