@@horuswarmastuer9099 It could make a good video. Some areas had several types of 'flints' available and at the markets there were sometimes different grades of 'flints' available too. There's a special technique to knapping gun-flints versus making other stone tools and that too varies some based on the type of material used. And there's the re-edging of gun-flints in the field. Whole books have been written on the subject so I'm sure a good video could be made- especially with Townsends doing it!
You have to take good care of the steel frizzen. If the surface texture is not right or grease gets on the frizzen, the steel may not shed any sparks when the flint strikes it. A lot of underlying factors behind getting a flintlock to dependably fire. There's a reason Reverend Forsyth decided to dissolve mercury in nital and then smack it with a hammer in order to fill his game bag.
Not to nerd out but if you don't know where "clapped" came from, clap means to bring together, like clapping your hands, so you'd clap irons (handcuffs) onto someone's wrists.
The going rule that I learned in blacksmithing is to always assume that every piece of metal in the shop is hot regardless of weather it is glowing or not...🧐
@@KairuHakubi Lead water famously tastes sweet, and, also, drove the Romans utterly mad. It's a labrador though, so I'm not sure there's going to ever be an observable difference.
If your hand is just wet enough you can quickly dip it in molten lead... the Liedenfrost Effect creates a curtain of steam which prevents the lead from directly touching your skin and acts as an insulator. The lead has to be quite hot: too cool and the steam won't form and you'll get burned.
Theoretically that wouldn't matter if you are properly heating everything. But definitely requires more care than is necessary, just dont do it on a rainy day
Between this and the Little House books, I now 100% have false memories of sitting by the fire trying not to touch the shiny hot bullets as Pa gets ready for hunting
One thing that should be mentioned here for safety reasons. Now that the little pot and ladle have been used to process lead, they should never be used for food again. A lot of people have used cast iron pots and such in the past for melting lead at home. That is why you should be leery buying used cast iron cookware at flea markets and yard sales. If you do buy such an item, you should test it for lead before use.
@@MatthewHilbertsBaritone You won't get all of the lead out of cast iron. The lead will seep into the actual pores of the metal. Cast iron is not hard and dense like steel it is soft and porous.
One of my ancestors worked in casting tower for lead shot, if I understand correctly they would pour molten lead down the inside of the hollow tower, and it would hit mesh causing the lead to scatter into fat raindrops (perfect musketball size) which fell into water and cooled. Mass production!
What you're referring to is a "shot tower". They were used to produce lead shot, not balls. Important distinction, as shot would never go in a musket, but instead a shotgun or blunderbuss (you need as close to exact sizing as possible in a musket/rifle for them to be accurate or not explode!) .
@Cody Parin They are no longer required to feed yourself or your family was all I was saying as far as firearms still having a purpose of course they do, but I still harvest deer, squirrel, raccoon, coyote, rabbit, turkey, pheasant, quail, duck, and several other species of tasty critters with a wide variety of firearms but I don't have to hunt I could be like 90% of Americans and buy everything my family eats from Costco Sam's Club, or Whole Foods but I don't trust store bought meat stuffed with more pharmaceuticals than a cancer patient, you know it's a shame that people can't read a comment without taking words and phrases out of context and getting butt hurt, this country will survive I just question whether the constitution will or if Americans will read it one day and become offended by it too.
Not bad shooting. Flintlocks are kinda tricky to shoot because of the long lock time between when you pull the trigger and the bullet actually leaves the barrel. You have to keep really still a lot longer than with a modern rifle.
Trick is not to overload the pan. If priming powder gets into the vent hole, it acts as a fuse and adds milliseconds to the lock time. What you want is hot gases flashing through the vent for quick ignition, not a column of burning powder.
Also, civilian firearms were still largely custom made items. There was little, to no uniformity in caliber. Most weapons came with a bullet mold that made shot of the correct size for the bore of the weapon.
Me two!!!. I am starting to wander about how much of the inaccuratcy of muskets was down to the casting of the balls not fitting the barrel vs lack of rifling?
@@Kb-cz9ch Both, by the 1800s standardisation had reduced the chance of balls being the wrong size, if they were professionally made for a standard issue musket, but any home made ammunition is going to be dodgy unless you've got plently of experience making it. That being said even with decent ammunition without rifling the ball spins uncontrollably so hitting anything beyond a certain distance is mostly luck
@@Kb-cz9ch If we go back far enough, we find the early guns shot stones, not cast balls, and there were people whose job was making those 'gun stones'. Getting the patching right is as important as the casting in rifles, less so in muskets, but it all matters to some degree. In the Townsends time period, military muskets using 'generic' properly sized balls patched properly could be counted on to hit a small dinner-plate at 40 yards with a semi-skilled soldier shooting it. These weren't made to what we think of as tight tolerances; it was considered more important that the largest ball would always fit the smallest fouled bore; patching solved the looser fit. Better training and more practice added maybe 10 more yards. The best of everything and you'd hit that plate most of the time at 60 yards. With the best of everything, a good musket could be quite accurate at 40 yards, nearly as good as the earlier rifles, but the lack of rifling caused accuracy to drop off exponentially as the range increased. Muskets made for public sales all came with their own fitted bullet molds, so these were more accurate but not greatly so. The early rifles added about 50% more range, which was significant but countered by their slow loading due to a tight fit needed for the balls, and their need to be cleaned every 4-5 shots. That's why militaries were slow to adopt rifles and battles were fought at closer ranges. By the early to mid 19th century manufacturing tolerances had improved but that didn't add any range as far as musket accuracy goes- the limit of accurate range even today with super-precise manufacturing is similar because the lack of rifling sets that limit more than anything else.
@@Kb-cz9ch another factor of the accuracy of muskets was military training at the time. It was believed that recoil would cause your shot to hit higher than you aimed so most nations trained their soldiers to aim slightly lower than they meant to hit. Many of these soldiers would then maintain the habit after their service and civilians would copy the soldiers making the rifles of the day seem even more inaccurate than they already were. Today we know that recoil doesn't begin until after the bullet has left the barrel which makes it a non-issue.
7:38 Another safety consideration is to make sure the scrap lead you return to the pot is dry. Some makers will drop lead out of the mold into buckets of water to harden the lead with its sudden cooling effect. Just make sure there is no water in the lead bits going back in because the resulting steam will scatter molten lead everywhere.
Air will actually do the same thing. I once saw a foundry worker dump metal into a pot from a forklift, and the expanding air bubbles turned it into a volcano of white-hot molten steel. They had a rule that you weren't supposed to do that once the pot was half-full, so that's why.
One of the first lessons I got in foundry work was "Check your casting sand for cat poop." Molten metal hitting wet droppings would be a bad way to die.
I figure one workaround is to put the lead scrap in the ladle, then set the ladle on top the molten lead for a while. The scrap, though still solid, will heat up to the point where any moisture will evaporate away. Then you tilt the ladle to drop the scrap lead into the pot.
The Townsends and the Amish will teach the few people who live outside the mega cities how to survive in the wilds, while those in the cities live in their pods, eat the bugs, and don’t own a thing. Most freethinkers will be shot of course.
Shooting a black powder gun is really weird when you are used to shoot modern ones. There is a big delay between pulling the trigger and the shot going off. 9:54 You can see how the guys flinch before the shot even goes off. No critique. Presumably it would look the same if I were shooting. It's just funny. 😄
That delay feels like a full minute even though its just a fraction of a second. Its extremely off-putting and really tests your aiming and trigger discipline
This is called lock time, and even a 19th Century percussion muzzleloader will feel like it's hangfiring to a modern day shooter with experience in cartridge ammunition.
Looking closer at that shot, I can understand the flinch given that we have a left-handed shooter using a right-handed longarm with the lock flashing in front of the face!
In the 1600s the matchlock muskets and arquebuses were more because the delay depended on how hard or fast you pulled the trigger Because the mechanism was more simple than a flintlock There were snapchances and snaplocks and miquelets and doglocks but those mechanisms were more expensive and just as complicated as a Wheellock
Watching this reminds me of the scenes from the film The Patriot where Mel Gibson's character "Benjamin Martin" would make musket balls from his son's metal toy soldiers. Benjamin Martin: *"Aim Small, Miss Small"*
@@AnatharFrost013 well they're one of those iconic scene(s) from the movie. After I finished watching this video I had to look up some of the scenes from the movie.
"Hi guys, thanks for tuning in on another video on ForgottenWeapons. I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at Jas. Townsend & Son taking a look at early american musket and it's ball mould..."
The musket balls would be dug out of the game animal, possibly re-used as is, but certainly re-melted and re-cast. Those balls shot into that target would also be dug out and re melted. Thanks for the video. Jon
Most muzzleloading rifles use a patched round ball, in which the patch engages the rifling and the ball simply floats along on it. Lead free pewter is not an acceptable substitute for lead for two reasons: As you noted, it's a harder metal, and round balls made from it will ricochet a great deal more, making it less safe, and it is lighter, which will mess up the ballistics and you will be less accurate. That said, NEVER, EVER attempt to use this lead-free pewter as a lead substitute for the later revolvers, rifles that use minie style balls, or the type of bullets that engrave rifling at loading without patches. They won't work and you will in all likelihood get them jammed in the gun or increase pressures to unacceptable levels, or both. It's not going to work, and could be unsafe. Just use real lead, cast in a well ventilated area, wear proper protective gear, and you'll be fine.
I think he should have just discussed ventilation and general fume safety rather than even recommend pewter. You can do some pretty seemingly dangerous stuff with just a gentle breeze outdoors. Indoors is another story, but in this situation you are really in no danger
They weren't recommending using pewter to make the balls, but letting people know it would be non-toxic for melting and molding in general. It's good you've all let people know it makes bad bullets, though. Thanks!
The Jaeger,Kentucky, the Drilling rifles and double rifles built and used in Americas set the starting point for the Art of The Rifle as we know and appreciate/ cherish the poems in wood and steel today. Then the Hawken offered the good chance of being successfull in the field and survive. Also the expression" buck'n ball" is from that time, and the marksmen,scouts and Snipers, Tim Murphy one of the very early good ones. But in the mix a little Italian air rifle named Girandoni also have a huge part of the history.
@My Dixie Wrecked yes, I want one! The .45cal is basically a .45acp. seen some pretty nice ones made by Sam Yang, look like an over-under shotgun with the pressure cylinder under the barrel. Though I have read that the .45cal PCP air rifles are kinda the wrong ones to get. Not as much speed as the 9mm/.357cal so they're not as flat shooting, and not as heavy a bullet as the .50cal.
@My Dixie Wrecked the Girandoni was roundball so it was about 9mm bullet weight (call it 145gr) and 750fps. It worked. What made the "windbusche" so feared militarily was the total lack of powder smoke. Jaegers could hide and fire most of their magazine without being spotted, whereas a man with a flintlock would reveal his position with the first shot.
@My Dixie Wrecked I will probably get a 9mm and a 4500psi air tank, then make friends with the firefighters to get it filled. I figure a couple pans of lasagna would probably cover it! 😆
It is important to remember that when you're out hunting trees that you don't exceed your bag limit. Also if you're going to hunt trees make sure you use every part of the trees and waste none of it, thereby honoring the tree you shot.
I’ve cast plenty for my .50 Hawkins reproduction. I was taught to add a bit of beeswax to the molten lead to help remove impurities. Nice to see the rare left handed flintlock but surprised the ball wasn’t seated with a patch. That has to effect accuracy.
Townsends: You need serious safety equipment Yellow Lab: Hm this water smells sweet, time to drink. Does this explain why yellow labs are so lovably dumb?
I’ve been watching this channel almost three years, and I’m convinced these videos are put out not only to educate people on our past, but also to prepare us for our not so distant future ;)
As a long time BP shooter, including Flintlock Longrifle, I'm not surprised you had some issues IF you were loading the way you showed. There was no patch to seal the gas behind the ball, which is an essential for shooting a rifled gun, which it obviously was. The patch also imparts the spin to the ball, which it will not do if not patched. I also saw a Bess in there, and just hitting the wood piece with a Bess and a naked ball would be good, especially with these compromised bullets from that style of mold. If you want to do shooting stuff, you need to get with the guys from the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association. NMLRA is the group to talk to, really, for anything Black Powder shooting related.
Was one of the rifles they were shooting made for left handers? It looked to me like the lock was on the opposite side on one of the rifles. If so, and if it's a period piece, I would think it would be an extremely rare example!
You don't see it much anymore, one of the first things they outlawed at the Geneva and Hague conventions. Not because it was bad ammo, but because wasting nutmeg that way was a heinous war crime.
As a colonial relic hunter through metal detecting, these balls, both fired and dropped, wind up under our coils. Most impressive is the 3/4" balls that were fired from the British Land Pattern Muskets (Brown Bess). Over an ounce of lead. And we even find balls cast from pewter occasionally.
Will you be doing a video on making the black powder? From sourcing the ingredients to grinding and packaging, a gun is useless without both the powder and projectile.
Pewter is WAY to hard for a rifled bore. Lead does not hurt you unless you ingest it. 650 or even 750 is not enough to vaporize it .. dont eat it, don't sand it and wash your hands .... "absorption" is massively overblown. Been casting for 30 years..and due to my job working around soldering I have had blood tests and lead levels are NOT elevated. Personal hygiene and common sense.
its amazing how much you flinch during the trigger pull. Really shows how much people at the time would have had to practice before being even remotely handy with a rifle.
Kinda hard not to flinch when the pan is igniting right in front of your eyes. Notice that we had left-handed shooters with right-handed rifles and vice versa.
I live near Ft. Roberdeau in central Pennsylvania which was built to protect the lead mines used for bullets in Washington's army. There was also a saltpeter mine not far to the south that was used for gunpowder.
No lead vapors unless one gets the lead over 1200 degrees...pretty impossible with a wood fire. I've cast thousands of pounds of lead (mostly indoors) and my blood lead levels are lower than the average city-dweller's.
@@sandrabhicks Please go back and read my comment: I have had my blood lead checked multiple times over the years, and folks who live in big cities and have nothing to do with firearms or bullets have higher levels than I do. I have cast bullets commercially and for personal use since 1996. I DO bet my health on it. Lead that gets in the body during casting is via ingestion, which is why I do not have food or drink anywhere near my bench, and I scrub thoroughly with a soap specifically designed to remove heavy metals from skin after every casting session. A little research will show you that "lead fumes" are a myth in the context of casting bullets.
I absolutely love flintlock rifles or any kind of flintlock action firearm for that matter. There is just something so cool about pulling the trigger 'click' then that small delay that's the powder catching 'boom'
So would the silver from a wedding silverware set work? I have about 50+ assorted pieces that would make great shot I think! So much so I’m already done melting the forks and working on the knives! Please reply soon my wife gets home in an hour.
I think silver melts at 1200 degrees, over twice as hot as lead. Definitely don't use a modern aluminum mold before casting your werewolf-hunting rounds.
The nitrate should be more than the charcoal. Nitrate is the oxidizer, charcoal is the fuel, so you want to make it burn 'lean'-- if we are to borrow an automotive term on the reaction.
Was hoping you'd mention another way of manufacturing bullets: shot towers! Literally dropping molten lead into cold water from up high in a tower, something that was commonplace up until modern times and now seems almost comical.
Thank you! This was a great video to help us understand bullet making from the early pioneers. We've been studying "Little House in the Big Woods" and Pa makes bullets. Now, we understand the process!
Also makes sense how natives were able to adopt firearm technology relatively quickly but not necessarily gunpowder production. Lower temperatures needed to melt lead around the fire!
Much of what we did in our halcyon days was fraught with dangers, yet few came to serious harm from it; those who did suffer were simply seen as stupid or careless, and deserving of their fate. Compare to today where everyone expects someone else to do their thinking. I'd gladly go back to those times if I could take our advances in the medical field back with me- how about you?
@@P_RO_ We saw certain sorts of developmental disabilities plummet when we started getting rid of lead in paint and gasoline just for starters. Treating things that are demonstrable toxic public health hazards as the dangers they are instead of blaming the victim in order to maximize profits and deny responsibility is a good thing.
@@toddellner5283 The main advancement in reduction of lead in human bodies was going to unleaded car fuels. There was never any large lead intake or hazard from paint save for children allowed to chew on it- they are quite susceptible to the effects of lead at tender ages. Some hazards are avoidable and easily handled well by the individual (like paint or lead casting), while others do need to be addressed on a wide-scale basis at corporate or higher levels (like gasoline). Many things are hazardous in life; there are as as many today as ever, only in different forms such as food additives, the chemicals fed to meats raised for marketing, and toxic or otherwise dangerous plastics which weren't around in the older times. Nothing but medicine is better, only different.
@@brustdiesel Yeah, but nobody wants to do the thing with the ostrich feathers, waffle iron, trapeze, and girl with certain anatomical peculiarities. Not even if I leave out the trained walrus and liver-scented lubricant.
I wonder how poisonous the lead actually would be for a one time casting? I was under the impression it's really only an issue when it comes to long term exposure.
I have my great-grandfather's cast iron ball mold. It's about the size of your smaller tong-style mold there, and from the mid-1800s. This is so neat to see! Thank you.
Been molding lead balls since the 70s. Love the left hand flintlock. Maybe do another video on how a musket was loaded with a paper cartrige as opposed to patch and ball for a rifle?
I'd love to see these guys do more firearm videos. Sadly they tend to get demonitized by UA-cam because "muh ebil g*n content" even if everything in the video is historical and educational.
There's no problem with it. If there was any smothering embers in the barrel it would have ignited the powder before he even touched the ramrod. The cock would either be half cocked or down, not full cocked.
also, a gun is useless without the flint. hope you do a thing about how flintlock users used local flint.
great mention but not a full enough topic for its own bideo.mezhink
@@horuswarmastuer9099 It could make a good video. Some areas had several types of 'flints' available and at the markets there were sometimes different grades of 'flints' available too. There's a special technique to knapping gun-flints versus making other stone tools and that too varies some based on the type of material used. And there's the re-edging of gun-flints in the field. Whole books have been written on the subject so I'm sure a good video could be made- especially with Townsends doing it!
Flint knapping
the american flints were very good. the briitish army often commented on their quality.
You have to take good care of the steel frizzen. If the surface texture is not right or grease gets on the frizzen, the steel may not shed any sparks when the flint strikes it.
A lot of underlying factors behind getting a flintlock to dependably fire. There's a reason Reverend Forsyth decided to dissolve mercury in nital and then smack it with a hammer in order to fill his game bag.
As Darkwing Duck says, “let’s get dangerous!”
Hi dad
Oh hey, I just watched your Semlor video
HI
Hey bro
@@Jin-gu8sz they have done a crossover at the nutmeg tavern.
"Stay strapped or get clapped."
- George Washington, probably
George Washington DEFINITELY
Not to nerd out but if you don't know where "clapped" came from, clap means to bring together, like clapping your hands, so you'd clap irons (handcuffs) onto someone's wrists.
James Madison
Source...
2nd amendment
I have a shirt that says that.
@@SealegsSam I’ve seen those shirts online. I need one!
The going rule that I learned in blacksmithing is to always assume that every piece of metal in the shop is hot regardless of weather it is glowing or not...🧐
Made that mistake one time back in the 70's during a blacksmithing course. It's amazing how long it took between the hand and brain to register :-O
Learned that working in a couple foundries, too.
If you drop a piece, let it drop.
Similar to electrical work, always assume that every wire is live
"today we are going to be doing something dangerous"
Me- You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention
I’m mostly here for John giving a safety warning, and Doggo just shoving it’s delightful bonce in the nearest bucket for a good old sniff!
everyone watching is like 'boy i sure hope that isn't a big ol' tub of beef-flavored lead'
@@KairuHakubi Lead water famously tastes sweet, and, also, drove the Romans utterly mad.
It's a labrador though, so I'm not sure there's going to ever be an observable difference.
@@treennumbers the Rome lead thing is a myth
I thought that also about the water but I think that's a quenching bucket for the forge.
@@jaji8549 *Dog runs off with roughly bone-shaped crescent wrench you just forged*
First it was a crossover with Kent Rawlins, next it will be Ian from forgotten weapons
It's Ian's opportunity to showcase French weapons that didn't live up to the "never fired and only dropped once," trope.
Britishmuzzleloaders or capandball would be a far better fit. Those channels have better quality content/people as well.
A match made in heaven
Mark from anvil would be a better choice, considering hes an actual gunsmith. He did a video rebuilding an entire flintlock striker assembly.
Came here to say this!
Also still casting my vote for a Binging With Babish crossover too.
I can't wait for the day Townsends mold and cast their own Liberty bell with a nutmeg on it. 🔔🌰
Water in molten lead instantly flashes to steam causing a steam explosion which will spray molten lead. That's why you don't cast when it's rainy.
If your hand is just wet enough you can quickly dip it in molten lead... the Liedenfrost Effect creates a curtain of steam which prevents the lead from directly touching your skin and acts as an insulator. The lead has to be quite hot: too cool and the steam won't form and you'll get burned.
Theoretically that wouldn't matter if you are properly heating everything. But definitely requires more care than is necessary, just dont do it on a rainy day
The damp or too much humidity cools of your molds and ruins your castings
Sweat drops aswell!
When are you going to do a muzzleloader series brother?
Between this and the Little House books, I now 100% have false memories of sitting by the fire trying not to touch the shiny hot bullets as Pa gets ready for hunting
One of my favorite memories!
Awww cute
I was JUST thinking of that scene, and how Pa carefully saves the lead shavings to melt for his next batch of bullets.
I was thinking the same thing!
One thing that should be mentioned here for safety reasons. Now that the little pot and ladle have been used to process lead, they should never be used for food again. A lot of people have used cast iron pots and such in the past for melting lead at home. That is why you should be leery buying used cast iron cookware at flea markets and yard sales. If you do buy such an item, you should test it for lead before use.
Very smart! Never thought about the flea market consideration.
Or clean and re-season.
@@MatthewHilbertsBaritone You won't get all of the lead out of cast iron. The lead will seep into the actual pores of the metal. Cast iron is not hard and dense like steel it is soft and porous.
Thank you I’ll pass this information along
@@michaelfinnegan4301 "Bah I'll scrub it with a brillo."
“Over 600 degrees Fahrenheit”
Soooo a couple hundred degrees cooler than McDonald’s coffee?
One of my ancestors worked in casting tower for lead shot, if I understand correctly they would pour molten lead down the inside of the hollow tower, and it would hit mesh causing the lead to scatter into fat raindrops (perfect musketball size) which fell into water and cooled. Mass production!
What you're referring to is a "shot tower". They were used to produce lead shot, not balls. Important distinction, as shot would never go in a musket, but instead a shotgun or blunderbuss (you need as close to exact sizing as possible in a musket/rifle for them to be accurate or not explode!) .
@@McMollet thanks for the clarification!
Still how shotgun shot is manufactured to this day
The Baltimore Shot Tower
Ah yes, Lobsterback killing rounds
Just remember Mel Gibson's words, " aim small, Miss small. "
Coats ain't red enough fellows!
@@WALTERBROADDUS Regardless of historical accuracy/inaccuracy, a fantastic movie!
I knew you had to be a firearms enthusiast, you can't live that old lifestyle without firearms they were a necessity in 18th century America.
@Cody Parin They are no longer required to feed yourself or your family was all I was saying as far as firearms still having a purpose of course they do, but I still harvest deer, squirrel, raccoon, coyote, rabbit, turkey, pheasant, quail, duck, and several other species of tasty critters with a wide variety of firearms but I don't have to hunt I could be like 90% of Americans and buy everything my family eats from Costco Sam's Club, or Whole Foods but I don't trust store bought meat stuffed with more pharmaceuticals than a cancer patient, you know it's a shame that people can't read a comment without taking words and phrases out of context and getting butt hurt, this country will survive I just question whether the constitution will or if Americans will read it one day and become offended by it too.
@Cody Parin Won't let them? What if they don't want to carry a gun?
Not bad shooting. Flintlocks are kinda tricky to shoot because of the long lock time between when you pull the trigger and the bullet actually leaves the barrel. You have to keep really still a lot longer than with a modern rifle.
ha, just like old cameras.
Poking the touch hole through with a needle or toothpick helps speed up lock time I find.
Trick is not to overload the pan. If priming powder gets into the vent hole, it acts as a fuse and adds milliseconds to the lock time. What you want is hot gases flashing through the vent for quick ignition, not a column of burning powder.
Smoking the mold with candle soot makes for easier releases. I always thought the flintlock was backwards. Ready! Fire! Aim!
The only issue I’ve had with the lead sticking to the mold was because of excess lead on the outside holding it shut like a clamp
Ready! Fire! Aim!
Recently got in to flintlocks...and you said it buddy! Between the lock time and the loss of sight picture it's been a trip.
That's how the Brits did it...the Colonials realized that rifling, sniping, and silk patching, made for much more accuracy
Ready! Fire! *Pray* !
Apron gloves and eyes are an absolute must when casting. As someone who has had a few molten lead accidents I can't stress care and PPE enough
Ear protection when testing the bullets would be good too.
Also, civilian firearms were still largely custom made items. There was little, to no uniformity in caliber. Most weapons came with a bullet mold that made shot of the correct size for the bore of the weapon.
Put a pea size piece of bees wax in your melting pot it fluxes the lead and makes skimming the slag off easier.
Thats what i use for fluxing my lead alloy. A good 15 bhn for 9mm and magnum pistol rounds powder coated for me.50/50 lino and pure lead
Yep
I wanna know who it was that actually hit the card, that was impressive at that distance...
Me two!!!. I am starting to wander about how much of the inaccuratcy of muskets was down to the casting of the balls not fitting the barrel vs lack of rifling?
@@Kb-cz9ch Both, by the 1800s standardisation had reduced the chance of balls being the wrong size, if they were professionally made for a standard issue musket, but any home made ammunition is going to be dodgy unless you've got plently of experience making it. That being said even with decent ammunition without rifling the ball spins uncontrollably so hitting anything beyond a certain distance is mostly luck
@@TheHacknor thanks.
@@Kb-cz9ch If we go back far enough, we find the early guns shot stones, not cast balls, and there were people whose job was making those 'gun stones'. Getting the patching right is as important as the casting in rifles, less so in muskets, but it all matters to some degree.
In the Townsends time period, military muskets using 'generic' properly sized balls patched properly could be counted on to hit a small dinner-plate at 40 yards with a semi-skilled soldier shooting it. These weren't made to what we think of as tight tolerances; it was considered more important that the largest ball would always fit the smallest fouled bore; patching solved the looser fit. Better training and more practice added maybe 10 more yards. The best of everything and you'd hit that plate most of the time at 60 yards. With the best of everything, a good musket could be quite accurate at 40 yards, nearly as good as the earlier rifles, but the lack of rifling caused accuracy to drop off exponentially as the range increased. Muskets made for public sales all came with their own fitted bullet molds, so these were more accurate but not greatly so. The early rifles added about 50% more range, which was significant but countered by their slow loading due to a tight fit needed for the balls, and their need to be cleaned every 4-5 shots. That's why militaries were slow to adopt rifles and battles were fought at closer ranges.
By the early to mid 19th century manufacturing tolerances had improved but that didn't add any range as far as musket accuracy goes- the limit of accurate range even today with super-precise manufacturing is similar because the lack of rifling sets that limit more than anything else.
@@Kb-cz9ch another factor of the accuracy of muskets was military training at the time. It was believed that recoil would cause your shot to hit higher than you aimed so most nations trained their soldiers to aim slightly lower than they meant to hit. Many of these soldiers would then maintain the habit after their service and civilians would copy the soldiers making the rifles of the day seem even more inaccurate than they already were. Today we know that recoil doesn't begin until after the bullet has left the barrel which makes it a non-issue.
7:38 Another safety consideration is to make sure the scrap lead you return to the pot is dry. Some makers will drop lead out of the mold into buckets of water to harden the lead with its sudden cooling effect. Just make sure there is no water in the lead bits going back in because the resulting steam will scatter molten lead everywhere.
Air will actually do the same thing. I once saw a foundry worker dump metal into a pot from a forklift, and the expanding air bubbles turned it into a volcano of white-hot molten steel. They had a rule that you weren't supposed to do that once the pot was half-full, so that's why.
One of the first lessons I got in foundry work was "Check your casting sand for cat poop." Molten metal hitting wet droppings would be a bad way to die.
Like water and hot oil, only much much worse
I figure one workaround is to put the lead scrap in the ladle, then set the ladle on top the molten lead for a while. The scrap, though still solid, will heat up to the point where any moisture will evaporate away. Then you tilt the ladle to drop the scrap lead into the pot.
Been there done that lol ! OUCH !!!
I have a feeling these guys will be just fine in the coming dark winter.
Would love to meet them and gain some first-hand 18th c experience.
I thought that was already over. I wrote a song about it and everything :>/
The Townsends and the Amish will teach the few people who live outside the mega cities how to survive in the wilds, while those in the cities live in their pods, eat the bugs, and don’t own a thing. Most freethinkers will be shot of course.
I was literally talking about casting musket balls with my brother about an hour ago, this video couldn't have been uploaded at a better time.
Unless you need a historical set up, get a bottom pour lead melter. Well worth the extra money. Happy casting
synchronicity
I am loving all of the new content.
Hi Babe!
The content is indeed marvellous good sir.
Shooting a black powder gun is really weird when you are used to shoot modern ones.
There is a big delay between pulling the trigger and the shot going off.
9:54
You can see how the guys flinch before the shot even goes off.
No critique. Presumably it would look the same if I were shooting. It's just funny. 😄
That delay feels like a full minute even though its just a fraction of a second. Its extremely off-putting and really tests your aiming and trigger discipline
This is called lock time, and even a 19th Century percussion muzzleloader will feel like it's hangfiring to a modern day shooter with experience in cartridge ammunition.
And a matchlock is worse than a flintlock.
Looking closer at that shot, I can understand the flinch given that we have a left-handed shooter using a right-handed longarm with the lock flashing in front of the face!
In the 1600s the matchlock muskets and arquebuses were more because the delay depended on how hard or fast you pulled the trigger
Because the mechanism was more simple than a flintlock
There were snapchances and snaplocks and miquelets and doglocks but those mechanisms were more expensive and just as complicated as a Wheellock
Lovely that you’ve branched out to other things historical. Came for the nutmeg and definitely sticking around for everything else, Mr Townsends! 💪🏽👍🏽
They always have, check out all the great old shows.
Watching this reminds me of the scenes from the film The Patriot where Mel Gibson's character "Benjamin Martin" would make musket balls from his son's metal toy soldiers.
Benjamin Martin: *"Aim Small, Miss Small"*
thought of this same scene in the movie
@@AnatharFrost013 well they're one of those iconic scene(s) from the movie.
After I finished watching this video I had to look up some of the scenes from the movie.
A colonial metal mining and refining video would be amazing.
It's an essential part of history people rarely think about let alone appreciate
This video was right on target.
The casting was spot-on.
I love learning about historical weapons and ammunition
not much historical at the moment lol because re loaders use this same technique all the time
Interesting
Living history too?
Likewise. It’s interesting how much survives into the modern day too.
Forgotten Weapons is like this guy, for just that
I desperately want an authentic flintlock. And maybe a kit to try building my own.
Hang on, you’re not Ian McCollum...
"Hi guys, thanks for tuning in on another video on ForgottenWeapons. I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at Jas. Townsend & Son taking a look at early american musket and it's ball mould..."
The musket balls would be dug out of the game animal, possibly re-used as is, but certainly re-melted and re-cast. Those balls shot into that target would also be dug out and re melted. Thanks for the video. Jon
When you already don't have enough, you learn to waste nothing because you might die if you do.
Funfact: frontier lead bars was also known as pigs
The tool for cutting a mold is called a "cherry".
Any open poured ingot of metal fresh from smelting still is called a pig
@@scrubsrc4084 Hence "pig iron" ingots
Wouldn't recommend pewter as the alloy is too hard (especially for rifles). For muzzleloaders you generally want pure lead
I can see something being too hard with a rifle in terms of not engaging the rifling and whatnot, but what's the issue if it's a smoothbore musket?
Most muzzleloading rifles use a patched round ball, in which the patch engages the rifling and the ball simply floats along on it. Lead free pewter is not an acceptable substitute for lead for two reasons: As you noted, it's a harder metal, and round balls made from it will ricochet a great deal more, making it less safe, and it is lighter, which will mess up the ballistics and you will be less accurate. That said, NEVER, EVER attempt to use this lead-free pewter as a lead substitute for the later revolvers, rifles that use minie style balls, or the type of bullets that engrave rifling at loading without patches. They won't work and you will in all likelihood get them jammed in the gun or increase pressures to unacceptable levels, or both. It's not going to work, and could be unsafe. Just use real lead, cast in a well ventilated area, wear proper protective gear, and you'll be fine.
I think he should have just discussed ventilation and general fume safety rather than even recommend pewter. You can do some pretty seemingly dangerous stuff with just a gentle breeze outdoors. Indoors is another story, but in this situation you are really in no danger
They weren't recommending using pewter to make the balls, but letting people know it would be non-toxic for melting and molding in general. It's good you've all let people know it makes bad bullets, though. Thanks!
@@cammobunker
The only thing I'd add is wash your hand well after handling lead.
You need Hickok45 - he’d be hitting those cards dead center every time
The Jaeger,Kentucky, the Drilling rifles and double rifles built and used in Americas set the starting point for the Art of The Rifle as we know and appreciate/ cherish the poems in wood and steel today.
Then the Hawken offered the good chance of being successfull in the field and survive.
Also the expression" buck'n ball" is from that time, and the marksmen,scouts and Snipers, Tim Murphy one of the very early good ones.
But in the mix a little Italian air rifle named Girandoni also have a huge part of the history.
@My Dixie Wrecked yes among other user including the Austrians in the 18th century
@My Dixie Wrecked the Girandoni? .45 cal roundball.
@My Dixie Wrecked yes, I want one! The .45cal is basically a .45acp. seen some pretty nice ones made by Sam Yang, look like an over-under shotgun with the pressure cylinder under the barrel.
Though I have read that the .45cal PCP air rifles are kinda the wrong ones to get. Not as much speed as the 9mm/.357cal so they're not as flat shooting, and not as heavy a bullet as the .50cal.
@My Dixie Wrecked the Girandoni was roundball so it was about 9mm bullet weight (call it 145gr) and 750fps. It worked.
What made the "windbusche" so feared militarily was the total lack of powder smoke. Jaegers could hide and fire most of their magazine without being spotted, whereas a man with a flintlock would reveal his position with the first shot.
@My Dixie Wrecked I will probably get a 9mm and a 4500psi air tank, then make friends with the firefighters to get it filled. I figure a couple pans of lasagna would probably cover it! 😆
My favorite history Channel and my favorite hobby. Couldn't click fast enough.
It is important to remember that when you're out hunting trees that you don't exceed your bag limit. Also if you're going to hunt trees make sure you use every part of the trees and waste none of it, thereby honoring the tree you shot.
God bless you and this comment
Exactly...the circle of life...lol
I’ve cast plenty for my .50 Hawkins reproduction. I was taught to add a bit of beeswax to the molten lead to help remove impurities.
Nice to see the rare left handed flintlock but surprised the ball wasn’t seated with a patch. That has to effect accuracy.
Townsends: You need serious safety equipment
Yellow Lab: Hm this water smells sweet, time to drink.
Does this explain why yellow labs are so lovably dumb?
Most likely it's the quenching bucket for any of the iron working.
Just remember, " aim small, Miss small." -Mel Gibson in The Patriot. 😏
I’ve been watching this channel almost three years, and I’m convinced these videos are put out not only to educate people on our past, but also to prepare us for our not so distant future ;)
Casting spritzer rounds sounds neat
No idea if it'd be practical, but sounds neat on the face of it
Spitzer*
As a long time BP shooter, including Flintlock Longrifle, I'm not surprised you had some issues IF you were loading the way you showed. There was no patch to seal the gas behind the ball, which is an essential for shooting a rifled gun, which it obviously was. The patch also imparts the spin to the ball, which it will not do if not patched. I also saw a Bess in there, and just hitting the wood piece with a Bess and a naked ball would be good, especially with these compromised bullets from that style of mold. If you want to do shooting stuff, you need to get with the guys from the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association. NMLRA is the group to talk to, really, for anything Black Powder shooting related.
Was one of the rifles they were shooting made for left handers? It looked to me like the lock was on the opposite side on one of the rifles. If so, and if it's a period piece, I would think it would be an extremely rare example!
What a Coincidence, today in KY a customer gave me a cast .58 miniball as a tip, he’s a civil war re-enactor ha.
John, That is first time I have seen a left-handed flintlock.
Hi from Syracuse NY thank you brother for sharing this adventure with me
Was the ammunition nutmeg that could be fired in slingshots?
You don't see it much anymore, one of the first things they outlawed at the Geneva and Hague conventions. Not because it was bad ammo, but because wasting nutmeg that way was a heinous war crime.
@@Raskolnikov70 lol that's brilliant, nutmeg is indeed so precious🧐
lol
@@Raskolnikov70 it's actually not fully outlawed, it can still used but only by well-seasoned riflemen!
I found brass musket balls on my property in Gold Country Ca. Along with lead balls.
"A gun is useless without the gunpowder and the lead ball."
Bayonet: Am I a joke to you?
*Happy gas mask noises*
You could use it as a club, too...
Butt stroke says what???
Ah yes, I remember the last time I bayonet charged a deer. 😁
@@brianreddeman951 I think I have!!!
Just after the shot, walked up blade in hand to drain em'.
1:11 John: a gun is useless without gun powder and....
Me (a firearms enthusiast) but has been bingewatching Townsend: and nutmeg
Don't forget to add Nutmeg to the gunpowder... and mix some into the lead as well... Makes for a more powerful and accurate shot.
As a colonial relic hunter through metal detecting, these balls, both fired and dropped, wind up under our coils. Most impressive is the 3/4" balls that were fired from the British Land Pattern Muskets (Brown Bess). Over an ounce of lead. And we even find balls cast from pewter occasionally.
Will you be doing a video on making the black powder? From sourcing the ingredients to grinding and packaging, a gun is useless without both the powder and projectile.
Pewter is WAY to hard for a rifled bore. Lead does not hurt you unless you ingest it. 650 or even 750 is not enough to vaporize it .. dont eat it, don't sand it and wash your hands .... "absorption" is massively overblown. Been casting for 30 years..and due to my job working around soldering I have had blood tests and lead levels are NOT elevated. Personal hygiene and common sense.
Oh, I used to carve soapstone molds. They’ll handle silver, and works find detail very easily.
How you got this past the UA-cam censors I have no idea!
I know it's not period authentic but some hearing protection probably wouldn't hurt
Exactly. I've spent a lot of time firing muzzel loaders over the years and ear protection is a must.
its amazing how much you flinch during the trigger pull. Really shows how much people at the time would have had to practice before being even remotely handy with a rifle.
Kinda hard not to flinch when the pan is igniting right in front of your eyes. Notice that we had left-handed shooters with right-handed rifles and vice versa.
Really appreciate how you presented this. I'm a 2A nut. This was great.
I live near Ft. Roberdeau in central Pennsylvania which was built to protect the lead mines used for bullets in Washington's army. There was also a saltpeter mine not far to the south that was used for gunpowder.
Good day Mr.Townsend
Oh, this is perfect. My son had 'Colonial Day' at school, and he played the part of a gunsmith.
Safety dog does a water check
I like the lefty musket. Did they really make muskets like that in the 18th Century?
You should teach Natalie and Tara to shoot muskets.
... I'm so glad cartridges were invented 😁
Be careful not to breathe the fumes from that lead ☠
And be sure to do this outside!
No lead vapors unless one gets the lead over 1200 degrees...pretty impossible with a wood fire. I've cast thousands of pounds of lead (mostly indoors) and my blood lead levels are lower than the average city-dweller's.
@@noahmercy-mann4323 are you willing to bet your health on it ? I'm not
@@sandrabhicks Please go back and read my comment: I have had my blood lead checked multiple times over the years, and folks who live in big cities and have nothing to do with firearms or bullets have higher levels than I do. I have cast bullets commercially and for personal use since 1996. I DO bet my health on it. Lead that gets in the body during casting is via ingestion, which is why I do not have food or drink anywhere near my bench, and I scrub thoroughly with a soap specifically designed to remove heavy metals from skin after every casting session. A little research will show you that "lead fumes" are a myth in the context of casting bullets.
I absolutely love flintlock rifles or any kind of flintlock action firearm for that matter. There is just something so cool about pulling the trigger 'click' then that small delay that's the powder catching 'boom'
So would the silver from a wedding silverware set work? I have about 50+ assorted pieces that would make great shot I think! So much so I’m already done melting the forks and working on the knives!
Please reply soon my wife gets home in an hour.
I think silver melts at 1200 degrees, over twice as hot as lead. Definitely don't use a modern aluminum mold before casting your werewolf-hunting rounds.
3 parts charcoal, 2 parts sodium nitrate, 1 part sulpher = equals boom
The nitrate should be more than the charcoal. Nitrate is the oxidizer, charcoal is the fuel, so you want to make it burn 'lean'-- if we are to borrow an automotive term on the reaction.
Potassium nitrate or Salt peter ,not sodium nitrate.
75% salt peter
15% charcoal
10% sulfur = Boom
@@johnsegertsons2143 Boom! It will still make BOOM! I've made it and it will make a boom! Granted it will make a smelly still stinking.
@@DoctorRobertNeville good for you! Want a prize or something ?
You still didn't make Black powder
Was hoping you'd mention another way of manufacturing bullets: shot towers! Literally dropping molten lead into cold water from up high in a tower, something that was commonplace up until modern times and now seems almost comical.
That's more for commercial manufacturing.
Great video, thank you so much!
Turtorial of making the mold please
A gun with no ammo is an expensive club.
I'm starting to cast my own lead bullets for my 1860 Army percussion. Ammo, including black powder ammo, is getting very expensive and scarce.
Ventilation. You need ventilation melting lead.
Are you all lefties or was the footage flipped?
Thank you! This was a great video to help us understand bullet making from the early pioneers. We've been studying "Little House in the Big Woods" and Pa makes bullets. Now, we understand the process!
Also makes sense how natives were able to adopt firearm technology relatively quickly but not necessarily gunpowder production. Lower temperatures needed to melt lead around the fire!
This is one of the very very few times I envy the US. The chance to use historic arms...
Can't wait for more cabin videos
I love the variety on this channel, theres so much to discover and so much to learn. Thank you for sharing 👍
Is it just me that wants to drink the molten lead?
I remember making lead soldiers as a kid. In retrospect, preteens melting and casting lead on the kitchen table was horrifying
Much of what we did in our halcyon days was fraught with dangers, yet few came to serious harm from it; those who did suffer were simply seen as stupid or careless, and deserving of their fate. Compare to today where everyone expects someone else to do their thinking. I'd gladly go back to those times if I could take our advances in the medical field back with me- how about you?
@@P_RO_ We saw certain sorts of developmental disabilities plummet when we started getting rid of lead in paint and gasoline just for starters. Treating things that are demonstrable toxic public health hazards as the dangers they are instead of blaming the victim in order to maximize profits and deny responsibility is a good thing.
@@toddellner5283 The main advancement in reduction of lead in human bodies was going to unleaded car fuels. There was never any large lead intake or hazard from paint save for children allowed to chew on it- they are quite susceptible to the effects of lead at tender ages. Some hazards are avoidable and easily handled well by the individual (like paint or lead casting), while others do need to be addressed on a wide-scale basis at corporate or higher levels (like gasoline). Many things are hazardous in life; there are as as many today as ever, only in different forms such as food additives, the chemicals fed to meats raised for marketing, and toxic or otherwise dangerous plastics which weren't around in the older times. Nothing but medicine is better, only different.
Aw ferchrissakes, you're gonna die from something; have some fun while you're at it...
@@brustdiesel Yeah, but nobody wants to do the thing with the ostrich feathers, waffle iron, trapeze, and girl with certain anatomical peculiarities. Not even if I leave out the trained walrus and liver-scented lubricant.
I wonder how poisonous the lead actually would be for a one time casting? I was under the impression it's really only an issue when it comes to long term exposure.
You're missing the target because you didn't add nutmeg to the bullets.
When I was a kid in the early 1960's you could buy kits that would let you cast your own toy soldiers from lead. Fun times for an 8 year old.
The sites I know are loaded with discarded lead from making musket balls. Very nice video and I enjoyed it.
I have my great-grandfather's cast iron ball mold. It's about the size of your smaller tong-style mold there, and from the mid-1800s. This is so neat to see! Thank you.
I would love to see more muzzle loader content upon youre channel. Specifically, what flint locks were around before percussion caps.
Freedom flingers. 🇺🇸
Been molding lead balls since the 70s. Love the left hand flintlock. Maybe do another video on how a musket was loaded with a paper cartrige as opposed to patch and ball for a rifle?
I'd love to see these guys do more firearm videos. Sadly they tend to get demonitized by UA-cam because "muh ebil g*n content" even if everything in the video is historical and educational.
Still looking for a straight razor video. Making, shaving, even just history lesson...
It’s all fun and games until Ezekiel pulls up with the flintlock.
Αh about time for the historical weapon videos ^^
Why does our society have to sanitize everything. Lead balls NOT pewter. NOT pewter. People did NOT make rifle balls out of Pewter. SHEESH.
Patches?! PATCHES?!! We don't need no stinkin' patches!! 🇲🇽
Now we know why bullets are idiomatically called "lead." Line from old gangster films: "Pump him full of lead."
9:35 Isn't it rather inadvisable to put your hand over the ramrod like that?
There's no problem with it. If there was any smothering embers in the barrel it would have ignited the powder before he even touched the ramrod. The cock would either be half cocked or down, not full cocked.