Greetings from a first time flintlock enthusiast

[Road_Clam]

Good day folks,
New flintlock shooter, and I recently purchased a Traditions Pennsylvania .50 cal flintlock but unfortunately have not had a chance to shoot it. I did not realize that no flints are supplied so I had to order them online. I spent the day adjusting the new flint to strike correctly. This was a bit of a learning curve as the new flint would drive into the frizzen, but stop about halfway through it's arc. I eventually got the ideal (I think) position so the flint arcs smoothly and completely, and drops a nice shower of sparks into the pan. Got all my necessary ML loading supplies so I should be good to go.

 

[ghostdncr]

Welcome aboard! I've been addicted to these things for years and always enjoy seeing someone else make the mistake of picking one up. :haha:

Sounds like you are on the right track with your flint adjustment. The arc of the flint should closely follow the radius of the frizzen, scraping that shower of sparks squarely into the pan.

 

[mooman76]

Well good luck and hope you do well with your new gun. I take it you have shot caplocks before?

I have shot flint a few times but haven't dived in totally yet. I plan to after I retire in a couple years. Right now I just don't have the time.

 

[Bearkiller]

Welcome to the forum! Nice looking rifle you have there. I have a couple of Traditions flinters and they shoot better than I can hold them. I found that opening up the flash hole helped ignition quite a bit but shoot yours first it may not need it.

 

[Flintlock_bob]

Congratulations on your flintlock. Have you put some powder in the pan to test the ignition?

My first flint rifle was a Traditions Kentucky kit. The hammer/cock was so badly out of time I had to get it replaced. Traditions sent me an upgraded lock that has worked very well, keep it clean an it goes bang every time

 

[Road_Clam]

Congratulations on your flintlock. Have you put some powder in the pan to test the ignition?

My first flint rifle was a Traditions Kentucky kit. The hammer/cock was so badly out of time I had to get it replaced. Traditions sent me an upgraded lock that has worked very well, keep it clean an it goes bang every time

Have not yet done a pan "live fire" test but I will do this as suggested. This is something I can do out in my backyard prior to my maiden range trip. I actually belong to a gun club, and been seeing many hunters sighting in for ML season.

 

[Cruzatte]

Welcome to the dark side. You'll probably never recover. So enjoy the ride. And if you have one flint lock, why like me, you'll probably want another. Stick around. This is a friendly bunch.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Make sure you get all the protective grease out of the barrel and that pesky Traditions chamber at the breech. Rubbing alcohol and sub caliber cleaning jags will do it.

Be prepared to enjoy your new rifle.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Got all my necessary ML loading supplies so I should be good to go.

STOP IMMEDIATELY! GO NO FURTHER!
Do not approach the rifle nor even look upon it! Call your local Black Powder club or look one up online and have one of their members come and remove said rifle from you home. YOU may not be infected, and so may escape, but the person from the local club that arrives to remove the piece is already doomed.

Pay no attention to anything that said person mutters, concerning how "nice" the rifle appears, or how much "fun" it is to shoot such a thing, nor how "pleasant" the fellowship with the club members might be...In Fact..., make him take it straight out the basement door to the trunk of his car.

Again...., HE IS DOOMED, but it might be possible to save yourself.

Alas it may be too late. Symptoms of "the bug" include but are not limited to:

Neglect of any other form of shooting sports, and lack of use of "modern" firearms already owned

Short temperament when one spends more than a few weeks from the range or the woods

Naming of said flintlock firearm, and coming to the belief it has a personality

Forsaking of modern attire to what would be called retro-wool, circa 1950 when hunting...., and..., As the bug progresses, the patient presents by wearing clothing patterned after that worn centuries ago. NOTE in many cases the "retro '50's symptom" progressed immediately to the 3 centuries old attire with NO WARNING

In addition to the clothing and often when the clothing symptom does not present, the infected person will present by acquiring items of old aka "antique" technology for use in the home or the field. These may manifest in the acquiring of flint & steel and the shunning of the use of matches or a butane lighter, copper pots, fire irons, a cast iron Dutch Oven, and etc.

The patient will also present (even if the clothing symptoms do not manifest) with the addition of odd words to the vocabulary. Some examples are, but are not limited to:
Oznabrigs,
Stroud,
kersey,
tow,
moccasin,
shoe-pack,
legging's,
"weskit",
"vittles",
top knot,
snapsack,
front-stuffer,
smoke-pole,
palaver,
plew,
char,
cock (not referring to a male organ or to a male chicken),
frizzen,
gaiters,
and although breech and breeches are very similar words they refer to two very different things.

Heed this warning!

:haha:

LD

 

[don hepler]

Welcome, to the club. A couple of things, to think about. I've always described the flint striking the frizzen, a lot like shaving. If you think about the angle that a blade is when you shave, or the angle of a knife, when wittling, then you can visualize how the flint must shave the frizzen.

Remember, that anyone to your right, is in danger of getting hit, by hot metal char and any open container of powder can and will ignite.

I can't speak for the rifle that you bought, but a well tuned flintlock can fire almost as fast as a cap lock. My son-in-law, heard my large Siler lock and thought it was a center-fire.

Flint/Lock, the two most important things. I buy flints, that are parallel and very similar in shape and size. That's why, I don't order my flints. They are too important, to me, to take the chance.

There is a lot more things to consider, but nothing more important, than being clean. I wipe the flint, the pan, and the touch hole between each shot. A clean flint and clean pan, goes a long way to reliability.

I see more rifles, in your future.

 

[Wes/Tex]

:haha: Yeah...flinters can lead to wearing old animal skins in the woods and calling people "ye"! Welcome to the addiction! :rotf:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

I started with that same rifle and the flashole size was never a problem. I found it to fire extremely reliably if I only filled the pan 1/2 full; closed the frizzen; and gave the rifle a quick flick of the wrist to the right, which puts some space between the powder and the flash hole.

When ordering the flints for it, the 5/8" x 5/8" square ones are the ones you want to order. The longer 5/8" x 3/4" flints don't fit well; get crushed tips because they are too long and hit at too abrupt an angle; and sometimes even break in half.

If you need to move the flint back farther to get that slicing angle on the frizzen and you are using leather to hold the flint, take the leather out; fold it in half; and cut a V notch out of the middle. This actually makes a diamond notch in the leather and ewhen you re-install the flint it will allow you to move the flint farther back against the jaw screw of the cock.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

 

[Twisted_1in66]

One other note about your new rifle. Be VERY careful that you do NOT remove the front lockscrew (Traditions calls it a sideplate screw) when you pull the lock out for cleaning. If I recall correctly the manual says to put tape over it to keep it in place.

Reason for that is that the ramrod is held in place by a ramrod retaining spring and that front lock bolt goes through a circle in one end or the spring to hold it in place. If that lockscrew comes all the way out, that retaining spring will fall into the ramrod channel and jam the ramrod in place. You will have to remove the barrel to release the ramrod and secure the spring with the bolt again.

I had that happen often enough that I had a gun builder friend drill a small hole and put in a piece of pin stock to hold that retaining spring in place. I pinned it just in front of the lock and the spring worked fine from there. Here's a picture of where I pinned it :

I usually recess my pins slightly and use some walnut colored wood putty (crayon type) to cover it. I picked out a bit of that here to make it more easily visible.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

 

[Kansas Jake]

Dan, the pin is a great idea. I've had to do the pull the barrel thing to recapture the ramrod retaining spring. I've also done a bunch of fishing with a paper clip to pull it back into place for the lock screw. What a poor piece of design on a firearm that will need careful cleaning to be maintained.

 

[hanshi]

Welcome to the forum Road Clam. :thumbsup:

 

[Silky921]

Welcome aboard. Started with a similar rifle years ago and have been having a sulphur scented blast ever since.

Look forward to your learning process and stories.

 

[Frozenwinter]

Got all my necessary ML loading supplies so I should be good to go.

STOP IMMEDIATELY! GO NO FURTHER!
Do not approach the rifle nor even look upon it!
*snip*
Heed this warning!

:haha:

LD

:haha:

 

[AZbpBurner]

Got all my necessary ML loading supplies so I should be good to go.

STOP IMMEDIATELY! GO NO FURTHER!
Do not approach the rifle nor even look upon it! Call your local Black Powder club or look one up online and have one of their members come and remove said rifle from you home. YOU may not be infected, and so may escape, but the person from the local club that arrives to remove the piece is already doomed.

Pay no attention to anything that said person mutters, concerning how "nice" the rifle appears, or how much "fun" it is to shoot such a thing, nor how "pleasant" the fellowship with the club members might be...In Fact..., make him take it straight out the basement door to the trunk of his car.

Again...., HE IS DOOMED, but it might be possible to save yourself.

Alas it may be too late. Symptoms of "the bug" include but are not limited to:

Neglect of any other form of shooting sports, and lack of use of "modern" firearms already owned

Short temperament when one spends more than a few weeks from the range or the woods

Naming of said flintlock firearm, and coming to the belief it has a personality

Forsaking of modern attire to what would be called retro-wool, circa 1950 when hunting...., and..., As the bug progresses, the patient presents by wearing clothing patterned after that worn centuries ago. NOTE in many cases the "retro '50's symptom" progressed immediately to the 3 centuries old attire with NO WARNING

In addition to the clothing and often when the clothing symptom does not present, the infected person will present by acquiring items of old aka "antique" technology for use in the home or the field. These may manifest in the acquiring of flint & steel and the shunning of the use of matches or a butane lighter, copper pots, fire irons, a cast iron Dutch Oven, and etc.

The patient will also present (even if the clothing symptoms do not manifest) with the addition of odd words to the vocabulary. Some examples are, but are not limited to:
Oznabrigs,
Stroud,
kersey,
tow,
moccasin,
shoe-pack,
legging's,
"weskit",
"vittles",
top knot,
snapsack,
front-stuffer,
smoke-pole,
palaver,
plew,
char,
cock (not referring to a male organ or to a male chicken),
frizzen,
gaiters,
and although breech and breeches are very similar words they refer to two very different things.

Heed this warning!

:haha:

LD

... And for a moment should disregard the above advice as trivial, humorous or unimportant, read my admonition:

While in High School around 1968, I had [mis]fortune to meet an old gent at the range where I'd often shoot on weekends. He always had a shooting bench filled with some magnificent flintlocks, and at each visit to the range, he always had different ones; never the same ones. It was a hoot to watch him shoot, and he quickly invited me to try one. They were all right-handed, and I'm a lefty, but after a few shots, I mastered the flinch by following his advice. Soon I arrived at the range, left MY guns in the car & proceeded to greet him, usually bringing sandwiches & drinks to share. He had already shown me how to load, prime and fire, and always had a particularly beautiful example on an adjoining table for my use. As I recall, none were never any larger than around .45 caliber; they were all deadly accurate. I thought he was a gunmaker, testing out some new rifles before handing them over to customers, although he did have a few which looked to have been antiqued to look really old. In reality, they were all old originals of a collection passed down to him from previous family generations; they were all premium examples of the gunmaker's art. None were for sale.

So, I was already an accomplished flint shooter when my Dad completed building his caplock rifle. Try as I might to point him toward flint, he wasn't interested in flintlocks, having fired one once & didn't care for it. The .40 cal capper he built in 1970 was accurate from the first shot fired at the range. I now have it, and it looks as he'd fired it a bit, due to finish wear.

Nevertheless, I built a caplock pistol and fired it, also had a breech-loading carbine, but never a rifle --- until --- Many years later when I got a caplock rifle. I had good fortune to be able to fire numerous flintlocks over the years & one of the guys at the range finally asked me why I didn't have one of my own yet. That got me a .50 cal. flint GPR. As time went on, I acquired other flint rifles, one which became my 'grapefruit slayer' since I needed to dispose of several excess bags of leftover grapefruit Dad grew & gave to me - the freezer only holds so many gallons of grapefruit juice. MORE flinters followed & I've gorwn an affinity for .54 caliber. I've bought and sold many over the last 20 years or so. My latest is a new 'grapefruit slayer'. I'm setting up the sights for it now.

The moral of the story: Don't let your guard down. Once you've fired that first flinter, you may think it's no big deal. BUT, you've already been infected with a bug that may lie dormant for DECADES. When it re-emerges, you'll have no recourse than to buy or build another, then another, then another.

So, why wait? You'll encounter a flint rifle that speaks to you. Don't ignore it, after all, you're already doomed :rotf:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

***SNIP***

after all, you're already doomed :rotf:

***SNIP***

It's good to be DOOMED!!

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan