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Traditions Pennsylvania?

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Joined
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Thinkin on one for my next rifle:
BD608341-BFEA-4-D70-9-A9-C-3-B09-F76633-A2.jpg

I’ve had bad luck with the customs. Think my next one should be a factory. Has a roundball twist and looks good.

Thoughts?
 
Those rifles can be excellent shooters/hunters. The thing to watch out for is any problem with the lock. Otherwise I've found them to be as good in the field as a custom.
 
Traditions had a few on their Specials page at a pretty good discount. I was looking at the flintlock.
 
Thinkin on one for my next rifle:
BD608341-BFEA-4-D70-9-A9-C-3-B09-F76633-A2.jpg

I’ve had bad luck with the customs. Think my next one should be a factory. Has a roundball twist and looks good.

Thoughts?
Not to turn this into 16 pages of complaints, but could you give us a brief summery of what went wrong with the custom builds? I thought the customs would blow away the factories as long as they were well made. I must not be paying attention.
And that IS a nice looking gun. As soon as you dirty up the brass it will look even better.
 
I had one of those, it was a great shooter. My only complaint with the rifle was the Roman nose made it hard to shoot... way too much drop ( for me at least). I got mine for 400$ it had some inlays as I remember... all in all not a bad rifle. If I was gonna go after a factory rifle the Hatfield or Pedersoli Frontier would be my choice. Excellent shooters as well as light, good looking lines and not too much drop. Just my 2 cents.
 
I have a Shenandoah in 36 flint. It is okay, but I think the stock is beech. Some of the inletting has a dark filler to cover up poor work. It shoots ok, the lock is fair and has the Roman nose as mentioned above. I have a couple of other Traditions rifles and they shoot well, just towards the lower end of production muzzleloaders. If the price is right, I would buy another but only as a bargain at this point.
 
Good luck with all my traditions so far. There is a nice .32 Dixie (same quality in MHO) on forum now, I might grab it first. Not so flashy which is all I see wrong with the Pynn (I hunt thus I like black or steel furniture)

And I would agree on the customs. Now that laughin dogs shut down I would get a Kibler as the customist rifle these days (and might have him build it LOL)
 
Pedersoli guns look prettier but the CVA, Traditions and Pedersoli all shoot well and are about equal in actual use.
 
Thinkin on one for my next rifle:
BD608341-BFEA-4-D70-9-A9-C-3-B09-F76633-A2.jpg

I’ve had bad luck with the customs. Think my next one should be a factory. Has a roundball twist and looks good.

Thoughts?
I have had one of those since ~2004. It is nose heavy, heavy overall, shorter than most long rifles, too heavily decorated for historically accurate use during the Rev War, too much crescent in the butt for Rev War, wrist is too thin (should be wider than it is tall and it is the opposite), adjustable sights on it weren't available then, and I have yet to locate the Rev War group that Traditions claimed said it was accurate for the Rev War. It was neither the BAR (Brigade of the American Revolution) or the CL (Continental Line). Nonetheless no one turned me away from using it in reenactments for about 3 years before I got my Early Lancaster rifle from a private builder who used to be active on this forum.

The other big problem with it is that it will bruise your cheek when you fire it. That large Roman Nose curve to the top of the stock makes it hard to line up the sights. So the natural inclination is to lean your head over it until you can get them lined up. Then when you fire the rifle, the recoil slams into your cheekbone and you get a nice bruise. There are two ways to successfully shoot the rifle and avoid that bruised cheek.

1. Mount the rifle with your cheek farther back and slightly down the stock so you can use the sites without tipping your head over the top of it.

2. The second and usually best choice is to use an old shotgunner's trick. Mount the rifle in the normal place, but instead of tipping your head over the stock, turn your nose into the stock. This will allow you to align the sights looking out of the inside corner of your eye just fine and when you fire the rifle, the recoil slides along your cheek and doesn't smash into it.

Despite all of those problems with the rifle, it is actually a good shooter. Mine likes a 95-gr. charge of 3f black powder, which is a pretty heavy charge. But it really shoots a .490 patched round ball accurately with that load. I was living in VT when I first bought it and had the opportunity to shoot at a 1½' X 2½' metal target at 200-yds. Basically it was a metal "torso" target. On my first shot I hit low and to the right. So I aimed high and to the left and rang that target on all three of my subsequent shots.

So it is definitely a shooter for game and at .45 caliber legal for hunting deer. Because it has a straight or tapering octagonal barrel, it is very nose heavy and best to shoot it from a rest such as a tree limb when hunting. With my Early Lancaster rifle instead of a straight 40¾" barrel, I have a 44½" swamped octagonal barrel.

A swamped barrel tapers from the breech to the middle of the barrel continues straight for a bit and then about 8" to 12" from the muzzle flares out gradually again. So it's a bit of an hourglass on its side shape but not nearly as drastic. This "swamped" barrel design moves the balance of the rifle back into the forearm where you grip it. It's much easier to mount and night and day easier to hold and swing than a straight or straight tapered barrel. Offhand shots are much more easily done with my almost 4-inch longer swamped barrel, though I will absolutely use a rest for best accuracy if there's a tree branch close by.

They are also historically accurate as that's how all rifle barrels were until the mid-1800's when Remington devised a way to drill a long barrel instead of hammer-forge welding a rifle barrel around a mandrel. Typically they will add about $100 to the price of the rifle and it is far better choice to go with swamped barrel than it is to choose the fancier wood. Get both if you can, but that swamped barrel made a HUGE difference to me.

When I bought mine, it was $449. I understand they are almost double that now. Ask around here on the forum for suggestions of builders to use and you will end up with a far superior Longrifle than the Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle and price will not be much more.

Twisted_1in66 :thumb:
Dan
 
These imported guns tend to be not very authentic even though they look okay and shoot very accurately. If authenticity isn't an issue - it's not with me - they can make excellent field and target rifles.
 
These imported guns tend to be not very authentic even though they look okay and shoot very accurately. If authenticity isn't an issue - it's not with me - they can make excellent field and target rifles.
Outside of a gun builder in my reenactment group at the time educating me about why it wasn't Historically accurate for Rev War, and the fact that I have to be careful how I sight it so I don't bruise my cheek every time I fire it, it definitely works well.

The one I have also has a highly figured walnut stock. All of them come with a walnut stock but it's unusual to have one that is highly figured. Although blued barrels are correct for the time period (charcoal bluing was used which actually gives a brighter blue), I stripped that and pickled the barrel giving it a well used and natural patina instead of the bluing.

It also has a small lock - pistol size. I found with mine it would reliably fire time after time if I only filled it half full and flicked my wrist to the right before I mounted and fired the gun. That little flick moves more of the powder away from the touch hole, which worked best in mine.

On the other hand, my Early Lancaster rifle uses an L&R Queen Anne lock which doesn't really care how much, how little, or where exactly it is in the pan. As long as your flint is sparking that rifle is shooting. Not temperamental at all

Twisted_1in66 :thumb:
Dan
 
I have the Traditions Penn flinter, and knowing what I know after a few years under my belt, I DON'T recommend the Traditions Penn. The "patent breech" is a CRAPPY design and will cause a lot of frustrations to a newer flint shooter. The quality is "ok" . Maybe the percussion model is better in terms of reliable ignitions, but the flint version was very inconsistent. Takes a deep learning curve to get them to fire consistently.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/first-range-trip-need-some-help.108188/

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/2nd-range-trip-much-better.108239/

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/traditions-patent-breech-cleaning-tool-dyi.108352/
 
Thinkin on one for my next rifle.
Thoughts?

I have a flinter Pennsylvania Ardesa/Traditions like this since 'bout five years. This is a pretty nice and good rifle staying in the 2x2" at 50 yards when the powder, the charge and the good patches too...
I don't know what does it for hunting because I'm only paper target killer... but why not...
This flinter is shooting every Sunday without any prob and the flintlock, not a luxurious one, is largely sufficient: good sparks and no flint killer.
Confortable and easy to shoot (55" long) an with a twist of 1:66"...
A pleasant rifle an efficient at a moderate price: 400$ five years ago...

Your choice is't bad for shooting...
 
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Had one, would not buy another. Stock geometry is terrible. It knocks the heck out of your cheek when fired.
 
I agree, to bad they could have done some research & could have come up with a well fitting style like the Verner.
 
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