A little.

Friend of mine in the Ford/Carter/Reagan era had one set up as some believed the Roger's Rangers muskets were.

DGW replica, which I think was Italian. Lopped back to around 30" of barrel, and some brass tacks. Best I recall even 47 or so years ago, Brown Bess replicas were decently expensive.

Memory says, a French "black" flint, and paper cartridge with a .710ish roundball, and 95 grains by vol. of FF. We torch Casenite treated the frizzen.

GOOD sparking old beast, it was not hard to keep all your shots on the FBI silhouette at 50 yards. Fouling built up slowly enough you could keep loading it past 20 rounds uncleaned. Recoil was tolerable. Reliable if it was not raining or snowing. His had the proper white leather and brass sling, and damned handsome it all was.

Marcus's had the front sight/bayonet post reattached, but the bayonet was no longer functional.

Yes, it was great fun to shoot. Even with over 1/3 or so of the barrel gone, it was still heavy, and still balance forward.

He fell into bad ways, and I assume his musket was sold at an IRS tax auction. He dodged convictions on both embezzling, and tax fraud, but he lost everything else.

But I have much experience with flintlocks. One thing that has been brought to my attention regarding the largest locks, the pedersoli's in particular, if there is a visible gap, even paper thin gap, where the lock/pan meets the barrel then priming powder can trickle/migrate down into the cavernous stock/lock mortices and accumulate there during extended shooting sessions.

Viewed from above, looking down at the lock with the hammer back notice the junction of the lock against the barrel. The besses that I have seen, what with their rounded oval pans have no perceptible gap but the charleville's, with their rectangular pan and different lock to barrel geometry almost insures powder accumulating inside the stock.

The stalwart muzzleloader wm. hovey smith chronicled this attempting to use a loaded musket throughout a deer season without clearing by firing at the end of the hunting day. He just dumped the priming then pricked the vent and reprimed the next trip. At the end of the season he removed the lock only to discover a dangerous accumulation of priming powder, just one shot could of have been tragic.

Shot a Pedersoli for several years. The first picture of the target was shot at 50 yards from a rest. The Bess is a 50-yard deer gun in my opinion. The deer above was shot with 80 grains of 2g Goex and a patched .715 ball at 60 yards. The ball entered the lungs and exited breaking the offside leg. The deer bled out with 30 yards. Wish I had never sold it. They have a lot of fiddle factor.

Bob

This deer was originally shot at around 75 yards in the pouring rain. I hit him right behind the diaphragm. He stood there while I reloaded. Then a flash in the pan. He looked at me like I was dumb. I was for shooting too far. Then another flash in the pan. He walked away sickly and stopped. I shot again bracing against a tree again. The Bess fired (in the rain) and I hit him again about an inch or so behind the diaphragm. He walked away and I tracked the blood. There was plenty but not from the lungs. I found him lying down and finished him through the head. All the shots were pass throughs. The two shots through the body were within 2 inches of each other but never hit a vital organ just part of the liver IIRC. I was not proud of this kill and therefore limit my shots with a smoothbore on deer to 50 yards after that.

But as a 18th and 19th century combat weapon, I wouldn't want anyone shooting at me within 150 yards. A big Bess ball hitting a bone is bad news.

Bob