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Joined
May 26, 2011
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Arkansas Ozarks
Last year I helped a friend who is a hunting season ml'er only get his two guns in order. I gave him instructions, supplies and even a couple tools for maintaining the rifles. One of them was (yep, past tense 'was') an inline. Well, he loaded that monstrosity, ignored almost everything I told him to do and popped the cap with no ignition to watch Brother Buck just walk away. He took it to a machinist who used an impact wrench to remove the breech. In the process the threads and part of the barrel broke off. That mess is now in the trash. He has a good experienced ml'er friend (me) who could have helped him but, instead, he went the impact wrench route.:dunno: And,- AND - he has a CVA Mountain Rifle also. Used that for his hunt and, again, let Bro Buck walk off. He used #10 caps on a #11 nipple. Oh, well. I did what I could for him.
 
A friend of mine asked if I could look at the flint lock on his hunting buddie's , 30 yr. old custom longrifle. He also prefaced our meeting by stating , that his friend knew little about flint locks , and also that his friends personal tool box , was a pen , and check book. Guess one might say,the guy was a check book genius. Though friend claims to know all, maybe , not so much. He showed up w/rifle , removed the lock mechanism , and though he stated they had been shooting the flinter a couple days ago , his testimony seemed flawed. In all the years I have played w/ M/L rifles , I had never seen a more completely rusted lock. The only three parts movable on the lock plate , were hammer , mainspring , and tumbler . Initially , back when the lock might have worked , when the rifle was new , the rifle must have at least fired. The lock was a Large Siler pattern , and good enough. W/o taking the lock apart , I liberally attacked the mass of rust with a fine wire wheel mounted on a stationary grinder. Underneath the mass of rust , covering the internal parts , there were screws that eagerly accepted a saturation of penetrating oil called , " NUT Buster", ... Couple mins. later all the parts easily came off the plate , and another application of wire wheel had them shining. The "check book mechanic" , asked , you mean the lock must be cleaned ,when the barrel is swabbed out , after firing the gun??? I have a really sick sense of humor , and it took all my will power to keep from going hysterical in a laughing fit , but somehow I kept it together. The even more amazing thing found , was the wood stock had shrunk around the lock mortise allowing the poor fit at the bolster , to admit hot gasses from priming powder to scorch the wood in the lock mortise into charcoal. All this fixed , next, the sear arm would hang up touching wood , in the sear arm mortise. Mr. Check Book mechanic , was totally amazed that the rifle had "NEVER" given any problem , and had always fired. Oh well , after clearing the sear arm ,so the rifle would stay on full cock position safely , and a thorough lubrication w/ a new flint , all was well w/ lotsa sparks. He went to pay me for the two hour repair , and I laughingly told him it was my pleasure. Where else can a fellow get two hrs. of prime entertainment , :D w/o paying for it ???...........oldwood
 
I have a story like this, but sadly it won't fly on a muzzleloading forum like this is. Suffice it to note that it involved a very nice and VERY valuable old rifle of the kind that we don't talk about here, some equally old ammunition for it, and a cleaning session that cost me TWO fresh aerosol cans of Forrest Foam barrel cleaner, as well as around 500 - yes, 500 - patches.
 
Those same idiots are the reason those were invented, they didn't want to learn how our forefathers hunted, they just wanted a longer season...
It seems to me that if you’re going to have a ml season it should require a proper ml. Pennsylvania used to require a flintlock with primitive sights (no screws). I’m not sure that’s how they do it now but that always made sense to me.
 
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