What is the coldest temperature your flinter went bang in?

[Hairy Clipper]

With The Iditarod-The Last Great Race on Earth, just three weeks away, it got me to wondering just how cold is the practical limit of making a flintlock go bang. I have been ice fishing at -37°F. back in the 1970's on Lake Winnibigoshish in Northern Minnesota and while it can be done, I would not necessarily call it practical.

So the question is: What is the lowest temperature that you have been able to reliably make your flinter shoot?

 

[Spikebuck]

I haven't intentionally tried to go out and make it go "bang" in cold temps as an experiment, but have been out squirrel hunting in below zero air temps and had no issues whatsoever.

I think the practical limit is probably whatever you can personally stand as a human being. I know that after it went bang and I cleaned the squirrels on the spot, as I usually do, which only takes a minute, my fingers were already darned near frozen! :wink: :grin:

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

Hunting in PA this winter in the low single digits””no problem-o in the bang-o!

 

[TerryK]

Around -15F. Seemed slower, but no issues with an LR lock on a TC Renegade.
Hunted this year at -10F and seemed about the same as usual. Hunted this season with a Pedersoli Mortimer. Crazy heavy, but 100% reliable.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I've shot percussion at about -30 and flintlock at -20. Keeping yourself from freezing is the biggest problem...

I've had more flintlock issues at +90 and 90% humidity than I ever have in the cold.

Even sat through a wet snowstorm once...Got a foot of show in 4 hours. I was sitting on a tree stump with a poncho over me because the snow was so wet...I zoned out because you couldn't see much beyond ten feet. When I looked at my gun which was sitting across my lap, the snow had stacked straight up on the barrel about ten inches.. when I decided to quit for the day the gun went off just fine.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

My only flinter is a .32 cal. and have only used it for some target practice during the summer months.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

Low single digits is about the coldest I have ever shot my percussion rifle.

 

[Col. Batguano]

-15F for me. The bigger issue isn't the sparks and powder bit, but the patch & lube. If you use a spit patch (or anything water based) you have to act pretty quickly once it's placed on the muzzle to keep it from freezing to it. Bees wax lubes get really stiff, and bare fingers get cold quick. I suspect it has a way of freezing in place once it's seated in the bore too. I'm sure pulling a dry ball would be a real joy as well. Fortunately I never had to.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

A working flinter at -20°F. I must confess I have never tried mine that cold and for some reason have thought that it could get iffy at that temperature. Having read about the 1925 serum run to Nome and some of the temperatures they were running their dog teams in really has gotten me wondering where the line might be drawn for reliable ignition. When I was much younger I really enjoyed hunting during inclement weather or as dad would say, "not fit for man or beast." With advancing age and worn out knees a stump to sit on is more and more inviting.

I have been out in some heavy snows hunting pheasants and I shot a nice deer once in a snowstorm and placed it in a dead furrow and walked back to the cabin to get some help and a truck. When we returned the deer was totally covered with snow and the dead furrow was level with snow. Found the dead furrow and followed it to the end to where I left the deer.

-12°F. is the coldest I have been deer hunting, but that was with a modern bolt action .243 Win. That might have been the first time I suspected age was catching up with me.

I winder if anyone has done any testing specifically to determine when it is too cold to go bang?

 

[Black Hand]

...it got me to wondering just how cold is the practical limit of making a flintlock go bang.

If you have loaded and primed properly, it should go bang at any temperature. The question would be whether you have sufficient manual dexterity at low temperatures to pull the trigger (which is supposedly why the triggerguard bow is so large on a NW gun - a mittened hand could still pull the trigger)...

 

[jrmflintlock]

for me it was -20 in Colorado's Icebox, down by Alamosa! Nephew had a late season Cow tag and I was just along for the fun so I carried my little CVA Varminter in .32 cal for bunnies. It went off without a hitch getting several bunnies for the pot!

 

[Hairy Clipper]

Yes, the cold can make many things change. It can get very uncomfortable at -15°F. At stuck ball at that temperature could get a guy to cussing.

I had a very close call years ago when I got wet from my waist to my toes and walked back to my car into the wind in near zero temperatures. To this day I am amazed how quickly hypothermia can set in if the conditions are right. Your joints stop moving sooner than you would think.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I winder if anyone has done any testing specifically to determine when it is too cold to go bang?

I suspect if anyone has, Pletch has. The other issue in play here is probably more relevant; Do extremes in temperature alter lock time in any significant way? My suspicion is, that so long as you don't use an oil or grease inside the lock mechanism that would stiffen in the cold, (thus weakening the cock strike) that the ambient temperatures of the active components (sparks, powder) won't be (significantly) affected.

Last I heard, the sparks coming off the frizzen have a temperature of around 2000 degrees, and black powder ignites around 867F. Taking 100 degrees off the temp of the powder in the pan means the sparks have to warm it another 100 degrees before she goes poof, so instead of having to overcome an 800 degree differential to initiate auto-ignition, they have to overcome a 900 degree one. Same thing with the sparks. They may be somewhat less profuse on a cold day than a hot one. Logic would seem to say that all of this would take a bit more time. Whether it's significant enough to measure I couldn't say. Whether it's significant enough to humanly notice, well, I doubt our senses could pick it up, but your memory and expectations might THINK you can.

 

[tenngun]

Time was when I was in the Absaroka I woke up in the night to find my fire frozen solid. I smacked it with my hawk and it shattered like glass. I picked up the pieces to trade like Amber.
Next morning I was hunting and found two deer in a meadow. I threw up on one and shot.
Click went the gun. I looked at the pan and there layed those sparks frozen and glowing. I grabbed those sparks and put them in my mouth to thaw out. Quick like I drew my hawk and threw it toward the deer. About then my sparks were getting warm in my mouth and I threw up my gun to shoot. I spat those glowing sparks in to the pan. I drew a bead on my flying hawk and boom went the gun. The ball hit my hawk blade and split in two. The halfs struck them deer and dropped them both. I had venison for dinner.
We had a winter camp on sylamore creek in Arkansas. We had a frolic at about 5 below f, and our guns fired without a problem.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

My brother used to do some winter camping in his tipi and sometimes in dug out snowdrifts. He was very experienced in old methods of fire starting and used the carbonized or char cloth most often and he used to talk about the difficulty of keeping a spark going the colder it got. This too may have caused me to wonder about this.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

My brother used to live somewhere between Pueblo and Colorado Springs. He was out there for about 10 years before he moved back to Minnesota. He told me had an invitation to help a fellow thin out his bison heard and drilled one with his .50 cal. I don't know if it was cap or flint and it is too late to ask him. My brother had a lot more experience with flint than I have and I suspect he left the percussion gun at home. I am pretty sure that at -20°F. I will be watching the bird feeder.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

Ooops, my typing is going South already. I think if we ever get something colder than -20°F. I will have to load my flinter up with powder and newspaper and leave it outside for an hour or so and let her rip and see how it reacts.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

You could work in my barber shop if I still owned it or perhaps George Leonard Herter could use a good advertising writer. That was a better story than I could come up with on short notice. You have a talent that should be exploited.😉

 

[nhmoose]

Many years ago when my son was young , my wife, nephew and his wife and their 2 kids went snowshoeing and snow shoe rabbit hunting.

Temperature was Negative 15 when we started 3 hrs., later we made a fire and cooked lunch of hot dogs and beans and big pot of hot chocolate.

3 of us had scored with flintlocks no problem, never even thought about the temp.

Note we do not use spit patch or are dumb enough to touch metal with our tongues, kids included.

 

[Juice Jaws]

You win the " hey listen, this is no s**t" award, a true mountain man