They lifted the Fire Bans.

[vezePilot]

Okay, so it's been a few weeks, and now there is snow on the ground, since the gov't graciously allowed us to once again ... sorry, sorry.
But since then I traded trucks-- the new one is better in the snow. And ... BONUS ... I remembered how to load and fire.

.

 

[Woody Morgan]

Well...at least it's red. The rifle's nice.

wm (4x4 Tundra TRD Off Road guy)

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Nice frizzen, stands out.

At least it's not a Toyota.............

Dodge Cummins driver here

 

[eggwelder]

Had a red truck once. Didn`t take to it. Only owned black trucks before and black trucks since
Dodge Ram guy. That is a nice frizzen...

 

[Zonie]

This area of the forum is for talking about shooting flintlocks. Not trucks.

 

[vezePilot]

I use a .495 ball and .005 cotton patches in my Traditions 50 cal Kentucky rifle, over usually 70 grains of GOEX FFg. I use GOEX FFFg for the pan, and I am not getting good reliability. Too often not getting the rifle to fire. Sometimes the pan powder burns but does not ignite the main charge. Sometimes the spark just isn't enough to even ignite the pan powder. I have read and I use suggested methods of Flint filing, being certain the fire hole is clear, and filling the pan.

But it is obvious the issue is not enough practice. Come Spring, as soon as the snow is gone they will put the fire bans back in place. And traveling to a range makes shooting an all day affair. For perhaps ten rounds of BP shooting, that's a hardship.

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Not sure which system the Traditions uses as I'm not familiar with it, what stands out to me is your patch ball combination and powder preference. Having no idea about your shooting routine as far as cleaning/swabbing between shots, patch lube, picking the vent, etc. Also your location is important, humidity etc. Powder fouling can be tough on all of the breech systems if it's excessive, the traditional breech is the least affected.

Have you recovered any patches checking for burn through? I prefer a tighter patch (.026 denim) with my .495 ball as I find it reduces the fouling, In my fifty cal. flinter I use fff for the main charge and ffff to prime as the fff burns cleaner than ff again less fouling.

You can check your spark intensity by firing the flint in a dark room, you'll also be able to see if the majority of sparks are directed to the pan, just be sure you're doing these tests on an unloaded rifle.

Am sure you'll get many more responses to your dilemma with many more solutions.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I use a .495 ball and .005 cotton patches in my Traditions 50 cal Kentucky rifle, over usually 70 grains of GOEX FFg. I use GOEX FFFg for the pan, and I am not getting good reliability. Too often not getting the rifle to fire. Sometimes the pan powder burns but does not ignite the main charge. Sometimes the spark just isn't enough to even ignite the pan powder. I have read and I use suggested methods of Flint filing, being certain the fire hole is clear, and filling the pan.

But it is obvious the issue is not enough practice. Come Spring, as soon as the snow is gone they will put the fire bans back in place. And traveling to a range makes shooting an all day affair. For perhaps ten rounds of BP shooting, that's a hardship.

Lets review your rifle. Since it is a Traditions 50 caliber, it will have the CVA Breech shown above. While I would use 3fg for the main charge as well as the pan powder, a main charge of 2fg should still fire reliably. The first step I would take is to make sure that little chambered breech with that tiny access to the flash channel is clean. Use the 22 caliber brush with a cleaning patch dampened with rubbing alcohol to really clean the tiny chamber. Use a thin pipe cleaner or one of the dental flossing brushes to clean from the touch hole to the firing chamber. So now the breech is clean.

Time to address the flint. You have been following instructions to achieve a sharp edge on your flint. I assume that your flint is either black English or French Amber. Well, even a sharp piece of local chert will make sparks. The flint is adjusted in the jaws of the lock so when the hammer is at half cock, the front edge of the flint is about 1/8 to 1/16" from the face of the frizzen. You should have a decent amount of sparks.

If you don't have a real shower of sparks, then we have to inspect the frizzen. Is your frizzen a recent replacement? I am asking because it is in the white. Is the frizzen properly hardened to produce sparks? To check for proper hardness, run a file cross the face of the frizzen. The file should slide and not cut into the frizzen. If the file cuts into the face of the frizzen, the frizzen needs to be hardened and tempered. For most of us this is a job for a gunsmith with muzzle loading flintlock rifle experience.

 

[smoothshooter]

I use a .495 ball and .005 cotton patches in my Traditions 50 cal Kentucky rifle, over usually 70 grains of GOEX FFg. I use GOEX FFFg for the pan, and I am not getting good reliability. Too often not getting the rifle to fire. Sometimes the pan powder burns but does not ignite the main charge. Sometimes the spark just isn't enough to even ignite the pan powder. I have read and I use suggested methods of Flint filing, being certain the fire hole is clear, and filling the pan.

But it is obvious the issue is not enough practice. Come Spring, as soon as the snow is gone they will put the fire bans back in place. And traveling to a range makes shooting an all day affair. For perhaps ten rounds of BP shooting, that's a hardship.

Sounds like you need the vent hole opened up to .062” or a Chambers White lightning vent liner installed.
That’s assuming frizzen hardness is okay.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Good point about the touch hole diameter. That should be 1/16. First @vezePilot needs to get lots of sparks into the pan.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I have a Traditions flintlock in 36 caliber and it is finicky after two or three shots with flashes in the pan and either hang fires or not going off. I found tapping the butt on the ground and/or slapping the off side of the stock in the breech area helps a lot. I tried picking the touch hole and drilling it out but still had issues. It seems it needs a touch of discipline to make it behave. I hope it doesn't call child protective services.