I’m glad he enjoyed his remade antique.
When did percussion caps become reliable enough to replace flintlocks for private rifles and pistols? When did the military armeries begin issuing them?
Rough guess, I’d say around the late-1840s. The US Army fielded the 1841 percussion “Mississippi Rifle” as it’s first cap/ball rifle.
By the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, all armies over the world were using percussion locks or variations thereof. Which to me would seem that it had been perfected as a viable system over the course of the years in between 40s and 60s.