• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Lock question

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
260
Reaction score
283
Location
NEPA
I picked up a .58 jaeger rifle at an auction online. I don't know who built it and I didn't need it, but had my initials ingraved on it so I took it as an Oman and bid $ 425 and totally forgot about it. A couple of week later I get an email saying that I won it. It shoots great, but I'm not sure if the lock is right. I'm prurdy sure the lock is a Davis Germanic Jager rifle lock, there's a circle D stamped inside the lock plate. Anyway, the flint when it's installed bevel up hits dead center of the pan like the cock is traveling about 1/8" too far. With the flint installed bevel down the edge of the flint stops just a hair in front of the pan but dosen't hit. Does that sound correct to y'all?
 
Does anyone recognize the rifle? The auction was in VA.
See how close the bottom jaw is to the pan? None of my other flintlocks are anywhere near that close. It dosen't look like the cock stop was filed, but it dosen't hit even across the entire surface.
 

Attachments

  • 20201230_201617.jpg
    20201230_201617.jpg
    302.1 KB · Views: 149
  • 20201230_133228.jpg
    20201230_133228.jpg
    87.1 KB · Views: 159
  • 20201230_133646.jpg
    20201230_133646.jpg
    53.2 KB · Views: 155
  • 20201230_133207.jpg
    20201230_133207.jpg
    60 KB · Views: 149
  • 20201230_201940.jpg
    20201230_201940.jpg
    125.1 KB · Views: 157
Track shows the Davis Jaeger using 7/8x1" flints. Is this size that's in your gun? If so, maybe you could try a 3/4" square flint instead and see how it goes.
 
Track shows the Davis Jaeger using 7/8x1" flints. Is this size that's in your gun? If so, maybe you could try a 3/4" square flint instead and see how it goes.
No, been using 3/4" and it's just about even to the edges of the frizzen. I saw that it said to use 7/8" flints, there's no way 7/8" would fit this lock.
 
It definitely looks like a Davis Jaeger, but in your last pic the cock appears much closer to the pan than is typical. People do sometimes modify flintlocks so that the cock points as close to directly at the pan as possible, so I'm wondering if such a mod was made on this lock.

edit: I was going to suggest those 5/8" square flints from Track, but they're sold out. You should definitely have a bit more clearance between flint edge and pan. I wonder if one could add some metal to the stop on the back of the cock to keep it from going so far forward? 🤔 Either that or heat and bend the cock back a tad.
 
Last edited:
I have an old(1990s) Clay Smith rifle with an L&R/Chambers jaeger lock on it. It has a piece of metal soldered under the stop notch on the hammer. Probably for that reason. A piece of metal on the lockplate on the lockplate would also work.
 
Hi,
I have one of those locks purchased back in 1990. They are not great locks because of poor geometry, which you discovered. The tumbler hole should be 1/16" to 1/8" closer to the pan. Davis's Twigg lock suffers from the same problem. You can open up the bend on the cock so flints hit higher up but that also means they strike almost straight on and get mashed over time. I solved the problem by soldering a fairly thick hardened steel sole on the face of the frizzen. If I recall, I had to file the pan fence back a little to clear the sole and taper the very bottom of the sole to fit in front of the pan. That created a good sparking lock after I also gave the mainspring a slight amount of arc downward (preload) to strengthen it. Davis springs are often very weak.

dave
 
I replaced the cock on a guess and everything is good to go. The cock stop was filed too far. I installed a 7/8 flint and it strikes right where I want it and has great spark. Thank y'all again for all the input.
20210111_235542.jpg
 
Back
Top