I've never tried, but I know someone who claims to have.

What he said jives with what we saw on MB- smokeless doesn't really work, but black powder does. It also isn't so reliable. If I had to guess, as I never found this in any old stories, it might be a semi-modern thing inspired by the Battle of the Wilderness and other similiar horrors from the mid-18th century.

That's kind of what I thought. For me it would be a last ditch method, coming just after all my Bics were exhausted and just before I tried to make a bowdrill. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Thanks. I was wondering how they ignited it. I believe most bullets have a percussive cap that ignites when struck. I though they might try to do that with a hammer, Leatherman Juice etc. I'd have thought the rag was liable to blow out when fired from the gun.

I have not tried this, but have seen reference to the use of flintlocks being used to start fire.

During the 1700's - early 1800's, when flint and steel were the common method of making a fire, peices of charred cloth were carried by travelers and used to catch the spark.

I have read somewhere that the early fur traders would use this method for a quick fire. Start with an empty (flint lock) musket or rifle. Dump the priming from the flash pan, put your charred cloth in the flash pan and use the spark from the flintlock. I have also heard that you should leave a little of the powder.

Any Buckskinners who can comment on this?

It must have been a popular method. Dixie Gun Works sells a replica "tinder lighter." It looks like a flint-lock pistol. Instead of a barrel, there is a little pan to place your tinder in. You can get it for $75, but it wouldn't be too practical for a survival kit.

Dixie Gun Works Tinder Lighter

Although I'm not a buckskinner, I've personally witnessed a fire started with a flintlock, but it wasn't done in quite this way. Instead of char cloth, some other tinder was laid across the charged pan and caught sparks when the powder was fired.

If you've got char cloth and a flint lock, you really don't need the powder, since the char cloth will catch a spark really well. The sparks off the flint should be all that's needed.

YMMV

The myth in question has to do with a weapon using cartidges. With a flintlock, you already have a spark system. Think of it as the granddad of the zippo.

In teaching hunter ed, we do a demonstration at the range of how different powders burn. We use at least half a dozen different modern smokeless powders poured sequentially along a trough of 1" angle iron. At the end we pour some 4f blackpowder. I get to light the thing off, using a butane grill lighter from the end opposite the bp. Typically, we start with a slow rifle powder, then alternate along the length between faster pistol powders and slow rifle powder of different composition appearance, so that the students can make out that it is different powders (in case they didn't see me pouring the load out in the first place). It takes a good half a minute to burn the 30 inches to the bp. Once it hits the 4f, that stuff goes up all at once making a small mushroom cloud and causing a few of the nearer students to flinch. There is a huge contrast between the bp and even the fastest of the smokeless stuff. It is not hard at all to get any of the powder going, but some of it was still burning a full thirty seconds after the bp went off, which might make it suitable as a tinder starter.

I'm inclined not to waste cartridges out in the field if I think it reasonable to use something else.