Flintlock position when hunting

[Don Steele]

ALL of my experience with flintlocks has been on the range. Never carried one into the woods hunting. Once the pan is charged...are there unique handling precautions required for a flintlock beyond those for any loaded weapon..?? In normal handling while hunting, does the charge in the pan shift around enough to cause an issue with reliability or accuracy ??

Thanks.

 

[LRB]

Pretty much, no, to all the questions.

 

[roundball]

Not an authority...can only share my experiences / opinion:

Normal gun handling applies;

Never had any reason to suspect the level of the pan powder caused any problems out hunting;

And I always use a leather 'Hammer Stall' on the frizzen as a safety.

(as an aside, the strip of tape over the vent in the photo is for this...before leaving for early morning deer hunting I load in the garage then tape the vent to prevent any possible exterior ignition source from being a concern while driving to my hunting area...I remove it and prime the pan after walking in through the dark)

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I use the hammer-stall too, both on muskets shooting blanks, and on my hunting rifles. I fill up the pan pretty close to full..., so shifting isn't a problem.

LD

 

[jamesthomas]

You really have to check an make sure that when the frizzen is closed there are no gaps and it makes a tight seal with the pan, if you don't you will loose your priming thru the gaps. I've had to do a little file work on the pan on mine. Also the frizzen should have no play in it at all. I never use a frizzen stall, See no need for it.

 

[BrownBear]

You really have to check an make sure that when the frizzen is closed there are no gaps and it makes a tight seal with the pan, if you don't you will loose your priming thru the gaps.

Amen to that. Kind of a shock the first time I used one without a good match. Walked around for half an hour and opened the frizzen to double check when I settled down to watch some terrain. Completely empty. Filing fixed it.

 

[roundball]

I never use a frizzen stall, See no need for it.

The majority who do use them do so from the well established POV that a half cock notch is not trustworthy as a fail-safe safety mechanism, and they don't like walking around with a possible accidental discharge waiting to happen.
The purpose of a Hammer Stall is no different than the purpose of a safety on a modern rifle, shotgun, etc.

 

[Roguedog]

I wanted to use a frizzen stall and actually bought one. The problem with my Lyman is that when the pan is closed, I cannot get my hammer to half cock without the frizzen touching the hammer stall, thereby slightly opening the pan. I guess my only other alternative is to keep the pan open and charge the gun when I'm ready to shoot? However, I kind of like to be ready for those moments when things happen fast. I've had times when by the time I charged the pan and closed the frizzen, the deer would have been gone. Oh well, in the end, it's safety first for me.

Jeff

 

[BrownBear]

How bout making your own from thinner leather?

 

[roundball]

How bout making your own from thinner leather?

I've seen the suggestion to cut down and form a thin piece of soft brass to slide down over a frizzen.

Prsonally, repeat...personally, I'd rather carry my Flintlocks on full cock (like a modern rifle or shotgun) with the good stout leather Hammer Stalls I use...than carry one at half cock with no safety / Hammer Stall at all.

Speaking only for myself, I've never yet hunted any game where the second it took to flip of the stall was an issue and that includes Dove hunting...I guess if I was slowly stepping in past a bird dog on point I'd slip it off for the flush of quail or pheasants...but I can say that at least doves, deer, squirrel, turkey have never been an issue for me.

Interesting parallel to the discussion...there's a good story in the journal section about a big 10 pointer that rattled me so bad at 25yds I FORGOT to take off the stall, I fired, heard a soft thud, slowly/quietly recocked, slipped off the stall, and shot him...still have that stall with the faint flint line across it.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I wanted to use a frizzen stall and actually bought one. The problem with my Lyman is that when the pan is closed, I cannot get my hammer to half cock without the frizzen touching the hammer stall, thereby slightly opening the pan. I guess my only other alternative is to keep the pan open and charge the gun when I'm ready to shoot? However, I kind of like to be ready for those moments when things happen fast. I've had times when by the time I charged the pan and closed the frizzen, the deer would have been gone. Oh well, in the end, it's safety first for me.

Jeff

Jeff, I read your post and got to wondering if your putting the leather stall on the cock/flint!

B.

 

[roundball]

Instead of this:
"...I cannot get my hammer to half cock without the frizzen touching the hammer stall..."


I think he meant to say:
"...I cannot set my hammer to half cock without the flint touching the hammer stall

 

[Stumpkiller]

3/4 pan of powder. Half-cock. Doesn't matter if the powder shifts.

I use a cow's knee but not a hammer stall.

In fact, if it can shift that's great. If it's in a solid lump that doesn't shift it's less likely to go off.

 

[Grumpa]

To each his own. Once my rifle is primed, the stall stays in the bag. I never use it in the woods, only as a safety measure when transporting the rifle in a vehicle - I have had a flintlock discharge when the pan was empty of powder! (which it always is when in a vehicle.) Of course, that would never happen if there was a deer standing in front of your sights.
The only reliable safety is the one between your ears.
Powder shifting in the pan is no big problem when you are hunting.

 

[Black Hand]

Once the pan is charged...are there unique handling precautions required for a flintlock beyond those for any loaded weapon..?? In normal handling while hunting, does the charge in the pan shift around enough to cause an issue with reliability or accuracy ??

No and no.

 

[Patocazador]

Roundball, that is a beautiful gun. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

Roundball, that is a beautiful gun. :hatsoff:

Thanks, I think so too....40cal Late Lancaster built by Matt Avance / TVM

 

[roundball]

"...To each his own..."
"...Once my rifle is primed, the stall stays in the bag..."
"...I never use it in the woods, only as a safety measure when transporting the rifle in a vehicle..."
"...I have had a flintlock discharge when the pan was empty of powder! (which it always is when in a vehicle)..."

I couldn't agree more with your first comment.
But I'm struggling with the next 3 comments...maybe I have a mental block and am missing a key item.

My understanding is that the whole point of a Hammer Stall as a safety, is to prevent the flint from striking the steel of the frizzen when its in a closed position over a pan containing priming powder...to prevent sparks from being made due to an inadvertent hammer strike, creating an accidental discharge.

Conversely if you always have the pan empty when transporting in the vehicle, the logical assumption is that the frizzen would be open and the cock forward (uncocked)...meaning the flint can't come into contact with the frizzen...so I can't figure out what purpose would be served by then putting a leather Hammer Stall on an open frizzen / empty pan in a vehicle.

Yet when the lock is primed (in the woods) with the frizzen closed and the cock back to at least half cock if not full cock...(the prime conditions for an accidental discharge)...you don't use the safety of a leather Hammer Stall on the frizzen.

Again, I agree "to each their own"...I live that approach in many things I do...I simply don't understand the reasoning that the only time you use a Hammer Stall is in the vehicle on an unprimed Flintlock the way you described.
:hmm:

 

[Grumpa]

The purpose of the stall is to prevent the flint striking the frizzen. I, personally, see no need for it while hunting. Others may feel otherwise.

The pan is always empty when the flintlock is in the vehicle. As you point out, the frizzen is open, the cock down. I am not totally comfortable with this situation since there is a possibility
of the cock being knocked back, along with the pan, setting up the possibility of sparking (not likely, but ...). As stated above, I have experienced a flintlock firing when the pan was empty. So I bought a stall to cover this situation.

 

[roundball]

there is a possibility of the cock being knocked back, along with the pan, setting up the possibility of sparking

To go along with your vehicle concern...unfortunately the vent is still fully exposed inside the vehicle whether there's a Hammer Stall on the frizzen or not of course.

And the vent still being open makes it vulnerable to any sort of external ignition sources that could get in to the main charge...a piece of tape across the pan & up over the vent blocks all possibilities 100%.