Lock Geometry

I ahvea question about lock geometry, I saw an earlier post from a member about the flint almost touching the frizzen while at half cock...so i checked my rifles and low and behold they all did that ..except one. I ahve a .32 DGW southern Mt. Rifle, and at half cock a properly placed flint is say...1/2 an inch from the frizzen. I ahve the flint moved as far forward as it will go....any farther and it strikes the pan...also when the flint strikes its only hitting the very bottom 1/3 of the frizzen and often will not completely push the frizzen open. What can I do? this thing chews through flints like crazy...and id like to get this worked out before october.. any ideas wuolkd be great

just answered my own question....happen to find a lock on track of the wolf to replace the crappy japanese lock

Try putting the flint in the other way up eg bevel down (another DGW owner)

did it .....it works but after 5 shots have to move the flint forward, and still chews them up

Maybe a longer flint?

Bryon, I have no experience with your lock but it sounds like it is setup like a Chambers Deluxe Siler. At half cock the flint is back away from the frizzen about a half inch. It doesn't however eat up flints and works great, you know because you shot mine with no problems. I myself have no use for the cheap flintlocks but have played with them many years ago when learning. If I really liked the rifle in question I would replace it with a good quality replacement and be done with it. Feel free to call if you want.

Jim

Jim, I haven't played with this brand of lock either, and without seeing it it's tough.

But if playing with flint angle doesn't work, maybe if you close up the top curve on the neck of the cock a little will for him it might fix it....giving more of a downward angle to the flint.

A lot of guys have had good results with these little Japanese locks on their Dixie Tennessee rifles, so it may benefit from a bit of tuning. :idunno:

Enjoy, J.D.

J.D., I have to agree with you that it could be made to work better. Back when I first started with flintlocks (1976) I had a cheap Ultra Hi flint and after reading all I could find(wasn't much back then) I started to modify the lock. I did make it much better but, and I do mean but after all that it was miles away from a custom lock. My first quality lock was a Haddaway (spelling??) with an H&H barrel. After that I will never play with a cheap lock to make small gains in performance.

Jim

well its def gonna get a new lock ...but now i ahve to start from square one with patch and ball combo. I ordered a Tanner mold in .315 and i just shot the first balls today.....mmmm yeah it was less than spectacular...I was able to keep 5 shots in a 5 inch circle but thats about it....looks like its back to the drawing board! lol

Put a thick leather shim on the bottom jaw of the cock.

did it lol

wait....i didnt do that ...going to try it right now

I think JD has it right. I had to change a cock angle on a flint pistol to get the right relation to the frizzen or the lock broke flints quickly.
Trouble here is it already is hitting on the lower third of the frizzen face and if the angle is increased it will strike even lower.
To fix I would think the serpentine needs to be annealed, stretched and tilt/angle aligned before re-hardening. MD

....or just bend it and then try the longer flint. Like I said, hard to tell without having it in hand. Enjoy, J.D.

Bryon, what was the shipping cost on that Tanner mold ye have? :v

the price of the mould was 50$ that includes shipping