traditions flinter

[seattlesteve]

As others have noted, your vent or touch hole is too low and too far forward. Before you go drilling or dremeling anything, you might just take it back or send it to Traditions. They have a lifetime warranty on it, but as soon as you start grinding and drilling that warranty will go out the window. Call them up and let them know what the problem is. I'll try to take a shot of mine and post that so you see where mine is located.

Hi Twisted,

It would be very helpful if you could post pics of your touchole location so I could compare it to mine. I used a digital camera with macro focus to take the close-up pics.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[seattlesteve]

Regarding ignition problems, I noticed that sometimes there is a considerable delay between the flash and the main charge ignition, while other times there is very little delay at all.

Is this due to the misalignment of of the touch hole, or caused by something else?

I realize this may be a bit off topic, but since we are still talking about a Traditions Pennsylvania Flintlock I thought it was relevant.

 

[Rebel]

most likely due to your touch hole being too low. You are getting priming powder covering it and causing a fuse effect. The powder has to burn its way to the main charge rather than a quick jump of the flame through the venthole to the charge. :m2c:

 

[SimonKenton]

Steve,

Being that you're from Seattle (where the state bird is a flying fish, the state flower a fungus and the state animal a slug all in tribute to your "dry sunny weather") maybe you can drop us a line after deer season. I've always wanted to hunt blacktail but I hear the climate in their area is not conducive to the use of flinters. Then again, most of the first non-natives to hunt there probably did use flint.

-Ray :front:

 

[seattlesteve]

Steve,

Being that you're from Seattle (where the state bird is a flying fish, the state flower a fungus and the state animal a slug all in tribute to your "dry sunny weather") maybe you can drop us a line after deer season. I've always wanted to hunt blacktail but I hear the climate in their area is not conducive to the use of flinters. Then again, most of the first non-natives to hunt there probably did use flint.

-Ray :front:

Hey Ray,

I'd love to help you out, but I'm not a hunter, just a target shooter. Sorry! However as I lifelong resident of the state I can tell you that the Fall weather is not as bad as you might think. Plenty of overcast days, but the rain here tends to dizzle, not pour like other parts of the country. Also, it does NOT rain every day as some people would have you believe. ::

 

[seattlesteve]

UPDATE: Smaller Photos, easier to download

I finally had time to make the photos a lot smaller than the original .jpg files from the camera. So for those of you with slow Internet connections who may have been scared off by the massive file size of my original pics, here are the same photos in much a more reasonable file size of 35-50K ...

http://www.bestmortgage.com/Pics/lock_wide.jpg

http://www.bestmortgage.com/Pics/lock_close.jpg

http://www.bestmortgage.com/Pics/lock_close2.jpg

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

It does appear that you would benefit from grinding down the pan a bit and relieving the forward edge as well. When finished, the vent should be centered fore and aft on the pan. Try a sixteenth or so increase in depth over the entire pan. Once through the case hardening, it should go quickly. You'll want to finish the job by polishing the pan.

 

[Rebel]

Also be careful not to make it deep enough to miss the side of the barrel flat. You might check this first and see how far the bottom of the barrel flat is from the bottom of the pan.

 

[seattlesteve]

I am going to talk to Traditiions about this and see if they will fix the problem for me. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Davecoughlin]

SeattleSteve,

When you clean the gun, are you getting down into the smaller opening of the patented breech? I have to use a .22 caliber brush with a cleaning patch on it to clean out the very bottom of the breech. I also remove the vent liner to clean behind it. Might be something there left in cleaning?

I've also have one other flintlock that would fire real well until the first time I wiped the barrel between rounds. The jag I was using was slightly oversized and pushed residue down into the breech. I was screwed for the rest of the match. I had to grind down the jag so that it "pulled" more than "pushed" residue while in the barrel. Hard to diagnose but the gun shots better now.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness!!!

To be honest with you I have another Traditions "Tennessee" that has the touchhole in about the same position. It goes go bang everytime.

I've had various shooters tell me that I've needed to build up my pan to allow flame "Full Access" to the hole, and others to grind the pan down to allow the same.

Bottom line is that we all, eventually, find a way that makes gun A, or B go bang on a regular basis. A definite learning process. Each of your guns will teach you a new lesson and all the lessons add up to experience.

Shooting flintlock has taught me humility and patience.

Keep shooting, make small changes, it will get better.

Jester :relax:

 

[Bear Rider]

SeattleSteve,

A change in your shooting procedure might help you as well. In addition to using only a dab of priming powder, roll the gun as you bring it up to your shoulder, so that the lock is momentarily down. This will ensure that the flash hole is clear rather than being covered by the priming charge.

 

yep IMO the flash hole is to far down . as to being forward , well there is allot of discussion on that , I personally have seen holes touching the front of the pan and still be quite fast and reliable. I personally try and get things as center as possible but that doesn

 

[Twisted_1in66]

As others have noted, your vent or touch hole is too low and too far forward. Before you go drilling or dremeling anything, you might just take it back or send it to Traditions. They have a lifetime warranty on it, but as soon as you start grinding and drilling that warranty will go out the window. Call them up and let them know what the problem is. I'll try to take a shot of mine and post that so you see where mine is located.

Hi Twisted,

It would be very helpful if you could post pics of your touchole location so I could compare it to mine. I used a digital camera with macro focus to take the close-up pics.

Thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Here are a couple of shots of my pan and the venthole. The vent hole is just slightly above the pan and in the center. My barrel looks different than yours because I removed the bluing and then pickled it. It has tiny little pits and a slightly brown color to it. It makes the gun look like it's been used for 20 years or so.

Notice that there is a pin just in front of the lock plate. If the front screw on the lock plate comes all the way out on the stock version, the spring tensioner in the ramrod channel will drop out and get jammed. Happened a couple of times on me, so I just drilled a small hole ahead of the plate and pinned the spring tensioner in place. Now I don't have to worry about it when I remove the lock plate screw.

 

[rayb]

That picture is worth 2000 words of posting.

Most excellent

rayb

 

maybe its just the angle twisted ,but that lock looks nothing like the lock that came on mine . the frizzen itself was a cast with a leaf design on the back with a lid and pan that was about the size and shape of the basin in your pan now . the frizzen was also shinny and i tried several methods of browning it with no avail ..
Also the cock was a lot different and lighter. Did I miss something and you have replaced this lock or has traditions change their lock design to a much better one ? ::

 

[seattlesteve]

maybe its just the angle twisted ,but that lock looks nothing like the lock that came on mine . the frizzen itself was a cast with a leaf design on the back with a lid and pan that was about the size and shape of the basin in your pan now . the frizzen was also shinny and i tried several methods of browning it with no avail ..
Also the cock was a lot different and lighter. Did I miss something and you have replaced this lock or has traditions change their lock design to a much better one ? ::

Mine looks the same as what you described, see the pic below (finally figured how to post it):

 

[seattlesteve]

As others have noted, your vent or touch hole is too low and too far forward. Before you go drilling or dremeling anything, you might just take it back or send it to Traditions. They have a lifetime warranty on it, but as soon as you start grinding and drilling that warranty will go out the window. Call them up and let them know what the problem is. I'll try to take a shot of mine and post that so you see where mine is located.

Hi Twisted,

It would be very helpful if you could post pics of your touchole location so I could compare it to mine. I used a digital camera with macro focus to take the close-up pics.

Thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Here are a couple of shots of my pan and the venthole. The vent hole is just slightly above the pan and in the center. My barrel looks different than yours because I removed the bluing and then pickled it. It has tiny little pits and a slightly brown color to it. It makes the gun look like it's been used for 20 years or so.

Notice that there is a pin just in front of the lock plate. If the front screw on the lock plate comes all the way out on the stock version, the spring tensioner in the ramrod channel will drop out and get jammed. Happened a couple of times on me, so I just drilled a small hole ahead of the plate and pinned the spring tensioner in place. Now I don't have to worry about it when I remove the lock plate screw.

Here are my pics to compare to Twisted's rifle. As you can see below, my touch hole is not aligned as well as his:

 

[seattlesteve]

Ok guys, hold onto your hats ...

I emailed the pics I posted above to Traditions and told them I wanted to send my rifle back to the have misalignment of the touch hole fixed and this is the response I received today:

"The touch hole lines up perfectly. Don't look at the whole silver touch hole liner to sit above the pan. The tiny hole in the liner should line up in the recessed channel of the primer pan (it looks like a little valley) this way when you fill that channel with powder, it's even with the flash hole, and the fire burns through that hole. As far as misfiring, I would check first on the flints you are using to ensure they are hand knapped. Make sure the powder you are using is still good, and hasn't gotten a little moist.
Lastly, I'm sure you do, but ensure you are cleaning it at the very least after every 3 shots. Anything more than this there is a huge build up of residue just past that touch hole in the barrel, and it will cause a misfire.

Your Customer Support Team
Traditions Performance Firearms"


So I am glad I did NOT ship my rifle back to them, because just as I feared, they think the touch hole position is fine.

I'm going to go the range again today and try out some of the shooting tips people have given me over the past few days and see if that stops the "flash in the pan" problems. I'll let you know.

Thanks for all the input guys!

Steve

 

[Rebel]

From looking at your pics again, it appears that you have plenty of room to deepen the pan some on it, and even widen it a bit to center the vent hole better. This would help to get the hole above the priming powder. Just take a Dremel and a ball grinding stone about the width of the pan, and SLOWLY grind a little at a time until it looks right.Then Polish the pan good with the dremel and a polishing wheel with some polishing compund. This will help make it a lot easier to clean the fouling out of the pan.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

maybe its just the angle twisted ,but that lock looks nothing like the lock that came on mine . the frizzen itself was a cast with a leaf design on the back with a lid and pan that was about the size and shape of the basin in your pan now . the frizzen was also shinny and i tried several methods of browning it with no avail ..
Also the cock was a lot different and lighter. Did I miss something and you have replaced this lock or has traditions change their lock design to a much better one ? ::

Hmm... Yours definitely looks different than mine, but this is the lock as it came with the rifle. The face of my frizzen is shiny. The back is not the same case-hardened color as the rest of the lock, but it's definitely different than yours. I bought my rifle last August while I was visiting family in Oregon, so it's a fairly recent purchase. Mine doesn't have the ornate carving on the plate and cock either.

You may notice the end of a bolt coming out at the pivot point of the frizzen. I replaced the standard one with a longer version so I could attach a flash guard to the lock. I removed the flash guard to take the pictures.