7-6-15 I Fired a Brown Bess Musket in Philadelphia on Independence Day!

I hope you all had fantastic 4th of July!

Firing a Brown Bess Musket on Independence Day!

While at a traditional Fourth of July picnic down in Philadelphia, a soldier from the 43rd Regiment of Foot let me photograph him firing his musket. I used my Nikon F3HP 35mm camera (I’ll let you know if my photos come out). Then, he showed me how to fire the musket myself, black powder and all! My awesome girlfriend shot a video of it (above)!

And so it was that I came to fire a Brown Bess Musket on Independence Day!

It was like traveling back in time to use my teeth to tear open the paper packet and pour the black powder into the flint lock dish and down the front of the barrel. When I pulled the trigger there was a flash of fire and lot of heat as the flint and steel ignited the powder and a millisecond later, the rifle fired. I thought of Johnny Tremain!

The rifle was powerful. There was a ton of smoke and it really drove home what my forefathers had to do to win the Revolutionary War. It must have been incredibly hard work and dirty and gruesome. The Brown Bess fires a .75 caliber musket round. The soldier said it could blow a man’s arm right off. Between the cannon, subsonic .75 caliber musket balls and the deadly bayonets, the Revolutionary War must have been hellish. I never considered that before.

My Photo Tour of the Murals in the City of Philadelphia MuralArts Program!

While there, I also got taken on an incredible tour of Philly from a family friend. I’ll soon be posting photos of a bunch of murals I saw from the fantastic MuralArts Program. Stay tuned!

Have a great week!
Gabriel