Has anyone enlarged the touch hole on a Traditions PA longrifle? I can't simply fill the pan, I have to trickle powder into the touch hole to get ignition (when I actually get a spark that is)People have told me that the touch hole is too narrow. How do I go about enlarging the hole and what do I do about a vent loner after that?
I'm still getting poor sparks from my lock (the new one hasn't arrived yet). Has anyone else had this problem with this rifle ?
Thanks
Craig
Hi Cades,
I have Traditions Pennsylvania longrifle too and I have no problems with ignition. The screw-in vent that came with the rifle is coned and works fine. Here's what I do with mine to get reliable fast ignition. I use FFFg powder with this .50 cal rifle as both the main charge and the prime. When I first got the rifle, I tried some FFg Pyrodex (what I had on hand) with it and pur a fair amount of powder in the pan. It lit is just fine, but did the slow phssssssssssst Bang!
Then I switched to 3Fg and ignition was much quicker. From reading in this forum, I found out that I was filling the pan too full and at least dropped back to keep the powder level below the flash hole. Otherwise it has to burn down through the powder until it gets to the flash hole to ignite.
Then I read about using very small amounts of powder away from the flash hole and tried that. The idea is that more of the flash goes to the flashole more quickly, because there isn't anything in the way. I now put only a small amount of powder against the right side of the pan. It only covers about 1/3 of the pan and is well below the top of the pan. Ignition is almost instantaneous. You don't really hear a two stage ignition. It just goes BANG!!
Also take a look at your flint. I used the crazy expensive sawn agate flints at first because that's all I could find. Now I have the black hand-knapped English flints and prefer them by far. If you adjust your 5/8" flint correctly, it will shower an amazing amount of sparks. Roundball gave a good description in another thread. Basically this is the drill:
--Pull the hammer back to half cock and close the frizzen. Adjust the flint so it lines up even with fizzen. Make sure it's not too far to either side, especially not so far to the left that it hits the barrel when the hammer drops.
--Then adjust it for length so it just barely is comes within about a 16th of an inch or less of the frizzen. The edge of the flint should angle down slightly. Put the bevel up or down, whichever works to get that slight down angle. It's the goldilocks effect. Too much angle and you'll break flints pretty quickly. Too shallow an angle and you'll crush the edge. Adjust it just right and you won't believe the shower of sparks you get.
Another thing I do is use a brass pan brush to clean the pan and the underside of the flint after every 4 or 5 shots.
If you try all this and still have trouble with your ignition, then go ahead and try drilling it out.
As I said, I have the same rifle and after making the adjustments above, it has become exremely fast and reliable...all with the original flash hole.
Hope this helps,