Jan 7, 2017 4 min read

It’s the time of year when the woodlots are full of Daniel Boones carrying their flintlocks.

As I see or experience first-hand the shooting of the flintlock, I can’t help but think the Indians were better armed. Ignition of these black powder firearms is created by a flint, a pan and what we call a frizzen.

It didn’t take me long afield to realize why it is so named. You see as the flint strikes the frizzen, it makes a sound just like that, FRIZZZZEN!

After making that sound it should go boom and create a lot of smoke. Many times, however, my flintlock just says frizzen without the boom or the smoke.

It was a rainy day – aren’t they all – when I watched a nearby hillside for a deer to come my way. To my surprise, one did come along and stopped to pose about 30 yards in front of me. This looked easy and I rested the Hawkins across the log, set the trigger and let a shot off.

The deer jumped and took off for parts unknown. I checked for blood and noticed a hole in a nearby sapling. Very few holes found in nature are perfectly round and .50 in diameter so I knew it was created by my miss.

I cursed a bit for it appeared to be a few inches too high and I had overshot the darned thing.

I reloaded and sat down again. Soon, another deer or what I believed was the same deer came along and stopped in exactly the same spot as the previous one. This time I helda bit lower and pulled the trigger. The results were the same as before only now that tree had two holes in it.

One too high and one too low.

If you ever walk through that wood and see those two holes you can tell folks that George was there.

• I don’t know everything. On second thought, there is the possibility I really don’t know anything!

It took me some time to realize a mouse wasn’t a hairy little creature that appeared in the house each fall. Instead, it was some kind of small gizmo that you move around when sitting in front of a computer.

It didn’t take long for me to learn a .243 is so named because it utilizes a bullet ofthat diameter.

But then so does the old .244 and of course the .240. Over in Europe, cartridges were named using some logic.

There was some significance to the numbers that represented a particular round. The granddaddy of them all was named the 7 x 57. The first number told the interested party that it was a 7mm and the second told the length of the case also in millimeters.

Now, doesn’t that make more sense than say calling a cartridge the .257 Roberts? Similar to the European method, the first number is the diameter of the bullet in inches but the word Robertstells nothing of the casing.

I guess at the time of its birth it seemed a good idea to name this quarter-inch cartridge after its designer. It’s the name of its designer and the diameter of the bullet right?

Guess again? Now we can look at the old 250-3,000. Again, it’s a quarter-inch bore but it was designed by a fellow named 3,000? Well, no this cartridge was named for the velocity it can reach. Simple isn’t it?

The .250 shot a bullet of .25 diameter at a sizzling for its day 3,000 feet per second. Now we have it.

Except for rounds such as the .218 Bee and the .22 Hornet. I guess only the shooter can decide which stings the harder.

Still, looking at those rounds shooting bullets of a quarter inch we find one that apparently copies the European method of naming. The .25-06 uses numbers entirely in its name and is easily understood.

The first number is the bore size but it can’t be much of a cartridge if its case is but .06 in length or maybe its speed is .06 fps. None of the above applies here. It is so named because it uses the 25-caliber bore and it is based on the popular .30 – 06 casing.

It’s really easy to understand, so listen closely when you hear someone talk about the fireball, magnum or Shooting Times Western and pretend you know exactly what they are talking about.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.