First Flintlock Outing

[oldfrank]

I have had percussion rifles for a long time but my only experience with a flintlock was when someone handed me one ready to shoot.
I bought a Lyman Trade Rifle and read about 40 pages on here learning about flintlocks. The only thing new I bought was some flints and a little priming flask.

I went to my friend's farm where I hunt and jumped right in. I wanted to shoot it with the buckhorn sight but after a few shots I knew it and my old eyes was not going to work. I put the Lyman peep on that I already had.
I wanted to see what my rifle liked so I used a .490 PRB .015 patch, FFFG Goex for pan and load.
I swabbed with a very lightly spit moistened patch between shots but nothing else. I did not pick,brush,wipe, bump the side of the breech or any of the other things I had read about.

I fired 16 times getting it sighted in with no problems. There was just one big boom but there is a milisecond delay that is different than a percussion. It was pretty dirty when I got done but everything worked fine and it was alot of fun.
I shot at 70 yards because that is about as good as my eyes will allow. I won't win any contests but I could keep all my shots in a 3-4" circle.

I took it home removed the lock and barrel and pumped water through it just like I had always done, blew it out with compressed air and oiled everything while it was still warm.
I have always swabbed the barrel with denatured alcohol before reloading again. Do I need to wipe the pan,frizzen and flint with it too?

 

[don hepler]

Sounds like you're well on your way. I wipe the flint, frizzen and pan, between each shot. A clean rifle shoots the best. I just keep an old rag in my pocket, it works fine. Me personally, I would tighten up the ball, with a little thicker patch. But if you're getting good groups, then stay with that combination. A sharp flint, clean frizzen and pan, and striking at the optimal angle, can produce an ignition, where there is no noticeable delay. My son-in-law has turned to me and said that he did not hear a noticeable delay, that's when I know, I have everything working right.

 

[hanshi]

At the range whenever I have someone shoot my flintlock, they are invariably surprised at what (to them) seems to be instantaneous ignition.

 

[oldfrank]

I was trying to establish a base line so I will wipe more in the future.

Tighter! Man , it is pretty snug now. I have to have the butt on the ground and put some good pressure to seat the ball now. It would be difficult in a little hand on tree stand. I was actually thinking of going to a .010 patch :grin:

 

[Shooey]

Good shooting Frank! I'm glad you had fun!

 

[Col. Batguano]

I'm in the same boat with one of my guns. Best groups I can shoot are with .018 patches (about 2" at 50 yards swabbing between shots) but open up to 3-4" when I go to .010 spit patches and no swabbing.

When I shoot in multi-shot timed events I use the .010 patches, because they load with no short starter or mallet, and the range we shoot at is only 20 yards at 6" gongs, and it saves me about 90 seconds per loading, and a lot less extra gear to haul around the course. And the CoF is designated as all offhand position. I can live with the decreased intrinsic accuracy in that situation as a trade off for a vastly decreased loading time. And, you have to remember that the variation from the center of the groups is only half of the increased group size, and the variation may actually get you a hit when it might have otherwise been a miss.

So the moral to the story is that each shooting situation is different. No gun out there you could carry, and no person operating them will shoot 100 yard 0" groups. You have to decide what is an acceptable level of accuracy for the situation you are shooting in, and just go with it, because the most important aspect of shooting happens between your ears anyway. Misses from the off hand position are usually not the load or the gun's fault anyway.

 

[hanshi]

Make sure, however, that it's never too tight to be safely seated with your wood rod.

 

[kaintuck]

Ol Sukey at the battle of New Oleans would beg to differ! :hmm:

When you get a good rifle, and load.....it can be done even under battlefield "timing" and with excellent accuracy......

If in doubt, ask anybody that shoots ol Burton barreled guns :rotf: .....that lil feller can make it a reality of 2" 100yd groups.......makes a "Daniel Boone" outta anybody..... :thumbsup:

Marc n tomtom

 

[don hepler]

I used to shoot matches, so I've spent a lot of time at the range. But I load my rifle using a wooden mallet and ball starter, then I use a steel range rod with brass muzzle guide to ram the ball down. However my back-up loads are made up in pre-loaded charges, and I just use a precut patch, as a follow up. At the range, I want all my shots to be the best, that the rifle will produce and in the field, I rely on the first shot, to be the best. I know I make things more difficult, than they need to be. But, with my eyesight, I need all the help, I can get.

 

[Ken Cormier]

Hi it has been my experience that loading with a mallet really not worth the effort. The potential to deform the soft lead round ball is there. This is just my observer to a good many shooters load out of the bag thumb start the ball and push it down with one stroke not over taping the ball when seated. If I had access to the shoot cabin at our local club I would get a pic of 50 with 5x's targets that have been shot using this method by a bunch of different shooters. This is just one guy's observer's nonscientific watching from the front porch of the shoot shack just looking on.
As for the og poster is the slight delay in ignition from too much powder in the pan/covering the vent as doing that it can cause it to become a fuse to the main charge instead of a much quicker flash ignition than as a lower burning cloged one. :2

 

[oldfrank]

Second outing went better as far as accuracy. I had a 2" red dot on a white paper plate at 60 yards. Front of rifle was on a rest and butt on my shoulder.
Out of four shots I got two in the dot and two about an inch to the right so I can surely hunt with that.

On shot nine, I got a flash and no bang, I wiped everything off, picked the vent and tried again. Flash but no bang. I turned the rifle on it's side and drizzled and poked a few grains into the vent hole and it fired fine.
Next twelve shots were also fine. I guess I will keep refining my technique until I get it near perfect.
I am going to hunt with it Monday with four old friends, I will clean it and be ready to go.