Don't know how y'all do it....

If I had to rely on this contraption to put groceries in the house, my whole family would be on a starvation diet!



I've been giving my flinter a good college effort here lately... I'm getting good ignition (when I have a good flint) with a solid "click-fiz-bang"..... There honestly isn't much hang time. Accuracy is good off a bench rest but I cannot follow through good enough when the sights are lost in the smoke from the pan flashing to be any sort of a half decent off hand shot. I can't hit a milk jug very consistently at 25 yards, that alone at 50 or 100. I have a whole new respect for Boone & Crockett and fully understand why the Mountain Men went straight to percussion when the tech became available. I've about decided I'm going to send this barrel to Mr. Hoyt so it can become a smooth bore shot gun that maybe I can hit something with it.

I hope you all are having a great summer!

Todd

Well, the truth is your sights won't be on the target in the follow-through phase of the shot cycle at all. It is MORE and most important to know where that front sight is/was at the moment the trigger breaks. And then yes, have a good follow-through, i.e., ride the recoil if you will. See the sequence of photos attached, as these are stills taken from a video. Not shown is the after the follow-through picture where the muzzle was in about the same place it started from and that's a heavy breeched, 54" long barreled 65-caliber musket shown.

Without seeing you shoot, I would surmise you may be flinching offhand, no offense intended. BEST way I've found to cure it (for ANY shooting) is to have someone else shoot with you. You load your gun and then they hand it to you - perhaps primed, but maybe not primed. Or not loaded, but primed, if you trust their loading technique. Also have them film you whilst taking the shot. If it wasn't primed - or loaded - did you flinch? Did you move?

Also learn to 'call your shot', i.e., like in noticing that the front sight was drifting 'high right' as the shot broke. Learn to know when you have a flyer that YOU caused! Note that learning to call your shot is NOT about knowing where indeed the shot actually hits, but more so in training YOU to keep all your focus on that front sight as the trigger breaks. Now there are naysayers who disagree with this statement (but note I will out shoot them any and every day of the week ... ) but the 'ears' on your rear sight will disappear when your focus in on the front sight. Of course you need to 'see them' to 1st get aligned, but after that ... and practice, ALL your attention is on ... where is that front sight.

Please keep practicing and report back or feel free to PM me as needed. Tight groups!

wood flint.......... dry fire, dry fire, dry fire until the sights don't move.

Agreed; follow through....hold....hold....hold....

Thanks for the great posts. It is pretty easy to do the "is it going to light" trick on myself if I use an iffy flint. One that might light but probably wont. I have no doubt I'm moving a lot after the trigger breaks. Technically it is a flinch but it isn't from fear. I'm only shooting 30-50 grains of 2f with a PRB and I know my eyes are staying open. The recoil is almost as tame as dry firing. I do good when the pan doesn't flash. I can hold clear until the pan flashes. I cannot see the sights through the smoke and it throws my brain for a panic. When I'm using my percussion guns I can shoot really well. Even off hand. I do think that I anticipate recoil (flinch) to some degree To be honest, I'm done wasting components on it for this year. (insert: the wood flint is solid advice but if I know the gun isn't going to light I don't have a problem with the follow through.) I have full intentions of not giving up but I need to do so when powder isn't so hard, expensive and iffy to come by.

Thank you all for your time.

Todd

Another great way to keep from flinching...

Have some friends watch you shoot with that iffy flint... after the howls of laughter when you flinch when the gun doesn't go off you will learn not to move an inch.

That still isn't easy to do around my crowd. The howls of laughter start when the flintlock comes out of the case....

Todd

Using the pics above, right foot forward and lean into the rifle for more control.
With your feet together as shown, your back is arched, and is not as stable as your foot forward.
Your shoulders should be between your feet, not behind them.

Your fizz might be too much powder. We all start off with too much.

A good flint, lots of sparks and just the minimum amount of 4F powder. You're describing a small delay (click - fizz - bang) and the flash in the pan can be unnerving. Try less powder, minimize the fuse effect. All my flint guns go off with near instant pull of the trigger... indistinguishable from a modern arm in my opinion...good flint and steel and tiny amount of frizzen powder.

"Just a hunter",
Most hunters who come asking for help at my range tell a similar story. I first ask them after how many rounds fired are you getting these results? If you answer about the same as theirs "under 50 rounds fired" my reply is always just get back to me after about 200 more shots as you must get used to this new experience. They have most problems worked out by 200 or so. Dropping your charge down to 40 grns for the first 100 rounds helps. All the suggestions I have read above should help also...c

I agree with Boomstick. You are describing a hangfire. I never see a delay in my flint guns. While it is affordable, that brand of lock is not conducive to good shooting.

Just-a-hunter said:

If I had to rely on this contraption to put groceries in the house, my whole family would be on a starvation diet!



I've been giving my flinter a good college effort here lately... I'm getting good ignition (when I have a good flint) with a solid "click-fiz-bang"..... There honestly isn't much hang time. Accuracy is good off a bench rest but I cannot follow through good enough when the sights are lost in the smoke from the pan flashing to be any sort of a half decent off hand shot. I can't hit a milk jug very consistently at 25 yards, that alone at 50 or 100. I have a whole new respect for Boone & Crockett and fully understand why the Mountain Men went straight to percussion when the tech became available. I've about decided I'm going to send this barrel to Mr. Hoyt so it can become a smooth bore shot gun that maybe I can hit something with it.

I hope you all are having a great summer!

Todd

Click to expand...

Hang in there, flinters need good flints and follow through. As said by another reply, "where are the sights when you pull the trigger"? Throw that agate flint away and get some good black English flints.
Larry

You are right No second place, I am at @75 shots on my flinter.
Brian.

Just-a-hunter said:

If I had to rely on this contraption to put groceries in the house, my whole family would be on a starvation diet!

I've been giving my flinter a good college effort here lately... I'm getting good ignition (when I have a good flint) with a solid "click-fiz-bang"..... There honestly isn't much hang time. Accuracy is good off a bench rest but I cannot follow through good enough when the sights are lost in the smoke from the pan flashing to be any sort of a half decent off hand shot. I can't hit a milk jug very consistently at 25 yards, that alone at 50 or 100. I have a whole new respect for Boone & Crockett and fully understand why the Mountain Men went straight to percussion when the tech became available. I've about decided I'm going to send this barrel to Mr. Hoyt so it can become a smooth bore shot gun that maybe I can hit something with it.

I hope you all are having a great summer!

Todd

Click to expand...

I can see one major problem. Change your flint to an English black hand knapped flint. Throw your current flint in the trash!

That is an older pic. I ordered a handful of english flints from TOTW. They are a way better flint for sure.

Todd

Johnny Tremain said:

Using the pics above, right foot forward and lean into the rifle for more control.
With your feet together as shown, your back is arched, and is not as stable as your foot forward. Your shoulders should be between your feet, not behind them.

Click to expand...

If you meant those comments to me … from those pictures posted above … be aware that I choose to shoot in an offhand ‘Schuetzen’ style stance, which has been proven to be an IDEAL stance for such offhand shooting. The rolled spine stance holds the weight of the gun with your bone structure - not your muscles (which fatigue).

Harry Pope, the famed barrel maker of black powdah cartridge rifle barrels, barely weighed 110-pounds, was elderly, and yet using that style stance he set offhand records @ 200-yards - using BP in a 14-pound rifle - that have not been broken even to this day!

Clearly the stance may not work for everyone, but it works for me and so far my best group using an original 150-year old rifle is a 10-shot 3” group, in the 10 & X-rings, at 100-yards, as witnessed by dozens.

More info on that stance can be found here: "Off Hand Rifle Shooting" by H.M. Pope

Flint62Smoothie said:

If you meant those comments to me … from those pictures posted above … be aware that I choose to shoot in an offhand ‘Schuetzen’ style stance, which has been proven to be an IDEAL stance for such offhand shooting. The rolled spine stance holds the weight of the gun with your bone structure - not your muscles (which fatigue).

Harry Pope, the famed barrel maker of black powdah cartridge rifle barrels, barely weighed 110-pounds, was elderly, and yet using that style stance he set offhand records @ 200-yards - using BP in a 14-pound rifle - that have not been broken even to this day!

Clearly the stance may not work for everyone, but it works for me and so far my best group using an original 150-year old rifle is a 10-shot 3” group, in the 10 & X-rings, at 100-yards, as witnessed by dozens.

More info on that stance can be found here: "Off Hand Rifle Shooting" by H.M. Pope

Click to expand...

Color me impressed. Love it…

Quit distracting yourself by anticipation of ignition. When it goes off, it goes off. Focus on what your sight picture was if it's a misfire. If it stayed steady and true through the sequence, you are following through.

Losing the sight picture because of the smoke is fussing about something that isn't worth fussing about.

yonderin said:

Quit distracting yourself by anticipation of ignition. When it goes off, it goes off. Focus on what your sight picture was if it's a misfire. If it stayed steady and true through the sequence, you are following through.

Losing the sight picture because of the smoke is fussing about something that isn't worth fussing about.

Click to expand...

I’ve had that exact conversation with my brain a few times and it hasn’t listened yet. I’m betting lots more practice as suggested above will help cure my ailments…

Todd

Just-a-hunter said:

If I had to rely on this contraption to put groceries in the house, my whole family would be on a starvation diet!

I've been giving my flinter a good college effort here lately... I'm getting good ignition (when I have a good flint) with a solid "click-fiz-bang"..... There honestly isn't much hang time. Accuracy is good off a bench rest but I cannot follow through good enough when the sights are lost in the smoke from the pan flashing to be any sort of a half decent off hand shot. I can't hit a milk jug very consistently at 25 yards, that alone at 50 or 100. I have a whole new respect for Boone & Crockett and fully understand why the Mountain Men went straight to percussion when the tech became available. I've about decided I'm going to send this barrel to Mr. Hoyt so it can become a smooth bore shot gun that maybe I can hit something with it.

I hope you all are having a great summer!

Todd

Click to expand...

Actually the mountain man era was dominated by the flintlock. A mountain man could get many shots out of a good flint a percussion cap only worked once and would be hard to re-supply. Flintlocks were considerable cheaper than cap locks.