Question about flintlocks from a newbie.

[Nabonidus62]

Australia is pretty much the same mate.

I initially bought Pedersoli which aren't bad guns. But if you look hard enough you can find custom second hand guns around. And for the price of Pedersolis now you're really better off going the latter direction.

I've had success putting wanted ads on gun sites. Picked up my 54 GRRW flinter and 62cal smooth fusil de chasse that way.

Yeah I was quite surprised to learn what pedersoli guns cost compared custom jobs.

I'll definitely put some ads up though, cheers for the advice.

 

[Nabonidus62]

Tha nsmm

Even with all my experience with smooth bored guns, I have found that that I can't tell someone the range and accuracy that they should expect out of their firearm. That is something you will have to determine at the range. So I tell people that they should start with expecting hunting accuracy with a ball to be about 50 yards maximum. After load development at the range, you might find that your hunting distance will be 35 yards for consistent placement of the ball or maybe longer. The same is true of shot. You will learn through the shot pattern development the pattern density and the range that the shot is effectively penetrating a sturdy tin can.

Thank you for the info. I'm sure it will help a lot.

 

[Nabonidus62]

I have no experience with short barrel smoothbores; but have lots of experience with short rifles. My smoothbore has a 38" barrel. A shorter barrel will generally deliver less velocity but not necessarily a great loss. Range, a good way to determine how far you can shoot is the greatest range you can keep three shot groups on an 8" target every time. I've also sometimes used the size of a soccer ball as an example. Mine will easily beat that but I spent a lot of time finding it. A short barrel will have near the same trajectory a longer one.

Thanks for advice and info. Its really helpful.

 

[Sun City]

IMO when ya get away from the Hawken style…..you’ve screwed up! Just my opiniom!

 

[TFoley]

@Nabonidus62 - if you go to my post in the pre-flintlock section, you'll see a world-renowned author and current world-champion BP shooter, capandball/Dr Bálasz Németh, shooting a matchlock.

Seeing what he gets up to to shoot this artifact of the mid-1500's is a lesson to anybody wanting to take it to the woods. I'll leave it at that.