As roundball said, the top rifle is the older unimproved style.

Honestly, I can't see the benefit ofargueing which ignition system is the most primitive or least advantageous. Shooting buckhorns, PRB, and an external hammer type ignition is pretty much as primitive as it gets. We buy inlines, sabots, conicals and so on to gain advantage and range. It would bepointless to argue against that. It makes one seem argumentative and ingenuine if hetakes the standthat tech improvements in modern BP rifles don't make any difference.

I think Iwould approach this problem from the angle that there can be restrictions that make the improvements less significant and sufficiently primitive.