Lyman Deerstalker ignition

[chickenlittle]

Being a good son, I bought my father a Lyman Deerstalker for X-mas, a left hand .54 cal flintlock. We started playing with it a few weeks ago to get it ready for PA's flintlock season. He had lots of misfires with it while my GPR is automatic. We were using Goex 2F and 4F prime. 3F didn't work any better. With both 2F and 3F, powder was getting into the chamber behind the touchhole. He tried picking the touchhole before or after loading, or having the pick in while loading, but none of these variations made a difference.

I had him drill the venthole liner out to 1/16". Seemed a slight improvement. Pushing some priming powder in through the touchhole ensured it would go off but it was also likely to give some delay.

Dad worked the 1/16" bit around a bit to open up the liner up some more. A few test shots all went off fine but we didn't have time for more extensive testing before FL season opened yesterday. I had him drill a 5/64" hole in another liner and that is what he's using for hunting. After the season, we'll do some more shooting to see if the smaller liner works reliably or needs drilled out to 5/64".

Now we just need to get the trigger pull down to a more reasonable level.

 

[2172]

I have the Lyman Deerstalker in .50, also flint and lefthanded. You'll get better ignition if you don't have the priming powder cover the touch hole, or enter it...that just makes it a fuse, and slows down ignition. I'd suggest you try the pan about 1/3full, no more than half full.
As to the trigger pull, the sear spring controls that. Mine was a bear, too, but I took about a coil and a half off of the sear[url] spring...made[/url] it just about right. You may find it a good idea to do this with your GPR if you get the problem that some of us have had...the use of the front trigger causes the cock to fall to half cock, but the use of the hunting trigger ,the front one not set, lets it fall the whole way. The cure for this seems to be really cleaning, and keeping dry, the innards of the lock itself...that, and reducing the too-strong sear spring...
good hunting..Hank