Avg # of shots per flint

My gun takes small flints, the 5/8" × 3/4" ones. I prefer the black English flints to the French Amber flintd. Tried both, black Englisg seem to spark a little better. My lock sparks GREAT with a new flint. I shot the gun today at a blanket shoot, took 40 shots which for me is a lot. Pretty much used up a new Flint. Is that good, avg, or poor life? My sons gun uses bigger flints, 3/4 or 7/8. They definitely last longer.

Your experience matches mine. Plus, your lock is undoubtedly well tuned and the geometry is all correct. If I start a match with a new flint, and shoot 25 all shots, I normally experience no failures to fire. If I shoot the same flint in my next match, I can normally go fifteen to twenty more shots before I may get a klatch. A quick napping will usually get me through the end of the match. At that point, I retire that flint when I clean the rifle.

My locks are almost all well-tuned and polished Large Silers, and all behave about the same. When I owned Lyman Great Plains flinters, I would often replace flints after ten or twelve shots. They were beat up or shattered by then. I don't own the Lymans any more.

I have heard of others getting longer life out of a flint than I do, but I want my rifle or fowler to go off, quickly, every time. I don't have the patience to keep fiddling with the flint to get a couple more shots, and I certainly don't want a "maybe" flint while hunting. The only time I have ever had a failure to fire in a hunting situation was not the failure of the lock or flint, but a dry pan!

I hope that helps.

ADK Bigfoot

Thx. I didnt start with a fresh flint today. Got off 4 shots, then a fail to fire, I moved it up in the jaws a tad, got 2 more shots, then a fail. I replaced it, no issues after 30 more shots, then a fail, knapped it moved it up, 3 more shots, fail, moved it again, last shot, done. So basically, a new Flint equates to 30 shots before I gotta mess with it to get another 5 shots, then it's pretty much spent.

I just didnt know if that's good, bad or average. Sounds like it's about right. I just got done cleaning the gun, put a new Flint in it, dry fired it to check and got a great spark, so it's good to go for next time.

I get about the same as Ben and Bigfoot

On A traditions kit gun I am getting about 40 shots as well

La Loop,under the primary documentation heading,did a thread on equipment issued in the 1750s one flint per sixteen shots.
Thirty or forty is good, my TFC does better then my siler. I’ve had more and broke them on second or third. A few in the bags a good idea.

Ben Meyer said:

My gun takes small flints, the 5/8" × 3/4" ones. I prefer the black English flints to the French Amber flintd. Tried both, black Englisg seem to spark a little better. My lock sparks GREAT with a new flint. I shot the gun today at a blanket shoot, took 40 shots which for me is a lot. Pretty much used up a new Flint. Is that good, avg, or poor life? My sons gun uses bigger flints, 3/4 or 7/8. They definitely last longer.

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If you will make a pressure flaker and learn how to tune up your flint edge between relays you will improve your ignition consistency and thus accuracy potential. You will also greatly extend your flint life. Most folks wack on them with little hammers of one sort or the other or rake them back words on the frizzen neither of which is any where near as precise or effective as pressure flaking the flint edge for both longevity and spark consistency. Also the other two methods mentioned are either hard on the flints or hard on the locks.

If interested in pressure flaking a flint edge I posted a video on here about 3 years ago if I remember correctly that will show both the tool and method of how to pressure flake a gun flint edge.

I'm interested. Got a link to the video?

Ben Meyer said:

I'm interested. Got a link to the video?

Click to expand...

I posted them from Photobucket that I have since cancelled so have them on a sim card and will try to get it up again from my puter file. I'll need my sons puter expertise to make this happen so give me a few days.

I average 30 -40 shots per flint, then I replace it even thou it may still work...

I've got a bag of half worn flints which I have freshened up with a Dremel and rock cutting wheel that I use for practice at my home range, saving my new flints for woods walks and hunting..

A lot depends on the lock and the rock itself,I prefer Black English over French Amber flints.

But I've had both too shatter on the first throw of the hammer....

For hunting I always test the new flint a couple times before loading, just too make sure it doesn't shatter on the first hammer throw .

X2. What he said. Except I prefer the French ambers.

Watched the video again. And read about 60 comments after. One post noted you are not HC if you make a knapping tool from a nail.
I would think you could do it from a 250 year old square nail. Point the tip for pressure flaking, notch the shaft to snap a stubborn spot on the flint.

Ames said:

Watched the video again. And read about 60 comments after. One post noted you are not HC if you make a knapping tool from a nail.
I would think you could do it from a 250 year old square nail. Point the tip for pressure flaking, notch the shaft to snap a stubborn spot on the flint.

Click to expand...

A good pressure flaking tool should be soft enough such that the flint will "bite in" for a firm hold. The applied pressure is inward, then down.

After going through several different flints and types, I settled on the French Ambers (from Heritage).
On my Pedersolis, I get 30-40 shots before re-dressing them. On the Bess - 20 (+,-)
I put a fresh flint in before every session, and take several re-knapped in the kit for changeouts.

I use both the pressure flaking method as well as the knife spine striking method...
It depends on the situation I’m in.

The back of the knife is the quickest for me and mostly what I do on a woods walks for that reason..

a great deal depends on how well tuned the lock itself is. I had an original Curly Gostomski built and tuned North Star trade gun. I used the same flint in that gun for years, which included hunting and matches. Lock geometry and frizzen spring strength even if just right, rarely allow a flint to last over 50 or 60 shots. I had probably gotten nearly 200 hundred out of that one flint. The next did not last that long, but another flint lasted as long. I had brad Emig tune an unknown lock on a custom made long rifle I picked up. The first thing I noticed when I got the gun back was that the frizzen spring seemed a little weak, but the gun was going off and flints were no longer bashing the frizzen but striking down along the frizzen. Flints in that gun started lasting much longer.

I shoot about 40, flip it and dress, 40 more, flip and squeeze some more. Sometimes they shatter. So I would say 60 to 80 shots.

For hunting I like a flint with five shots on it so I know it isn't dull or hiding an internal flaw.

My .50 hawken (Investarm) is about 16, my fowler is more. Hardly ever have a misfire with it, but the Hawken does occasionally.