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Pioneer flinter

Pioneer flinter

40 Cal.
Joined
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Hey fellas have any of you ever use the track of the Wolf vent liners with the slotted face? and do you ever deepen the cone on the inside to shorten the flash channel? how long should a flash channel be? Thank you all for your wealth of knowledge.
 
I'm not a fan of the slotted (or for that matter the Allen wrench removable) vent liners. The slot encourages the users to unnecessarily remove the vent liner for cleaning. I did make a slotted vent liner when I converted the percussion drum on my Southern Mountain Rifle to flint lock, but that vent liner is seldom removed.

As far as deepening the internal cone, that will depend on the dimensions of the vent liner. I like at least 1/8" of the vent liner between the pan and the end of the internal cone. I do recommend opening the touch hole opening to 1/16".
 
The barrel wall thickness must be considered. The vent liner cannot protrude past the barrel wall. If it gets into the bore, there will be an obstruction when cleaning the barrel.
I never felt the need to open up the cone. I get good ignition without doing any other work.
 
Toneloc said:
Why is it bad to remove the vent liner for cleaning?
Click to expand...
It's not so bad as it's not necessary. It's excess wear on the threads. The threads can be cross threaded. The liner is often relatively soft, so the slot wears and may become difficult to remove.

Lots of users remove the liner for cleaning or to provide access to shoot a ball out. If they are satisfied with their experience, then they should continue that practice.
 
Grenadier1758 said:
It's not so bad as it's not necessary. It's excess wear on the threads. The threads can be cross threaded. The liner is often relatively soft, so the slot wears and may become difficult to remove.

Lots of users remove the liner for cleaning or to provide access to shoot a ball out. If they are satisfied with their experience, then they should continue that practice.
Click to expand...

There is almost NEVER a reason to remove a vent liner unless it is burned out or enlarged too much picking with one of those poorly designed hand forged twisted vent picks with four 90 degree shoulders.
They look nice, but are hard on vents unless all the shoulders are ground off for about 3/8” back from the tip.
 
Track's liners have flash channel that is too long. The cone isn't deep enough. I use Chamber's or counter bore the outside.
Personally, I don't want the channel more than a sixteenth long, but I don't change the cone.

I've never found a reason to remove a liner, but if it gives one the warm fuzzies to do it then by all means continue on.
 
Last edited:
smoothshooter said:
There is almost NEVER a reason to remove a vent liner unless it is burned out or enlarged too much picking with one of those poorly designed hand forged twisted vent picks with four 90 degree shoulders.
They look nice, but are hard on vents unless all the shoulders are ground off for about 3/8” back from the tip.
Click to expand...
My liners can't be removed for cleaning. If the touch hole becomes too enlarged, the liner must be drilled out. I have one of those neat little hand forged picks. It now sets in a junk drawer. I use a jumbo paper clip to clear out my touch holes. They are 1/16" dia, and work perfectly.
 
david w said:
My liners can't be removed for cleaning. If the touch hole becomes too enlarged, the liner must be drilled out. I have one of those neat little hand forged picks. It now sets in a junk drawer. I use a jumbo paper clip to clear out my touch holes. They are 1/16" dia, and work perfectly.
Click to expand...
 
david w said:
My liners can't be removed for cleaning. If the touch hole becomes too enlarged, the liner must be drilled out. I have one of those neat little hand forged picks. It now sets in a junk drawer. I use a jumbo paper clip to clear out my touch holes. They are 1/16" dia, and work perfectly.
Click to expand...

That’s interesting. I use the exact the same large paper clip.
I get better results by bending about 1/4” to 3/8” of an inch of the part I stick in the vent at a little bit of an angle so I can get at part of the breech plug face if I want to before reloading. Sometimes I get some really big chunks from around the the edges of the breech face where it shoulders up against the flat end of the barrel.
 
Grenadier1758 said:
It's not so bad as it's not necessary. It's excess wear on the threads. The threads can be cross threaded. The liner is often relatively soft, so the slot wears and may become difficult to remove.

Lots of users remove the liner for cleaning or to provide access to shoot a ball out. If they are satisfied with their experience, then they should continue that practice.
Click to expand...
For those with a chamber/patent breach , removing the liner is all be necessary to properly clean the small chamber, much like removing the "clean out" screw on the drum of a percussion gun.

I always use a little anti seize grease on the threads and just snug up the liner. No need to torque it to 100 ftlbs. I can't imagine getting to the point that the threads wear out. I suppose removing liners, nipples, drum screws , and such is a personal preference but boy one camp digs it's heels in as deep as the other camp . It's all good, carry on.
 
I kept arguing with a flint pistol that wouldn't ignite reliably that had a slotted liner. I wound up, like some of the folks here, drilling the touch hole to 1/16th and expanding the "powder chamber" a bit by a bit size or two. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but it improved reliability tremendously. Best of luck!
 
Are. M. said:
I kept arguing with a flint pistol that wouldn't ignite reliably that had a slotted liner. I wound up, like some of the folks here, drilling the touch hole to 1/16th and expanding the "powder chamber" a bit by a bit size or two. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but it improved reliability tremendously. Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Was it a Traditions ?
 
smoothshooter said:
That’s interesting. I use the exact the same large paper clip.
I get better results by bending about 1/4” to 3/8” of an inch of the part I stick in the vent at a little bit of an angle so I can get at part of the breech plug face if I want to before reloading. Sometimes I get some really big chunks from around the the edges of the breech face where it shoulders up against the flat end of the barrel.
Click to expand...
Paper clips are cheap, and they work. What more can i say?
 
My main question is how long should the flash channel be from the bottom of the slot to the inside cone?
 

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