flintlock in humidity?

hi guys. as you can see from my name im new to this. infact i havnt even bought a rifle yet lol, but i fell in love with my black powder revolver and have always wanted a nice flinter. my question is due to where i live, south louisiana. its ALWAYS wet and extreamly humid here, and i just dont know how reliable a flinter would be down here. i could go with a percussion gun but i would rather go all out primative with a flinter. can you guys give me any advice? thanks for takeing the time to read. :grin:

While coastal locations probably have high humidity for longer parts of a year, a lot of places have high humidity for at least some months of a year...ie: here in central NC the temp and humidity are both usually up in the 90's and life goes right on during those months, shooting on the weekends.
So there's no reason not to get a Flintlock...and all those ancestors who were there before you had to successfully use Flintlocks there too.

Other than the obvious need for rust protection while stored, the only real thing to deal with about humidity is that the priming will absorb moisture and need to be refreshed periodically...when I'm hunting in light rain or very high humidity, I keep the lock up under my coat / raingear, and refresh it every 30 minutes...cost a penny and takes a few seconds.
And it doesn't matter at the range as you're shooting each successive shot fairly quickly.

Hey there newtothis. Where are you located? I'm in River Ridge, just outside of New Orleans.

My .54 Great Plains flinter is about as reliable as a caplock. I load with GOEX FFFg and use the same powder in the pan. Shoots GOOD too. Took a nice 8-pointer with it last year at 88 yards in St. Helena Parish.

Welcome to the Muzzleloading Forum.

My tests seem to show that black powder in the pan for priming doesn't really absorb much moisture from humid air. What little is absorbed doesn't really slow down or reduce its effectiveness.

By the way, with a Flintlock, only real black powder works well. None of the new synthetic powders work in the pan for priming and if a synthetic BP is used in the barrel it should have a small charge of real black powder loaded first to pick up the flash from the pan.

Getting back to humid weather and flintlocks:
The thing that rapidly absorbs the wetness and then transfers it to the pans priming is any fouling that is left in the pan or under the frizzen after the first shot.

Carrying a small rag that can be used to wipe the fouling off of the locks surfaces and the side of the barrel after a shot is made will protect the next powder charge that is put into the pan.

As for the main powder charge in the barrel, after a shot is taken there is fouling in the bore that will also absorb some of the moisture but the main powder charge is so large, and after ramming the ball home there is so little air left in the barrel that the wetness won't harm the main charge.
The vent hole is also rather small so very little humidity gets into a loaded barrel. Not enough to cause a problem.

Even though a clean pan shouldn't cause a problem, if you are going to prime the pan and leave it that way for some time before shooting, dumping the prime and repriming every half hour like roundball said is a good way to "buy some insurance" for fast ignition.

It's the little things like this that I'm sure were known by the people who had to use flintlocks back in the day that are all but forgotten today.
That's why this website is so neat. Folks can pass on what they have learned so others will know.

thanks guys. i'll be getting one soon. how reliable are they exactly? i dont get many shots at deer down here and id like to have a pretty good chance at my gun actually going off lol. :hmm:

newtothis said:

thanks guys. i'll be getting one soon. how reliable are they exactly? i dont get many shots at deer down here and id like to have a pretty good chance at my gun actually going off lol. :hmm:

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I'll answer it this way...I live for hunting and have sold my centerfires and caplocks because all I use are Flintlock rifles and smoothbores, and in 10+ years have never failed to punch a tag on a deer, turkey, squirrel, etc whenever I've dropped the Flint.

There are many inaccurate myths propated about Flintlocks...but using them is no different than taking up SCUBA diving...you simply have to learn the few unique things about them which the people who propagate the myths never do.
Then just always do the 3-4 little things like we've been discussing in this thread and Flintlocks will operate as reliably as shooting a modern .30-30.

And it doesn't matter if its a moderately priced T/C Hawken or an expensive custom made Early Virginia...both are reliable when used properly, neither are if they are not.

Zonie said:

My tests seem to show that black powder in the pan for priming doesn't really absorb much moisture from humid air.

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Zonie...you live in Arizona...high humidity there is like 12% or something isn't it ?
:grin:

For many months of the year here in the east coast states the humidity is often so heavy at 90-98% you can see the air is gray from holding so much moisture.
Priming powder here in that condition will get a firm smooth "skin" on top of it...(like the top of a cake when it comes out of the oven...) in about 45 minutes...changing it every 30 minutes has avoided any problems for me.

Reliability varies w/ many factors which would be evident when you get your flintlock and shoot it. Some locks are better sparkers than others and touch holes vary as to ignition reliability but they will "go off" if everything is somewhat "right". The first flintlock LR I made in 1978 has a couple of thousand shots through it and the few times it didn't fire was due to a dull flint. I never pick the TH and don't take any precautions asre amount of prime or where it is in the pan....it just fires and that's the way a flintlock should work. In rainy weather, a "calves knee" protects the pan....Fred

I took a period where I tried to do everything as wrong as I could to get the gun NOT to fire. Just to see what to expect in foul weather. I live in a place like Mr. roundball where humidity can be 90-99% for long periods of the summer. Doesn’t actually rain but it is oppressive. And unless you do something just stupid your flintlock will work as expected.

This was one time I tested it. It was 95+ degrees and 90%+ humidity. I shot the gun ten times and let it set for ten minutes in between shots. I never cleaned anything. This is a picture of the pan before the tenth shot and it fired! I used 4f GOEX in the pan.



If you take the advise of Mr. Zoine and Mr. rounball, your flintlock will shoot.
Oh, BTW, welcome to the forum, you are in for a time of your life but be warned flintlocks are addictive.

You've got the right guys talking, Newtothis. They're drawing on years of experience and not on internet links and rumors.

I'll add that I'm in the land of high humidity, and I bet it almost never drops below 90% even if it never gets much above 60 degrees, even in summer. Their methods work.

I don't know if you get this down there, but the nastiest conditions I've found for flinters is something we get between fog and mist. It's wetter than fog, but blowing around almost like mist next to a big waterfall. It condenses on everything while never feeling like you need a rain coat. Hard to describe, but you won't see a bead of water even as it soaks into every crevice under tarnation.

Based on that and assuming you get sopped with or without actual rain, I'll add a couple of points to their good recommendations and go beyond humidity:

A cow's knee if a good investment (cheap) because they help keep rain or condensation from oozing down the barrel into the pan/touch hole, even if you manage to keep the lock under the flap of a rain coat.

Use 3f in your pan rather than 2f, but keep changing it.

Keep your muzzle pointed more or less down as you sit or move around, just to keep water moving away from your lock.

Forget PC and put a strip of electrical tape over the muzzle. I'm not so concerned about water getting down the bore, but it does happen. The bigger issue is getting junk in your bore while carrying it muzzle down.

And head out the door to practice in rotten weather. You'll figure it out fast. No sense staying home in bad weather off-season if your hunts will be made in spite of weather.

So I can't type before my first cup of coffee soaks in.

Make that "Use 3f rather than 4f for your prime, but keep changing it."

Sheesh. :redface:

awsome. man i cant wait to get a rifle. thanks for all the great info.

lol i know they can be addictive. i shoot primative bows and arrows, and i saw the affects of primatitus first hand. but im more of a rifleman than an archer, so im looking forward to getting into this. :grin: one more question guys. range. i rarely get a shot over a hundred yards, but would a fifty cal flinter do the job on a whitetail at a hundred if i put the ball where it belongs?

newtothis said:

...but would a fifty cal flinter do the job on a whitetail at a hundred if i put the ball where it belongs?

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And further, if you could hit them reliably with primitive sights.

Reliability depends on a lot of things when it comes to a flintlock.

A good sharp real flint is essential.
A vent hole that is larger than the ones provided by the big factories or some vent liner makers often speeds up ignition.

I know that roundball's guns are as reliable as a center fire gun but for most of us I would say it is actually more like 95 percent.
That does mean that occasionally you will get a "flash in the pan" and the barrel won't fire.
It's the nature of the thing and it is one of the things that makes a successful hunt with a flinter seem like its just a little more special.


Roundball. I'm surprised that you don't recall the testing I did called "IS IT SOUP YET?".

Because of the low humidity in Az I stole my wife's food ripener so that I could create a test chamber where the humidity would be at 100 percent.
Here's a link to the topic I wrote concerning this:
IS IT SOUP YET?

I didn't create a environment where there is a "wet fog" like BrownBear mentions. As PO'ed as my wife got about the food ripener I'm sure she would frown on my stealing the bathroom shower for a day to test fogs effects.

Lewis & Clark's hunters at Fort Clatsop spent 2 months thinning out the elk herds in the area in exactly that kind of weather with their flintlocks so I guess it can be done.

Can't tell if you were kidding or not, but for the record, I would never accept 95% reliability rate...it is too difficult to get a shooter buck or mature longeard in range, in the sights, to accept a 5% failure rate.

I'm very disciplined about Flintlock cleaniness and management while hunting and I assume that's why I have yet to have a failure when I've taken my bucks, turkeys, squirrels, doves, and crows.

I also use Goex 4F prime, and patent breeches, and large vent liners...all those things aggregate points of reliability that contribiute to the total dependability...and knock on wood, this is my 11th year of filling all my tags with Flintlocks without so much as a delay fire...100% reliability.

Tests are artificially contrived conditions...go to Alaska, or the gulf coast, or the east coast and you'll learn about real humidity and its real effects.

:thumbsup:

Welcome to the forum.

I was just shooting a new custom .36 cal flinter in high humidity a couple of weeks ago. I mean dripping wet humidity and experianced no problems whats so ever. I wiped between shots and wiped the pan/flint before each shot. I also use 3F for main charge and prime. The little L&R Manton lock was super fast and the gun never never failed to fire the whole time I was there.

I've also shot two deer in the rain and one in freezing rain. As long as you learn everything you can and keep your powder dry, you should except nothing less than 100% ignition and if your not getting that, either fix the gun so you do or get a better one. I started in 2004 with flinters and have never had one fail me in the field yet. Thats eleven shots eleven deer. You can do that too if you take the time to learn everything you can about flintlocks. :thumbsup:

Newtothis,
If I knew how to post the video a friend took of me I would. It shows me dressed in a wool capote one Memorial weekend in Pennsylvania to stay dry. I am priming my custom yeager in poring down rain. You can see it and hear it on the video. I use the brim of my felt hat to protect the open pan while I prime with 4fg. It is raining so hard I hold my hand over the lock while raising the gonne. Then I bring the cock to full stand and FIRE! I did it three times with no problem. And I did it just to prove it could be done. :thumbsup:
volatpluvia

Actually I need to revise my first post before someone calls me on it. For some reason I never seem to remember the misses. :haha: Thats 11 for 13 shots with two misses but even then the gun preformed perfectly, it was the shooter that did not on those days. :redface:

the answer to your question is, as you may well surmise, ayup. (greetings, by the way, from the great frozen north).

If you can afford a custom rifle, pick a style which appeals to you and go for it, but be prepared to pay the builder for his or her time and skill. in the alternative, you can try building one for yourself, but this will lead you down a path from which there is no hope of recovery or return.

absent a custom gun, i would recommend a Thompson Center or a Lyman, although there are several other factory build rifles out there. I don't have any direct experience with Lyman, but their reputation is excellent. Thompson Center has a wrap- around- the- world warranty. If it doesn't work properly, send it back and they fix or replace it. No whining about 'original packaging,' or "proof of ownership,' or any of that try-to-get-out-of-it :bull: ... just up front fair dealing. My T/C had a twentyfive year old lock, and the frizzen was a bit scruffy, and i'd heard that they had redesigned the lock, so i contacted T/C and asked if i could buy a new frizzen, and the lady there told me to mail in the lock and they'd replace the whole deal. cost to me was postage. i mailed it out on Monday and the new lock was in my mailbox on Thursday.

now some folks will complain that T/C isn't as historically accurate or period correct as they would like, and i suppose that that's a legitimate complaint. So if HC/PC is an important deal for you, a Lyman or a T/C is probably not the way to go. on the other hand, youwill get a reliable and fairly accurate rifle for your money. (OK, it's safe to come out now- that's the end of the sales pitch.)

as regards the 'accuracy' issue, i would recommend that you buy Dutch Schoultz monograph. it's money very well spent, and it will tighten up your shot groups if you follow his advice and make use of his method. would I try a hundred yard shot on a whitetail? No, probably not, but not because i'm worried about the rifle's performance, but rather my own: if i could rest it on a branch or somesuch i might take the shot, but standing, offhand, open sights, no sling ... well, maybe but maybe not. most of the deer i see are much closer- forty to sixty yards. as far as terminal balistics, don't worry- a fifty calibre will put Bambi in your freezer for sure (assuming that you have good shot placement- if you don't, you might as well use a 20mm and you'll still be following a blood trail).

more tirade: use real flints (i like Rich Pierce's flints, and Tom Fuller's Black English Flints are also very good)... use real BP (it's cheaper, it's more stable, it ignites at a lower temperature, it's more reliable, it will make you thinner, richer and more sexually attractive, it will never make you ugly or make your mother dress you funny) it's also a pain in the a$$ to get in some parts, but it's worth the hassle (especially if you buy in bulk). stick with PRB (Patced Round Ball) and avoid the fad stuff.

well, that's one guy's free advice, and no doubt worth every penny.

good luck, and welcome to the fascinating world of rockbangers!

wow thanks a lot guys. you are a friendly and extreamly helpful bunch of shooters. seems like most primative guys are. :grin: i cant wait to get my hands on a rifle. unfortunatly with my hundred and fifty bucks a week paycheck :idunno: it may be a while lol.