Flintlock accuracy, is it me ?

I have a few caplock hawken style rifles that I can stack round balls all day at 50 yards, but with my Kentuckey rilfe flinter I can only manage 3" to 4" at 50 yards. I don't know if it's just me being new to flint guns and need more range time or some other variable. I played around with load charges and patch thickness and get about the same results. The rear sight notch seems to be to wide for the thinner front blade compared to my caplocks, and has more room for error; but now I'm just making excuses. Any advice for a newbie flint shooter ? -Thanks

Are you shooting free standing or over a bench with sandbags? I am the first to admit I'm a better shot with a cap lock than a Flinchlock. It takes practice, there is a whole lot going on right in front of your face with a Flint that's not happening with a cap lock.

Tasbay said:

Are you shooting free standing or over a bench with sandbags? I am the first to admit I'm a better shot with a cap lock than a Flinchlock. It takes practice, there is a whole lot going on right in front of your face with a Flint that's not happening with a cap lock.

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Off the bench on bags.

Go and shoot it all day. Shoot it so much that the lock gets filthy and your flints get so dull that you don't know whether or not you will get a flash in the pan or a click or a whosh boom. You'll get frustrated, but you'll also get used to all that in your determination to get a shot on target that your brain will learn to ignore it. Then when you have a clean rifle with a sharp flint you will be able to do something.

Practice followthrough, focusing on the front site and holding the rifle on target after your shot goes off.

The cool thing about flinters is the number of variables. Balls, patches, powder, even weather.
It took me a while to dial mine in (like 3 years).

kyron4 said:

I have a few caplock hawken style rifles that I can stack round balls all day at 50 yards, but with my Kentuckey rilfe flinter I can only manage 3" to 4" at 50 yards. I don't know if it's just me being new to flint guns and need more range time or some other variable. I played around with load charges and patch thickness and get about the same results. The rear sight notch seems to be to wide for the thinner front blade compared to my caplocks, and has more room for error; but now I'm just making excuses. Any advice for a newbie flint shooter ? -Thanks

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Yes, it's you. Fortunately, it can be overcome by practice and learning about your rifle. What is the state of the crown at the muzzle? Is it too sharp? Have you tried the over-the-powder wads? Are you wiping between shots? Are you using a wet patch lube or a dry lube? Is the front sight reflecting glare by being in the sun? Try some sight shaders. A tube from a roll of toilet paper can be cut along the cylinder and placed over the sights to eliminate glare from the sun. Is it windy? Concentrate on the front sight. Fill the rear sight with JB Weld (you can apply heat to remove it later) and make a narrow rear sight notch. Verify that the sights are tight in their dovetails.

Heed all the above instructions on practice and follow through. Always rest the rifle at the same place on the sandbags. Try some shots at the entry thimble. Try some shots with the rifle resting on the bags at the muzzle. Make sure the butt rests at the same spot on your shoulder.

Poor accuracy can be attributed to slow lock time. If there is ANY delay in ignition, your accuracy will suffer considerably. The avatar to your left is a percussion conversion I performed on a flintlock Charleville musket. That flintlock was sloooow. I could pull the trigger, order a pizza, eat it, and drink a coke before the charge would go off. My shot placement, standing, was consistently 12 inches low and 8 inches left. Not no mo.

It doesn't matter how steady you think you are shooting off a bench. If it doesn't go bang the moment you pull the trigger, the muzzle is going to move. Before worrying about powder, ball, and patch combinations, really listen to your lock time. If you hear a woosh before the bang, you have slow ignition.

Best of luck. Cuzz it gets frustrating.

It's you, not the rifle. I've been shooting these things for quite some time now and I'm still not "good" at it. I can hold a ragged hole off of bags but as soon as I pick the rifle up off the bench, or start adding in some form of human variable the shots start to move. It's gonna take practice, a lot of it, and as you've already been told, if you're getting woosh bang instead of about the first three letters of click (cli-BANG) then you need to figure that out. Too much prime, dull flint, flint placement etc... etc.. etc...

I started shooting flint in the late 70s. Long time have passed since I’ve noticed a delay. Oft times I’ve let someone at the range shoot my gun, only to hear about this delay thing, even if though to me I’m thinking quick shot.
The more you shoot the less you notice.
Try dry fireing with a wood ‘flint’. And hold on target after the shot.
Pretend you can hear Mel Gibson telling you to ‘Hold….Hold….Hold….now’
Then waste a few flints just setting off the prime, while you hold on target. Soon you won’t notice a delay at all and trigger pull and shot will seem simultaneous

kyron4 said:

I have a few caplock hawken style rifles that I can stack round balls all day at 50 yards, but with my Kentuckey rilfe flinter I can only manage 3" to 4" at 50 yards. I don't know if it's just me being new to flint guns and need more range time or some other variable. I played around with load charges and patch thickness and get about the same results. The rear sight notch seems to be to wide for the thinner front blade compared to my caplocks, and has more room for error; but now I'm just making excuses. Any advice for a newbie flint shooter ? -Thanks

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Lots of good reasons already mentioned about your poor groups at 50 yards. Another possibility is that the barrel is just not a quality shooting barrel. If you have a friend who can shoot flint, have him/her shoot it and see what they think. Most likely it is you, but don't place all the blame on yourself until you can prove the gun shoots decent groups. JMO
Larry

Here is something that helps me. I have a variety of muzzleloaders with different stock shapes, barrel lengths, calibers, etc. When I start using a different type each time I go out, my accuracy begins to worsen. I can still hit what I aim at, but the groups start to spread.

But, when I stick with one gun for a while, the accuracy returns. I don’t have any two guns that are exactly alike, so each one will shoulder a little different, sights look different, triggers feel different and so on.

Maybe practicing with just the one gun for a while might help.

The only way you will ever obtain accuracy with your flintlock is by SHOOTING it!!

Just a couple of suggestions and as said @Grenadier1758 it's most likely you and not the rifle. First, have someone video you when you're shooting to check your form, the pan flash may be causing you to flinch somewhat. Second, let someone else fire from the same rest and see if there's a difference.

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64Springer said:

The avatar to your left is a percussion conversion I performed on a flintlock Charleville musket. That flintlock was sloooow. I could pull the trigger, order a

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I don't know which model Charleville you have. I have a Pedersoli Charleville that I converted to caplock. To convert it only took a new Pedersoli Harpers Ferry percussion lock and a drum that was the same thread size as the vent liner. I can easily switch between to two ignition systems.

ord sgt said:

I don't know which model Charleville you have. I have a Pedersoli Charleville that I converted to caplock. To convert it only took a new Pedersoli Harpers Ferry percussion lock and a drum that was the same thread size as the vent liner. I can easily switch between to two ignition systems.

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Pedersoli here too. Everything is reversable. I have a vent liner with the same thread size as the drum.

Making the hammer, filing it to shape and filing the square for the tumbler shaft was the hardest part. A little bees wax and coconut oil concoction works well for filling the small gaps that were left.

The hammer and striker look like a rabbit with a can of carrots stuck on its nose, but she goes bang every time.

The two lock plates are the same size. They both fit in the lock mortice, no problem, no gaps.

Actually there are two elephants in the room. #1 is flinching from the primer flash. #2 Not following through. It may take a while to overcome the flinch but that only takes practice. And you must follow through and keep the rifle aimed for a breath after firing. With a flintlock you can't get away with trigger-bang and then moving it, lowering it or taking your eyes off the front sight. I shoot about the same with either flint and percussion. But that doesn't say much since I can't see as well as years ago and then there's the bit of tremors I have.

I still say you should practice with a worn out flint. Not knowing whether or not you will get a click, flash in the pan, a whoosh-bang, or a cli(ck)-bang is much better than practicing with a piece of wood instead of flint or just primer in the pan. You need to have no idea what is going to happen after you pull the trigger.

Follow-through is a funny thing. It applies to most shooting , modern rifles, percussion, archery, but probably most of all to flintlock rifles. Almost any rifle with a good barrel can be made to shoot consistently well. After figuring what your rifle likes (they are finicky), it’s like learning to play music, perfect practice, perfect practice, perfect practice.