Snow day, so I dug out my old copy of "The Great West" by Neider (1958). Kit Carson wrote about a 1845 fight with Indians who attacked the camp late one night, and how he was forced to grab a pistol, as he had "accidently broken off the tube" (Nipple?), on his rifle the night before when he fired it for the purpose of cleaning it. He fired the pistol, cutting the string on the handle of the charging Indians tomahawk with his ball. Another man named "Maxwell" shot the Indian in the leg with a ball, and then "Step" fired, hitting him in the back right through the heart, killing him. Quite a battle, too long to explain the entire fight. It looks like in 1845 Kit Carson was carrying a Percussion cap rifle, but most pictures in the book by Fredrick Remington clearly depict Flintlock rifles/pistols being carried by Mountain Men and Trappers in the 1830's. Good reading on a storm day...