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Yazek pistol question

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Hello folks, I'm new to the forum and would like to get some information on a hand gun recently purchased.
It is a new Yazel .36 cal flintlock that I can't get to make sparks when the flint hit's the frizzen.
It will jam the frizzen part way open and short cycle without completing the full travel.
In looking it over it appears that the flint makes contact to high up on the frizzen face and am wondering what is the remedy.
I have another much cheaper flint pistol that makes contact with the frizzen about half way down and it makes a good shower of sparks, working perfectly.
Does the cock need to be heated and bent down farther to make contact with the frizzen lower down? MD
 
M.D.,
You can contact Mike Yazel through the NMLRA. I'm sure he would help with your problem.
Mark
 
Thanks Mark, I have a matching pistol in percussion and it works very well but have had some trouble with the flinter.
First the frizzen spring weakened and broke so I made a new one and this could be contributing to the problem. I did have it full cycling but it would not make sparks either so I annealed the spring and changed the shape a bit to make it give more frizzen resistance, now it won't full cycle but think it is interfacing to high up and changing the lever angle. MD
 
I'm a gun mechanic and living in Alaska was hoping I could get some ideas and take care of it myself.
I've been muzzle loading for 40 years having several rifles, revolvers and single shot pistols mostly percussion but haven't taken a shine to flinters only recently and need to get up to speed on flint lock nuance.
Harold has left for the winter to the south and won't be back until spring. I tried his home number but the phone did not forward a message or take a recording.
I did not know his son was doing pistol work as well. Any one have a contact number for him? MD
 
Well, I took the lock apart and cut two coils out of the hammer spring and found the keep pin at the back of the spring was dragging on the tumbler.
It now has a good deal more spring force than it did but does not spark like it should yet.
I checked the frizzen and it is soft as butter.
I heat treated it and drew the temper and put in a new flint and it would spark a bit sometimes but not nearly enough in my opinion and not very reliably.
Next I noticed that the face of the frizzen is not uniform so the flint does not rack down squarely in contact with it.
I put in a wood flint and faced it with emory paper so I am dry firing it for practice and sanding down the frizzen at the same time.It seems to be forming the face of the frizzen perfectly square as it sands down the high spots as I dry fire. I guess we'll see pretty soon if it works or not.
I don't know anything about flint locks but necessity is teaching a few lessons.
Hope I can get it to function properly without sending it back. MD
 
I know Harold and I know he will make it right.
I use a Davis lock on my Flint pistol a "Becky"
lock. It really is a super sparker.
FinalFlint.gif
 
Great video and thanks for posting it. How long do frizzens typically last?
I have never met Harold but he sure seems like a nice fella on the phone and I'm the only person I know of that has had any trouble with his guns. My buddies work fine without any smithing to speak of but both of mine have needed some work to get them going.
Still I really love the pistols and can't wait to get the flinter running like it ought.
The percussion is sensational now if I can just learn to shoot to it's potential.
Here is a picture of both of them. I just made a set of grips for the flinter.
P1010071.jpg
 
We had better be careful. They frown on posting
pictures of too much modern looking pistols. I
shot with a guy from Alaska a couple years ago at
Friendship. He had his wife and son with him. Are
you him?? I have never wore out a Frizzen, so I
don't know how long they last. I have had my Flint
pistol for 10 years. Rob Lewis of Ohio built it.
Wife won the Flint Agg. at Friendship with it. She
is the blond with the kinky hair.
 
I'll take a chance on not being kicked off of
here, but here is my Flint I use. Promise I won't
post any more.
gshot_filtered-1.jpg
 
M.D.
I don't have Mike's contact information but if you contact the NMLRA at; nmlra.org, I'm sure they can get you in touch with him. At the least they can have him contact you. Perhaps you could send him only the lock and I'm certain that he will work with you.
Mark
 
Last edited by a moderator:
As was mentioned, this is a traditional muzzleloading site.

We discuss guns as that existed prior to 1866 or which duplicate them.

Although there are loopholes in many shooting competitions which allow guns like the ones posted above, IMO these are not even vaguely like anything that existed prior to 1930 let alone 1866.

They bring to mind a Lamborghini Gallardo with a Model T engine in it that was built to compete with pre 1928 cars.

No, no one is going to get banned for showing these pictures but it would be nice if folks tried to stick with the spirit of the MLF with their future posting.
 
Lucky, I have three friends that come to Friendship to shoot regularly.
Two are pistol shooters mostly, Mike Kelly and Kieth Bayha. Both are good shots but Mike is excellent and routinely beats everyone up here.
He's a Yazel shooter and does very well with them having both percussion and flint.
He is really sold on them and has several for him and his sons.
His work flawlessly and is the reason I bought both for myself.
I don't think there is a better designed pistol out their for the modest price Harold sells them for. I just don't know enough about tuning flint locks to make them work properly. MD
 
MD, I just found some pictures of the guy from
Alaska I shot with. This is him. Do you know him?
HalieFriendship2008_0003-2.jpg
 
Yup, my friend Mike Kelley. We have our monthly Tuesday night shoot tomorrow evening and he should be there.
He and Pat Reed run the monthly shoot at the Palmer indoor range. MD
 
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