Best lock made today

What is the best lock in your opinion that is available commercially. I guess speed, reliability, and durability sets the standards.
I was at a builders house yesterday and he was showing me some new locks. I think the two he liked best was a new Deluxe Siler and a Late Ketland.

I have the Late Ketland on one of my rifles and I love that lock fast and dependable.

More depends on what rifle you want to install the lock. The locks you have suggested are well regarded and are known to be very fast and reliable.

So what rifle do you want to have built?

I had great luck withL&R but I’ve heard bad things about them of late. I am very happy with my Davis and my Chambers.

I went with my best friend, he ordered a Lancaster with swamped Colerain barrel. I went for fun, but my buddy wanted me to get a very fancy lancaster with german silver, and silver inlay that the guy had finished. It was super nice but not what I like in a hunting rifle. As a community thing, he gives our area some crazy deals on guns. The guy is second generation builder in his 70's, so it is a tradition to have one from his father or now him. I have enough rifles, but I should consider one from this guy before he retires.
Anyway he showed us various locks, and it was pretty neat to see them compared side by side.

For a late Lancaster, I would select the late Ketland lock from Chambers.

Silers are good. Chambers are good (who built his name assembling Silers). But a Chambers kit assembled by someone like Tip Curtis is my choice.

I have a Early Ketland and a Late Ketland, two of my favorite locks. The Late is fast and easy on flints. Flintleather p.s. both are Chambers

Chambers "Late Ketland" has the reputation for being the finest commercially available lock on the market today. Being left-handed, I had to "settle for" the LH Chambers large Siler on my SMR. It's a great lock. In addition Jim and Barbie are great folks to deal with. :hatsoff:

I have Chambers and Caywood an really like them both. I put both up there for dependability quality smoothness an sparking. I dont own either Davis or M&G but i hear mostly good things about them. There is only one lock company that I always hear bad things about so I will not try one of those locks. There are many threads on this an other forums about people having trouble due to poor quality control. Do a little research on lock troubles an you will figure out for yourself real quick that the same name keeps coming up

Gotta go with something made by Chambers.

LD

tenngun said:

I had great luck withL&R but I’ve heard bad things about them of late. I am very happy with my Davis and my Chambers.

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I have a Davis. :cursing: Paperweight.
My L&Rs are ferocious sparkers, I like.
Oh, well. That's why there are multiple people on this forum. Different experiences.

Hi,
I am a builder with a lot of guns under my belt and I have built locks and also used many of the the models from the 3 main commercial makers. The best locks I ever saw or used are a lock by Bob Roller, and the the locks I built for a pair of English dueling pistols. However, for readily and commercially available locks the fastest and perhaps best made is Chambers Late Ketland lock. Next, for reliability though a little slower the following are probably tied: Chambers round faced English lock, Chambers Colonial Virginia lock, and Chambers Early Ketland lock. The Chambers Golden Age and Siler locks are almost as good and reliable. Other makers locks can be tuned to be comparable but none are made as well as the Chambers. The photo below shows 3 locks. The first is a Chamber round-faced English lock, the second is an original lock from an English folwer built in the 1760s, and the last is L&Rs Queen Anne lock. Note the Chambers is equal or better quality to the original (which is a very good lock), the L&R is not of the same caliber. The flintcock is missing on the L&R because I used it to fix another lock for a client. I'll probably use the L&R lock for parts.

dave

Very small differences add up in today’s locks. On originals, parts were not made to finished dimensions then assembled. A sear for example would be made with a long nose that then would be trimmed to fit the tumbler notches and adjust angle of cock at half and full cock.

A mainspring would be adjusted so that the hook that cams against the tumbler nose exerts maximum leverage.

None of that happens now, and if 2 holes (mainspring locator pin and tumbler axle hole) are each off by 0.010”, you have what feels like a mushy mainspring and you do have a weaker lock.

I’ve seen this from all makers. Whenever possible buy locks at a shop or show where you can test in hand. By chance some are going to be far better than others of the same model.

I have a Chambers Colonial Va lock, Golden Age and a Late Ketland on guns. I have several Silers, large and small, on other rifles and pistols. I have no complaints with any of them. The Va lock will singe eyebrows, the GA lock refuses to balk and the L Ketland definitely fast. But I can't really say they are "better" than the Silers. The Large Siler on my LL .45 is absolutely reliable in the extreme. Maybe I was just lucky, I don't know.

I'm no lock expert but have worked over a few and one of the things I always look for is how well the tumbler and lock plate bearing hole are fit to each other. This is a bearing and the surfaces must be mated as square,true and snug to each other as possible along with having good case or through hardening in both. I don't know of any way to make a sloppy tumbler/lock plate hole fit to ever be any good.
If these surfaces are correctly fit, smooth and properly hardened then the lock has a very good chance of being superb and a main spring can be made to accommodate the best leverage possible.
The Frizzen is an entirely different animal and must also be mated to the lock plate assembly, have it's own good geometry , closely fit parts of proper hardness. When the whole assembly comes together and works in harmony,then you have a superb lock.
In my opinion you can have a very precise lock plate assembly fit up to a lousy frizzen hardness and arch, improperly fit spring to frizzen toe and heal and the lock over all will not preform efficiently.

TerryK said:

What is the best lock in your opinion that is available commercially.

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I think the best lock is independant of manufacturer but totally dependent on the individual assembler and their committment to doing a quality job. I have been building for over 50 years and have used locks from all the main manufacturers. Those locks have ranged from excellent to non-functioning from each of the manufacturers. No matter whose, or which model lock I buy, I consider it to be a kit which will need some "smithing" to bring it to a top level of performance.

The best locks I ever saw or used are a lock by Bob Roller

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Wondered when someone with experience would mention Roller. Is he still producing locks? I understand they are pricey.

can't speak for others, but i've had nothing but great performance from my Chambers locks.

good luck with your project, and
Make Good Smoke!

Not having firsthand knowledge of locks by Mr. Roller, I’d put Caywood locks made by Mike Rowe in the #1 spot!

But I heard that Mike left Caywood Gunmakers? Are their current build locks just as good? ... should be ”˜excellent’ ... in place of ”˜good’ by the way, and hopefully they still are.

I’ve seen Chambers locks assembled by someone else besides Jim or the true craftsmen in CLA ... and the results are like those of the ”˜loose & rusty’ locks - hit or miss.