Videos

If you are looking for a particular lock, powder, or flint combination, this listing may help. Each red title lists the locks in the order they appear. Read More »

May 2009 Spring Practice This video was produced in 2009 but was never uploaded. In doing site maintenance to www.blackpowdermag.com I found it in a different folder. Besides some shots of excellent locks, it shows some of the trials that one goes through to prepare for a video session. In preparation for the Spring Shoot with Olympus Industrial, Steve Chapman and I met Grant Ferguson on the NMLRA grounds. We set up ... Read More »

Blackpowdermag.com and Olympus Industrial bring you more flintlock videos. The frame rate is 5000 fps. This page will be a work in progress but the videos should work. The taping was done at Gun Makers’ Hall during the Spring Nationals at Friendship. Monday June 15th was the big day. We taped 47 locks with the help of Norman Baumgartner from Olympus Industrial. Thanks Norm for all you do for us. All the ... Read More »

This is the complete flintlock video library of the high speed film done at Friendship during the spring of 2007. Earlier articles contained highlights – like the original Manton supplied by Jim Chambers. Finally they are all together. Now we can watch black powder ignite! The video links in thie article are more of the film we did at Friendship. As in earlier video, the frame rate is 5000 frames per second. ... Read More »

Are you interested in watching an original J. Manton flintlock in slow motion? How about a wheel lock? BlackPowderMag was able to do just that at Friendship this spring. With help from blackpowder riflemaker, David Price, and Grant Ferguson from Olympus, we filmed 30+ flintlocks at 5000 frames/second. History was made at Gun Makers’ Hall during the Spring Nationals at Friendship this year. Blackpowdermag.com and Olympus Industrial collaborated on a slow motion ... Read More »

It’s finally ready! Flintlocks with multiple variables at 5000 frames/second. This movie will run at GunMakers’ Hall this spring. Here’s your chance to see it early. See if you can see individual blackpowder grains ignite. The accumulation of my high speed flintlock videos is finally finished. Because of over all size the movie is in two parts. Part A includes experiments with my old faithful large Siler lock using chipped English flints, ... Read More »

The high speed flint video project is done. BPM, working with Grant Ferguson from Olympus, captured video of a flintlock using different grades of black powder as well as flint configurations. The process was more complicated than I expected. We got some decent stuff with lighting our biggest problem. The higher the frame rate the more light is necessary. With over 3000 watts of halagons going, we still were limited in the ... Read More »

Black Powder Photography — editor, Larry Pletcher (The title photo was taken in January 2014 using the same methodology, but with a close-up lens.) For some time I have wanted to take a high speed photo of a patched ball from a flintlock muzzleloader shedding its patch. This article documents the six month process of my attempts. Included are all the mistakes I made and what I learned about black powder as ... Read More »