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Vent hole location?

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Keyhole

Keyhole

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Used flintlock, unknown maker. Green Mountain .50 barrel with a Chambers siler lock. Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?


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I wouldn’t call it ideal. But judging by how dirty and pitted the barrel is on the exterior, I’d hate to see what the bore looks like.
 
I'm with EC121 and take a little off of the front of the pan. There may be a reason the bore is bright and shiny, like not having good ignition!
 
I'd advise as others have, grind a bit off the front of the pan to open that up. Be careful that you don't grind off to much that when the pan is closed you have a gap for the powder to fall out.y

I'd buy that rifle if the price was right. The close up pic of the barrel showing its finish appears to be whatever type of finish the builder used. That, and the lock finish itself can be changed easily enough.

It's a bit hard to tell if the lock inlet has gaps\spaces in the metal\wood fit. That too may be able to get cleaned up.

OTOH, if the rifle ignites consistently and you're happy.......load and shoot!!!
 
Keyhole said:
Used flintlock, unknown maker. Green Mountain .50 barrel with a Chambers siler lock. Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?


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View attachment 354906
Click to expand...
It could very well be. That is definitely not an ideal location. Ideally you'd like it even with the middle of the pan and also raised up a little bit so the flash hole is even with the top of the pan or slightly above it. As-is, I would expect that I needed to be careful not to overfill the pan so I don't end up with the Shhhhhhhhhh-BOOM fuse effect where it has to burn through the powder to get to the vent. If that's not a reliable shooter, I would try to extend the pan to the left using a dremel tool to grind it out. The pan will hold more powder with that trough extended to the left and will have a better chance of igniting it than where it is.

HOWEVER, be sure to shoot it as-is to see if it is a reliable shooter. If it works fine like as-is, just put up with the off center look of it. Basically "if it's not broke, don't fix it".
 
Just shoot it!

Have you ever watched, I mean really watched a buddies flintlock go off, a good lock and the flash and gun going off is almost instantaneous, even if the pan is completely full (which is not needed) the gun goes off very quickly. This is assuming a properly sized vent hole (check it to see that is a minimum of 1/16").

I think you will find it probably works just fine.

All that being said, it does appear that whoever stocked it could have done a better job.
 
EC121 said:
Probably OK, but I would use my Dremel to grind the front edge of the pan a bit more foreward. I would grind it to be even with the front edge of the liner.
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My thought, too. There's plenty of material there to work with. Current location probably works OK, but is an extra PIA when priming to make sure some primer is touching the vent hole.
 
Interesting that the barrel shows so much deep pitting but the pan only shows a little around the touch hole. I wonder if the maker finished the barrel to look that way intentionally. My go to shooter shows some barrel pitting above the pan from endless flashes but also shows some cutting of the pan just below the touch hole from many seasons of shooting and hunting. Main question is the ignition reliable.
 
It wouldn't be too hard to make an eccentric bush and move the vent closer to the center of the pan without any other surgery. If the rest of the Gun is ok I'd buy it!
 
Update: I bought her, took a couple of blank shots to see how she works and she did ok with 3gr of 4f and a load of 65gr of FF. I expect she'll do the same when I load a PRB.....thanks for all the advice and info guys :thumb:
 
The position is no big deal, it will shoot.
The bigger concern is the slot running down behind the bolster. It can allow powder into the internals, and will over time act like a tiny cutting torch, damaging the lock.
A new vent liner could be made, drilling the vent further back.
 
Bucks Co said:
It wouldn't be too hard to make an eccentric bush and move the vent closer to the center of the pan without any other surgery. If the rest of the Gun is ok I'd buy it!
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Tell me about this eccentric bush.
I have a gun that the vent is almost 1/16” too high. The Chambers vent hole is partially visible above the pan cover when it is closed. No ignition problems; just looks bad and exposes vent hole to the elements.
Who could do this kind of work?
Is this something Bobby Hoyt could do?
 
Keyhole said:
Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?
Click to expand...

Um any idea why if this was his "reliable favorite", why he sold it?

It might be fine. Consider that if one is in the field hunting deer, one often has the muzzle down. The powder in the pan would then collect up against the touch hole. It might "hang" a bit, or it might be just fine, and the guy who built it "got lucky".

Also just because the previous owner favored that rifle for deer, doesn't tell you much, other than me MAY have learned how to deal with any quirks. It might be his favorite because it's the only rifle with which he's bagged a deer. You don't know how many, nor how often, he got deer, even if he "told" you. There was an old rhyme at the local restaurant on Maryland's Eastern Shore where my dad an I once hunted, that might apply.

The previous owner also have been fond of using trees or shrubs to help steady his aim. I've been known to take great advantage of such, and it does correct a flinch or most hang-fire. I was shown that doing such can be a great help by an old fellow who had some palsy.., he probably had some Parkinson's but back in the 1980's a lot folks called it palsy. SO, You never know how the fellow was using the rifle.

OH the rhyme that I saw as a kid was something like this:

Out before dawn, before the goose flies,
in after sundown, and tell great big lies.
(The rhyme was merely meant to point out that hunters and fishermen will exaggerate the retelling of their experiences)


LD
 
Keyhole said:
Used flintlock, unknown maker. Green Mountain .50 barrel with a Chambers siler lock. Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?


View attachment 354904

View attachment 354905

View attachment 354906
Click to expand...

Easy, take it out and shoot a couple of dozen times, if it goes off fine don't worry about it, if there is a problem them worry about it. From the pass owner comments sounds fine to me.
 

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