Though I was called a pirate as much as a patriot yesterday, we had some good fun with it.

I donned my tricorn and Hawaiian shirt, my horn and bag and brought along my trade gun and flintlock pistol to my brother in law's big 4th party. A few dozen people (especially kiddos) who never have handled a muzzleloader were able to fire off a few blanks, make some smoke and noise, and get a few short historical snippets thrown at them. Was a fun little addition to a great night. Our friend snagged this picture of me out in the battlefield of kids and sparks.

 

 Happy Birthday America     

I believe Track used to carry a repro of the Hawsley flask head, or something kinda like it.
I did like that one as it had a screw off base that really simplified the installation process.
I found that with the ones from Pedersoli, one had to do some careful grinding to make a spot in the nose of the horn for the gate to be able to function.  One little slip and you were through the horn.  I forger the size of the hole saw I used for that but you could cut out horn material to the point where the base of the valve would just fit onto the horn with only a tiny bit of file work.  I would epoxy the valve onto the horn then drill and tap two holes for little brass screws to make sure the valve installation was permanent.
Gee, I used to have a lot of fun messing around with silly little projects like that in between my regular production work.  If I would have known that the Hawsley style flask head was discontinued, I would have kept the last one I made, it was really beautiful.
John