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The total wt of our weapons/ammo, the rate of fire, number of rounds carried, and the destructive affect of the environment, should guide us in our choices. Many of us live in different places, with different skills, different laws, and different resources. It is about the last weapon I would choose. I find that the flintlock is slow to load and fire, not terrible effective, and fragile. I have noticed a long string of threads here suggesting that a black powder flintlock is that weapon.
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I think that most members here agree with the importance of carrying a light wt weapon, suited for hunting and personal defense, in the event we have to travel and survive long term in the wilderness. Use metal mesh.Įdited to add.for truly backwoods gunpowder making.if no screen material is available, I would probably resort to making my own "screen" material by weaving thin strands of dried and hardened willow (inner bark), or something of that nature to make a serviceable screen. (I forget now which type of screen is safest for this part of the process.I think it might be the non-metal kind of window screen material?) <-Edited to add correction: later in this thread Keith said the non-metal will cause problems. That could be spectacularly bad if you are not careful. The part I would be most concerned about when making gunpowder is reducing the end-stage coarse product to a fine powder by rubbing it through a screen. Here are just a few of many sites that describe the processes for making backwoods saltpeter, etc. Storebought ingredients are nice, but NOT necessary! It ain't rocket science either. I know of people who have done it, and made good gunpowder. Click to expand.I must respectfully disagree with these statements because even saltpeter can be made from common and easily accessible natural sources.