Left handed purchase makes me Tingle

I hit up a gun show today while visiting my daughter and family. I ran across a left handed 45 caliber Tingle rifle. What do I do now as a righty. It followed me home.

I edited a misspelled title.

The funky clean out screw will need to be replaced and the barrel has some minor pitting about 7-8 inches from the muzzle. I haven’t had a chance to clean it up yet and it may clean up well. It is a 6xx serial number.

Practice shooting left handed and have some fun with it. Thats a cool rifle and I bet you can shoot it real good with a little weakside practice.

Shoot it however you prefer. I shoot rifles lefty and every one I’ve ever owned was a percussion righty. Never bothered me a bit. I haven’t shot a flintlock since I was a kid, but I don’t remember any problems even with the extra flash. Have fun with you new rifle.

Nice. Never seen nor heard of em, I love a unique gun.

Tingle rifles and pistols were generally well made and reasonable to buy, made them very desirable. Don't see many pistols on the market but rifles show up fairly regular at reasonable prices,LH makes it unusual. If you decide to let her go there's some of us LH'ers that would be interested.

I shoot lefty and all my percussion guns are right handed. I prefer left handed flintlocks.
So go shoot it and enjoy! ( might want a long sleeve shirt, sometimes I get hit with cap residue)

I finally got a chance to look it over a bit more as I picked it up while we were traveling. It has the single set trigger that needs to be set before it will cock. I pulled the lock and it is in good shape except for some surface rust on the inside. That cleaned up easily. It is a coil spring lock. There is a small crack behind the lock screw that needs attention. I will fix that. My guess based on the 600 range serial number it it was made in the middle to late 1960s.

I shot a few rounds through the Tingle today. Here are a few observations. It seems to be accurate. I only shot a couple of rounds off the bench and then used it to shoot the members postal for this month so didn’t really work on ringing it out. A .440 ball with pillow ticking is very tight and is hard to start but goes down smoothly once start. I used 50 grains of 3f black as a starting point and left it there for now. The ticking is about .012 compressed.

i shot it right handed and didn’t really notice the lock. It is a left handed rifle. The single phase set trigger took a bit to get used to. I had a couple of failures to ignite the caps and will see if I need to get a new nipple or turn this one down a bit.

I think I’m going to enjoy it and need to spend some time shooting from the bench to see what it is capable of doing. It shoots about 4” height at 25 yds. but I did not mess with the sights. The rear sight is adjustable.

Tingles seem to have a tight 44 caliber barrel. Try a 0.437 or 0.433 ball for easier loading.

Thanks Grenadier. I’ll see about getting some to try. I may also try a slightly thinner patch too.

If you are at .012 patching now I wouldn't go any thinner. There won't be enough strength in the fabric for blow by and normal pressure.

The .012 is compressed thickness. The patches I picked up at the range were in good shape with 60 grains 3f Goex. Thanks Mark.

I need to measure the bore to see what it is.

I have owned a mess of lefty muzzleloaders, but NEVER seen a left handed Tingle. Nice find. Must be quite rare. I hope you get it up and running. Try linen patches. My recent experience with them shows them to be tougher than pillow ticking or other cotton. If you get tired of being "forced" to shoot wrong-handed, sent it to me and I will take care of it.

ADK Bigfoot

Haha Bigfoot. I was surprised to find it. I tapped a .490 RB into the muzzle, pulled it out and measured the lands and grooves. It looks like .450 and .460 give or take.

Never seen a LH Tingle? I have a right hand model.

Absolutely love mine! Shoots like a dream with .440 ball, 60 gr. Goex 3F, .018 pillow ticking spit patch. Extremely accurate!

Here are some pics of mine. Everyone here loves pics when it comes to the topic at hand.

Tingle model 1962 Target rifle.

Respectfully, Cowboy

Cowboy, mine looks similar except it doesn’t have the side plate, just the screw and brass bushing. Of course it is lefty and shows more wear. I think it may be a very good shooter.