#gunflint

[chaddavisphotography]

A home on Gunflint Lake near Grand Marais, Minnesota.

[vintagecamping]

A group of campers pick up supplies near the Gunflint Trail, which begins on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Minnesota

1966

[thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl]

Packing to go on vacation up the Gunflint aka trying to cram 3 seasons worth of outfits in my bag.

[bookloversofbath]

Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges :: Frank C. Barnes

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

Superior National Forest and the Gunflint Trail, Minnesota

Taken February 2024

[gay-jesus-probably]

Guess what I learned today!

Yeah, of the 10 oldest fossil deposits on earth, 4 of them are in Canada, and 4 of them are in Australia, including the two oldest - the Apex Chert formation of western Australia and the Gunflint Chert around the north shore of Lake Superior is the only examples of fossils from the Archaen geologic era, aka the microbes that formed the very first life on this planet.

(The other two countries in the top ten are Morocco, which has 7th place with a deposit of early Cambrian trilobites, and the USA, which is in 9th place from a quarry in Wisconsin.)

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Wait a minute. $220K for a tent? This tiny house in Grand Marais, Minnesota is described as "Where Modern Cabin meets Luxury Tent." It has 1bd. & 1ba. Why would they do this?

The home isn’t even finished yet.

So, even these walls are canvas. 

Shoot, you be sleepin’ and this thing springs a leak letting in rain and/or every bug from kingdom come.

Nope. In my overactive imagination, some serial killer would slash the walls in the middle of the night.

A bear could get through this.

Great. And, then the killer can get away w/your boat.

https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/mn/grand-marais/8016-gunflint-trail/pid_52729196/

[wuxiaphoenix]

Colors of Another Sky Worldbuilding: Flint vs. Match

Necessary caveat: Not a gun expert, nor do I play one on TV. I have almost no practical experience with firearms. (One day I want to have enough hobby money aside to visit a gun range and impose on them to show me All The Things.) I have, however, tried to get a handle on what kind of firearms were historically bouncing around Northeast Asia about 1550-1650. Most of those, even in European hands, would have been matchlocks.

There’s an account from Xu Guangqi (yes, that Xu Guangqi) in Ming China about 1605 of an arquebus that can “use stone to ignite fire”. There’s another mention in the official record of the Joseon dynasty that on the 12th of July, 1631 (the 9th year of King Injo), a magistrate sent a flintlock musket to the king as a potential trade item. This is the first known flintlock in Joseon. King Injo, worried about the Jurchen/Manchu threat, wanted to mass-produce flintlocks, but the court... resisted. As we now know, bad call.

So. Matchlock vs. flintlock. These terms don’t actually refer to specific types of guns. They refer to how the gun ignites and fires.

In brief: Gunpowder down the muzzle. Wadding and bullet down the muzzle. Gunpowder in the priming pan. Then, and only then, do they differ.

A matchlock has a burning slow match. (Yes, technical term.) A thick fuse you’ve already set alight, attached to the serpentine (looks like the hammer on a more modern gun). When you pull the trigger it slams the match into the pan, setting that ablaze, which puts fire through the touchhole, which sets off the main charge, which shoots the bullet.

A flintlock has gunflint. Pull the trigger, it slams the flint against the steel frizzen to make a spark. Ignition proceeds, boom.

So. Advantages versus disadvantages?

Overall and in the long run, a flintlock is advantageous. First, so long as you don’t bust up your gun, the flint’s not consumed by being used. Slow match is. Second, if rain or accident soaks your flint, you can dry it out and use it later. Slow match, not so much. Third, whenever the match slams into the pan, there’s a chance it’ll go out and you’ll need to relight it. Flint doesn’t have that problem. Fourth, with a flint there are no sparks until you fire. Meaning you can sneak up on an enemy position in low visibility without slow match blinking like a swarm of fireflies.

Less supplies needed, less chance of going wrong, more sneakiness potential. All of these mean that if you have a choice on the battlefield, take the flintlocks.

However. The main characters in Colors are not soldiers. They are monster hunters.

There are monsters against which mass artillery is your best bet. In which case they’re likely to commandeer the nearest hwacha. They are definitely not averse to guns, or the most modern tech they can get their hands on. Yet they’d hesitate to switch to flintlocks. Because flintlocks don’t have slow match.

This is where the magic aspect kicks in. Monsters (and cultivators) have weaknesses, effectively banes; things that really don’t agree with how their body runs and heals itself. Cultivator banes vary, and individuals generally find ways to work around them. Monster banes tend to be more predictable. Silver, hawthorn, cold iron, various purifying herbs and the like. Some of these can be added to ammo, but herbs make terrible alloys. Slow match, on the other hand, is made from vegetable fiber, usually cotton, soaked in a flammable solution. Herbs and hawthorn could be in that solution, or even woven in as part of the fiber itself. With the added benefit that if you have said match on you, burning or not, a vulnerable monster may hesitate to close in and shred you to pieces.

This also means if you know what you’re hunting, you can switch out your match for the best bane you’ve got. It complicates logistics but it can save a monster hunter’s life.

Likewise, think. If you’re hunting monsters at night, you run a very real risk of shooting your fellow hunters by accident. If everyone’s carrying burning match, you have a visual marker telling you don’t shoot.

There’s another more subtle magical aspect that can affect the battlefield. Skilled craftsmen cultivators can work an array into an object, to be set off under certain conditions. Smoke from your slow match might be part of said conditions. Although given the time and expertise needed, this would probably still be more specialty weapons for officers and sneaky troops.

If you’re wondering about flintlocks/matchlocks versus cultivators or other magic users? A bullet’s a bullet, dangerous to anyone, and an exploding iron shell is one of the known ways to kill a pesky enemy cultivator. (And anyone else standing in fifty-odd feet.) AKA while some cultivators can survive incredible injuries, even a stab to the heart, assume the Chunky Salsa Rule applies.

There are magical ways to defeat gunfire, most of which boil down to don’t get hit. Some cultivators can form elemental shields, stopping bullets with a sheer mass of water or stone. Some play tricks with gravity. Some can form portals that whip the bullet or shrapnel off Somewhere Else. But all of these depend on a cultivator knowing they’re about to get shot with enough time to react. Mind, they can react supernaturally fast, but....

(If you’re getting the idea that John Wick would be a very real threat to even a powerful cultivator - yes. Yes he would.)

Aaaand then there are demons.

The Chunky Salsa Rule does not apply to demons.

In this AU, one of the reasons the Ming Dynasty hasn’t been as grabby for northern territory as they were IRL is, there are demons there. Daehan, and their Demon-Callers, are a buffer between Ming and things you need a flamethrower to stop.

...Well, they haven’t been as grabby yet. The Ming are dealing with the Jesuits. They have access to gunflints.

Oh boy.

Shoutout to Kateriobrian; hope this is what you had in mind! ;)

[chaddavisphotography]

A firepit grate from the US Forest Service seen near the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota.

[mmagpye]

Moira Bateman, Tryptich: You Me: Peace silk left submerged in remote Gunflint Trail, Northern Minnesota Lake from August 2019 through August 2020, Silk, lake bottom mud stains, wax

[vintagecamping]

Gateway To The Gunflint Trail

Grand Marais, Minnesota

1957

[nationsandcannons]

Hey y’all, back again with the black powder rules that are at the heart of the Nations & Cannons campaign setting. This revision contains new artwork and significantly expanded historical research, some balance and formatting tweaks, additional types of black powder grenades, and a brand new optional mechanic for custom gunflints.

With the OGL under threat, I wanted to post this today loudly and proudly. Nations & Cannons is my dream project; I refuse to be intimidated, and I will find a way to continue to publish it and share new homebrew no matter what happens. As folks in New Hampshire are fond of saying: “Live free or die.”

Happy to answer any questions about the mechanics of Nations & Cannons, my experience as a third party publisher (3pp), or the importance of the OGL and how it uplifts small independent creators.

 GMBinder Link: Flintlock Firearms

[oonajaeadira]

For the specific asks - 13, 17, 21 and 24 🥰

<3 <3 <3. Ah. I see you're going for some of the darker ones, Nonnie. .

first thing you’re doing in the purge?

I haven't watched the movies so I'm not sure if there's any amnesty rules, but if Canada was benevolent, I'd just drive up to Thunder Bay for a getaway. Or, of course, I'd just make sure I was abroad on vacation at that time.

If that wasn't an option? Most likely get a permit for Boundary Waters, take the SO, and portage into a wild area. Maybe get out to Gunflint or Saganaga Lake and find a place to camp on the Canadian side.

If you weren't allowed to leave your city? Then I'd go break into and hide in the one place nobody's going to think to loot: The library.

.

an anxious compulsion you do everyday?

I'm a fidgeter. Never thought I was one until a friend of mine showed me all of her fidget toys she keeps on her desk because otherwise she'd start playing with her earrings or scratching her scalp or picking at her nails...all of which I do. I tend to wear rings and earrings every day and I am constantly fiddling with them. If I'm wearing a necklace? Look out. I have a koosh ball on my desk that I rub and toss between my hands while I work (bonus ASMR!). And I carry two crystals in a pouch in my purse--one is a prophecy stone (spikey and textured) and one is a carnelian worry stone (smooth and glossy) both of which I only take out in emergencies because once I start touching those effers I'm never gonna stop....

.

a number that weirds you out?

Someone recently pointed out to me that numbers are abstract concepts. Show me 1. Show me 2. You can't. You can show me the written numerals. You can show me two apples. But you cannot show me an actual number unless it is represented by a written symbol or code.

Numbers don't actually exist. Numbers are ghosts that everyone believes in. What is zero even? Some ancient cultures didn't even have a concept of zero. Some cultures believed that numbers were grouped in 13s the way we do 10s and 5s. Animals don't know numbers. A chicken with 9 chicks only knows that there are many. At most, she knows there are 3 groups of 3 because that's what her brain can comprehend and what is counting? What? Why? My head hurts.

And they just keep going? There's no end? Even though they don't really exist? Infinite beyond human comprehension? That's some Lovcraftian horror for you right there.

And in that way, all numbers kinda freak me out. If I think about it too hard.

Also, I'm really bad at math and I think this might be why.

.

which do you find yourself using, american or british english?

I am American and do not use American English proudly, but rather out of habit.

.

weirdly specific and unrelated asks

[jessebeckerms]

Weingut Eckehart Gröhl Riesling Niersteiner Ölberg Rheinhessen 2021

Lagenwein / 100% Riesling / organic (in conversion) / 12.5% alc. / 4.7 g/L RS / 7.6 g/L acidity

Ölberg is a south-facing site, next to Hipping. Classic Roter Hang (Rotliegend) red soil. Johannes notes that “there is always wind at the top of this site.” Vinified in half Stückfass, half stainless steel tank. Compact aromas on the nose of grilled peach, smoke, and gunflint with superb length and layered finish. “Ölberg is always calm, not stressed on the palate,” says Johannes Gröhl who spent time honing skills as a Riesling and Spätburgunder specialist at Weingüter Rings and Philipp Kuhn in the Pfalz, and Matthias Knebel in the Terrassenmosel. It is presumed that the Ölberg (Oil Mountain) was named for the oily texture of its wines. ****

Imported by: Veritable Wines & Estates Miami, FL

download / gröhl / riesling / rheinhessen / 2021

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

Dusk on the Gunflint Trail

Superior National Forest, taken February 2024

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

So Duluth was meant to be laughed at, no?

ON THE SKYLINE PARKWAY IN DULUTH, MN: The motorhome whence Huckleberry Hound and yours truly have decided to continue our everlasting road trip is parked close to the Engler Tower, itself a landmark of Duluth as much as the Aerial Bridge in Duluth Harbour, essentially THE only access between downtown and Park Point. And sipping coffee besides as we drink in a somewhat misty view unto Duluth's downtown below.

"Uh, Huck--did I tell you about the one time I found the CB Bears and reconnected with them practically in this same spot in the parking lot?"

"I think the memory escapes me on that point, Snag," Huck remarked as he took another drag on the coffee--which turned out being the Arco brand, a well-known local such in the Twin Ports and the North Shore regions.

"It was early on in my road trip experiences. Not exactly Route 66, to be honest about it, but the Mini Cooper was my vehicle of choice ... I was driving along the Skyline Parkway, just drinking in the view as we are now ... and just near the Engler Tower, even, I couldn't help but notice the trio of Hustle, Bump and Boogie."

"THEY were the CB Bears, Snag?"

"You had best believe it, recall them, even!" Which had Huckleberry Hound chuckling a modest bit. "Shucks ... how easily yours truly, being one of the earliest of us Funtastics, forgets newer stuff like the CB Bears. Were they those bears named for disco dance moves?"

"Correct, Huck, correct. At any rate, yours truly could not help but be surprised at such a meeting, and with their Perfume Wagon still managing to hold on with the proverbial baling wire ... even though the cases they got from 'Charlie' seemed few and far between."

"So what are they nowadays doing?"

"Huck, that ursine trio happens to be into fishing, and serving their catch on cedarwood planks. But later on, after we met, they decided to try some surfing in as unlikely a spot as on Lake Superior. Up by Palmers, even, along the Lake Superior Scenic Drive--"

"You mean to tell me, Snagglepuss," Huck remarked, "that people can actually surf in such otherwise chilly waters as on Lake Superior?!"

"Correct. And not long afterward, Hustle let me in on a little secret ... that he was originally from along the Gunflint Trail. Out of Grand Marais, even!"

"So where were Bump and Boogie from, if I may ask?"

"Bump turned out to be from somewhere near Yellowstone, having managed to escape from a rather intense forest fire ... and Boogie was originally from Alaska himself!"

"Rather amazing, these backstories we all have. And you wonder if many of us have stumbled on Breezly Bruin, understood, naturally enough, to be from Nome, Alaska."

"Have you seen Underwater America with Peter Potamus, Huck?"

"Snag, now that you mention it--I have. And I couldn't help but find Breezly Bruin looking rather crazy in diver's gear. Even if, as a polar bear, he manages to otherwise dive rather well breathhold."

Stepping out of our motorhome and into the parking lot, the mist had started to clear somewhat to allow for that impressive view down upon Duluth ... even enough to notice another vessel or two crossing under the Aerial Bridge heading outbound. Leaving me to ponder to myself just why "Duluth" was among those names that still brought down the house on the Orpheum Circuit in vaudeville's zenith (and I could still picture George and Joey Bungle trying to generate laughs with the sheer mention of "Duluth").

*************

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