Hopkins and Alan minute man

Anyone have information on the Hopkins Alan minute man flintlock? The patch door does not stay closed and I don’t see what makes it stay closed and there is no markings on the barrel for the caliber I think it’s a 45 any help would be appreciated

Is that the spring to keep the door closed because it looks like the spring that I already have the pops the door open

I had one in flintlock, a .45, years ago and liked it a lot. The spring should keep the lid closed. As I recall, that's the way it worked. Patchbox lids on my rifles work like that. There's a "breakover" point where the spring on the lid slides off the smaller spring in the box. This allows the lid to close with spring tension. If you have the "button" release style, the latch is broken.

First patchbox I had was like that. Close by the spring held open by the spring. Last one I built same way.
I did have one that was a nightmare to balance. Loose enough to open it popped open all the time just walking with it. Tight enough to stay close it took an act of Congress to open it. Finely with shims of typing paper under the spring I got it to work.

Jay said:

Is that the spring to keep the door closed because it looks like the spring that I already have the pops the door open

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Never heard of one that pops open. Typically pops shut. Never hamdled one like on your HA. Could someone have installed ot wrong?

Thanks for the replies I just picked up this rifle so I will be taking the patch box apart and trying to figure out how to balance that spring still trying to figure out what caliber it is I guess I’m going to try 45 ball first

Maybe we could help better if you removed it and posted some pixs.

Most, but not all H&A "Minuteman" rifles were .45 caliber. I did see one that was .50 but that one had a "Numrich" barrel rather than the H&A marked one, so I assume it was made from parts at the end of the run. Hopkins & Allen muzzle loading rifles were assembled from parts left over and sold to the Numrich (Gunparts Corp) people in the late 80s and early 90s.They were serviceable muzzleloaders if on the "cheap" side. Most of the flintlocks needed serious work to spark reliably. Their breech plugs were allen-wrench screws, but worked just fine. These are not historically correct but a good, solid, inexpensive introductory rifle into the world of muzzle loading.

bang hit the answer in like 9 minutes.

curator said:

Most, but not all H&A "Minuteman" rifles were .45 caliber. I did see one that was .50 but that one had a "Numrich" barrel rather than the H&A marked one, so I assume it was made from parts at the end of the run. Hopkins & Allen muzzle loading rifles were assembled from parts left over and sold to the Numrich (Gunparts Corp) people in the late 80s and early 90s.They were serviceable muzzleloaders if on the "cheap" side. Most of the flintlocks needed serious work to spark reliably. Their breech plugs were allen-wrench screws, but worked just fine. These are not historically correct but a good, solid, inexpensive introductory rifle into the world of muzzle loading.

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My first flintlock was one of those Minuteman .45 caliber gun I put together from a kit when I was about 14 or 15 years old in the early seventies. I did a fair-to-middlin' job on it. Sparked okay most of the time.
Had to put well over 200 rounds through it to get to where I could hold steady through the slightly delayed ignition offhand pretty well shot it almost daily. Barrel was much heavier than I would be happy with nowadays, but it helped steady my aim. After a few weeks I got good enough that a starling, blackbird, or squirrel was in pretty serious mortal danger if I took aim at them out to 50 yards or so, even offhand. Groundhogs were relatively easy at 100 yards.
Even though the kit was not that expensive, that Numrich barrel was a good one that shot almost any load very well. Not picky at all.

I normally shoot a great plains rifle Cap lock , The H and a rifle was sitting in a local gun shop and I picked it up for 150 bucks so I’m interested in shooting a flintlock lock works the trigger works I need to find flints and the proper ramrod other than that it looks like it should shoot thanks for the information kind of surprised there’s no caliber markings on the barrel though this might of been a kit gun that has Numrich stamped on the barrel the ramrod pipes We’re glued on so I don’t know thanks for all the help

nhmoose said:

bang hit the answer in like 9 minutes.

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Was that too soon? LOL

Nope big compliment!