Traditions quality

[hanshi]

Wow! Experiences with traditions muzzleloaders appear to be all over the map. Over a 20 year plus period I owned and hunted with two Traditions rifles; a .50 DeerHunter and a Crockett. At least in my case they were well built, and though inexpensive, reliable and accurate. The Crockett was astonishingly accurate and shot tiny groups out to past 40 yards. The only problem to ever occur was with the DeerHunter; the trigger guard developed a crack. A phone call to Traditions was a very pleasant experience and I soon had a brand new tg. It would seem that either the company is having problems or quality control has gone south. The only rifle with a true problem that I've ever owned was with a beautiful, well made Pedersoli; it had a flint lock that was manure. I had to turn it into a caplock.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I had similar issues with frozen nipples. I used a 1/4" hex impact tool, two dowel pins to keep the cylinder from rotating. With the pins in a heavy vise and a modest sized hammer, it only took a few taps to get the nipples loose. I did have to make a nipple wrench for the impact tool from a 6mm hex socket. For sure the nipples were not going to come loose with my puny little pistol nipple wrench.

 

[nkbj]

Got a flinter Traditions Deerhunter converted to a fifty bore smoothie with long thin barrel, a flinter Shenandoah rebored to .46 and a percussion .50 cal Deerhunter with the stock painted black by the factory (go figger) and a variable power extended eye relief scope mounted on the barrel (always wanted me one of those scary "black rifles").
All of them are good guns. The only problem experienced was that I purchased the Shenandoah used here on this forum and the seller somehow failed to mention that he had ringed the barrel. So it got rebored to .46 caliber and became a better gun than a .36.

 

[steve76020]

Sorry you had so much trouble. I have several Traditions muzzleloaders bought over many years and had none of your problems. Even the flintlock has always sparked well. I don't expect fit and finish on these inexpensive guns like on a custom rifle but they have all been accurate. I hope you just got a lemon.

Jeff

I had a traditions stainless steel 1858 revolver and it had adjustable sights problem was you would have needed a foot of adjustment to get it on target well after firing there was no refund so I sold the gun at a heck of a loss to be rid of it. ihad a ruger 45 stainless steep and in a fit of stupidity I sold it and trying to undo that mistake since Roger quit making black powder I bought the traditions big mistake..

 

[JoJoLesh]

I have a Traditions Pennsylvania style rifle, recent manufacture. It has a few minor fit and finish issues, but is mechanically reliable.
I do have my issues with it in terms of general design, but it works.

I am new to muzzleloading, so I put any accuracy issues on my own shoulders.

We also have a Traditions Crocket, but we have such a low round count on it that I can’t tell you anything about it.

 

[mushka]

I have two traditions rifles, a Crockett and a lefty 50 cal. Both are of recent manufacturer, both shoot well, and neither is a beautiful gun. Both very functional. I can't complain, I like both of them,

 

[gabedard]

I've had a Crockett and it shot as well as I did and my first couple of kits were Kentucky(s) that I put together for my brothers (all shot well enough to hunt with) but as its been said you get what you pay for. The TOW and other suppliers of better components produce a better end product as long as we do our part.

 

[Boomerang]

I bought a Crockett about 3 years ago. It looks nice on the outside, but the snail threads are buggered up and after trying several different loads and a couple different round ball sizes I can't get it to shoot to my satisfaction. I might have Bobby turn it into a 36 or 40.

 

[Gooba Jones]

The only Traditions rifle I have owned was their kentucky rifle in caplock. It shot, went boom, wasnt pretty, but it still went boom. I wouldnt want one of the traditions flintlock locks tho. Go better quality on flintlocks.

Gooba Jones

 

[Crow-Feather]

Well, I worked on that rifle, filed and inlet and resighted until it would shoot 48/50 at 40 yards rested. Then there was this 12 year old young man who loved to shoot, but didn't have a rifle. He tried out the Crockett and from the bench shot 30/30 at 40 yards. I sold the rifle to him for a dollar. Now I have good thoughts when i think of Traditions.

 

[Fire-Steel]

I have two traditions rifles, a Crockett and a lefty 50 cal. Both are of recent manufacturer, both shoot well, and neither is a beautiful gun. Both very functional. I can't complain, I like both of them,

Does the Crocket lock have a bridled tumbler? The users manual looks as though it is not.

 

[Gregory Mitchell]

What Traditions quality? Didn't know they had any.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

The "Tradition" of saying to yourself....."Why in the heck did I buy that"?

 

[Carbon 6]

Their barrels and brass are high quality.

 

[Cattman]

i have built 4 traditions kits. 3 50/s and 1 32. i expect that i have to do the wood to metal fit. butt plate and ect. when im done with their kit it looks good and shoots good and everything fits. if you cant do finish wood work dont buy a kit. also ive had problems with ruger, uberti and s and w. not completely finished as i like them in the factory. ive had expensive high grade stock blanks with the wrong size barrel channel, twice. that one makes me up set. from now on i order them about a 1/16 or 1/8 over size and i can bed them if i need to.

 

[user 43911]

I had one three years ago that did not shoot to my liking, was hard to set the trigger , I was being picky as it would shoot sub 1" at 20 yards but no so much at 50 yards, so I sold it.
I just purchased another Crockett, it's night and day from what I had before, I have a thread going on it and loads. The Traditions guns are made in SPAIN not ITALY.
I have had as much trouble with QC if not more buying Pedersoli guns, the problems are systemic in the industry, when you look at what you get for your money, a lock, a stock and a barrel, most factory guns are over priced when you are spending $1,200 to $2,200 . To me regarding rifles the best bang for the buck are the Lyman guns (some have minor issues), Traditions- Crockett and Pennsylvania rifle (some have minor issues). Both Lyman and Traditions have a good reputation with regard to their barrels and that's the heart of the gun anyway, when you pay $400 through $600 you can't expect a custom gun.

Kinda like buying a Ford Escort and complaining that it does not drive like a Porsche.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

A Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle was my first flintlock. It has a tiny lock (pistol sized) that is a bit of a pain until you figure out its quirks and then it fired very reliably and quickly. The stock on mine is unusual because it is highly figured walnut. I don't usually see figured walnut. There's also a LOT of it, especially the forearm, which contributes a lot to its weight.

The Roman Nose shape of the stock from the trigger to the butt cap is TERRIBLE. I can't tell you how many times I got a black eye or bruised cheek from it. If you tilt your head over at all to get a good sight picture on this very straight stock, you get punched in the face by the recoil with that Roman Nose hump.

The two ways you can shoot it to avoid the bruised cheek is to either move your head farther back than normal on the stock so you can sight it correctly or put your head in the normal position and turn your nose into the stock. That way you are sighting out of the corner of your eye and your head is not over the stock. When the gun fires, that recoil slides by your cheek instead of slamming into it.

Good things about it are that it does have good brass and lots of it - far more than a Rev War era rifle had. The second thing is that the nose heavy straight taper barrel is actually a tack driver with a heavy load. Mine likes a 95-gr. charge of 3F powder, but keeps groups at around 1½" to 2" at 50-yards. I'm sure it can do better than that, but that's about as good as my eyes get.

So expect the stock to be totally machine done with extremely little if any hand fitting. And expect it to be heavy. Expect to have to learn how to fill your pan so it goes off reliably. You can also expect it to be an accurate shooter...just not very comfortable to shoot. And, if it has a Roman Nose on it, if you don't follow my caveats above, expect to get a bruised cheek.

Twisted_1in66
Dan

 

[nkbj]

And oh yeah, have received back the "Springfield Hawken" relined to .386 bore.
Shooting .375 round ball and anxiously waiting on the .386 push through sizer.

 

[AZbpBurner]

My only direct experience with Traditions is with their Cap & Ball revolvers/parts. The Traditions extra cylinders are made by Pietta. A brass-frame 1851 was marketed by Traditions, but also made by Pietta. Same with a benchtop cylinder loader.
For commercially made rifles, I've stuck with Investarms/Lyman/Cabelas and have had good luck with them as middlin' quality made guns. Parts were goodc quality, they just needed hand tuning. I've stripped them all down upon receiving, cleaned and polished or better fitted parts & a couple of them I stripped & slimmed down the stocks, then refinished.
I always was of the opinion that the Traditions branded rifles were the low end budget offerings. A guy at the range had a flintlock Traditions & had torn it down, twiddled & tweaked it, and it ran as smooth as a more expensive rifle. Parts seemed solid, they just needed even more more hand finishing than the Investarms.

 

[stewart.leach]

I put together a Traditions Crockett 32 kit that I was gifted by a rifle club friend. After a while I thought I had been cursed by the gift. Some parts were good- lock, barrel and trigger. Trigger guard must have been intended for another model of rifle, too short to fit the inlets. Replacement guard fit, but think it is a bronze casting not brass, as it was very hard to file and polish. Similar story for buttplate. Some screws were missing from the kit; fortunately local hardware store has a good selection of metrics. The escutcheons for the barrel wedge were factory installed, then machine sanded to the point that the slots in the tiny, soft brass screws were but vestiges of their proper depths, beavered them out with a punch and replaced with steel after deepening the countersinks. Lots of inletting errors, both too deep and too shallow, and the screw securing the rod spring was as reported above, so high the barrel rocked back and forth like a teeter-totter. Screw holes in the wood for mounting the nose cap were large and egg shaped, I just epoxied it in place using black electrical tape to space it off the barrel. At the other end I epoxy bedded the tang and back end of the barrel, moved forward an inch or so and bedded some more, and soft bedded the front end with red RTV.

Enough bitching. In the end the stock was stained a nice red-brown topped with several coats of Formby's Tung Oil Varnish, and looks quite nice. Browned the steel parts, had to roughen the barrel with 320 paper to get the solution to bite. With .310 cast balls, cut at the muzzle twill patching and Moose Milk it shoots small groups at 25 and 50 yards, and has brought home head shot cottontails and squirrels.

I really don't want to think about how much time I put into what should have been a "sandpaper and screwdriver" kit. Someone without my skills, tools and experience would probably just give up. Maybe that's why I was given the kit...…...

One thing I know for sure- no more Traditions kits!