Musket Flint Question

flyguy784 · Sep 12, 2017

I'm curious. My brother and I frequently hunt Rev War locations. We've found many related artifacts, balls, musket parts and buttons. We're both very observant as to what comes out of a hole and is laying on the ground, particularly in or around erosion areas. Lots of Indian (Lenni Lenape) activity in our area so we're always keeping our eyes tuned for arrow heads, flakes, hammer stones etc. With all this hunting, literally hundreds of holes and miles for that matter, we've never found a single musket flint. They wouldn't deteriorate, they were frequently changed or replaced, probably dropped as were many of the balls and period coins we find, yet we have never found one.
So, has anyone ever found any ? As I said, just curious really.

John Yank

BaldAssCat · Sep 12, 2017

flyguy784 said:
I'm curious. My brother and I frequently hunt Rev War locations. We've found many related artifacts, balls, musket parts and buttons. We're both very observant as to what comes out of a hole and is laying on the ground, particularly in or around erosion areas. Lots of Indian (Lenni Lenape) activity in our area so we're always keeping our eyes tuned for arrow heads, flakes, hammer stones etc. With all this hunting, literally hundreds of holes and miles for that matter, we've never found a single musket flint. They wouldn't deteriorate, they were frequently changed or replaced, probably dropped as were many of the balls and period coins we find, yet we have never found one.
So, has anyone ever found any ? As I said, just curious really.

John Yank

I'm not sure they would be as common as you might think. The regulars were expected to get 50 shots from a flint so they would sharpen them, which means chipping them smaller. They were clamped in using lead between the jaws on the cock to keep it from moving when it hit the hammer so it's not likely to fall out. If they were headed out they would get the musket ready before leaving so if the flint needed changing it would be done at camp not where you find spent or dropped ball in the field.

I only get about 20 - 30 shots from a flint and they don't look like they did when I got them when they're done. I'd say they should be as hard to find as arrow heads.

flyguy784 · Sep 12, 2017

I guess it makes sense. Just surprises me, we've never found one. Dam that's an ugly cat.

Musket Flint Question

flyguy784

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