Caplock history ?

[IronBull]

What year did caplocks come into play? When would the caplock hawken rifle been around?

[James Kelly]

The copper percussion cap was invented in the 1820's. Lewis Winant, in "Early Percussion Firearms" indicates that quite a number of different people claimed to have invented it.
J&S Hawken were in business in St Louis by 1825, per Charles E. Hanson, Jr. in "The Hawken Rifle: its Place in History" Same source: The first documented Hawkin RIFLE was made in 1831. By 1831--32 at least some of these rifles were percussion. Peak production was in the Gold Rush years.
I believe there is no, or in1979 was no, documented J&S Hawken flint rifle.

[Mike R]

The percussion ignition development began in europe/england in the early 1800s.  It was not generally available in the eastern US until about 1820s--say 1825 or so.  Audubon said the first caplock gun he saw was in New Orleans ca. 1831. That same year St Louis merchants were advertising they had 2 million perc caps for sale--so someone was making perc guns in numbers by then.  I would say 1830 was the breakover year when caplocks started giving flinters the run for the money.

[tg]

I think you will find trecords of caps in the upper Missouri by 1833, there are quite a few mentions of them in The fur traders website.

[dbm]

There was a lengthy discussion a while on this board on the percussion cap. You can find it here.

David

[Sir Michael]

You might find this of interest.

In the 8th ed. of Remarks on Rifle Guns by Ezekiel Baker published in 1823. He included a 12 page discussion of the new "Percussion" locks.  He is not overly impressed by them and has considerable reservation about the safety of guns equipped with them.  He bases this on higher breach pressures and the corrosive properties of the chemicals in the primers.  The only advantage he sees in them was their reliability in rain.