Be cautious about used rifles, someone can post a picture of what they call a "shiny" bore that on closer examination is actually a bore that is badly pitted because the gun wasn't cleaned properly. There are a lot of these rifles out there, a pitted bore will look shiny if you drop a bobber light down the bore and take a picture from the muzzle, especially if the picture is a little out of focus.
Here is my latest encounter with one of these rifles; I have a reputation around town as the flintlock guy, I know a thing or two about them and the word gets out.
I got a call the other day from a guy who knew a guy who heard I could help him with his flintlock, he was a retired E-8 just back from the sand box, being a vet myself I couldn't turn him down.
I invited him over; he showed up with a pristine looking TC Hawken flintlock, he said he tried to shoot it but it wouldn't go off most of the time and when if it did it had a huge hang fire. He said he paid $500 for the rifle.
One look down the barrel and I could tell the previous owner had shot pydroex and never cleaned the gun, the touch hole was completely plugged with crud.
I told him we had to clean the rifle first, he didn't know the barrel came off easily. I cleaned the barrel for him using a bucket of water to dunk the breech in. Then we looked down the barrel with my Teslong, yikes, just clean wouldn't do it, there were pyrodex crud stalagmites in the bore. I got out my scotch bright pads and gave the bore 25 strokes, this time the bore was still showing pits but the stalagmites were gone.
This guy had a sniper MOs and really knew his gun maintenance but had never owned a B/P rifle.
I loaded the rifle for him, he did have a pound of Goex 3F, he said the guy he bought it from had given him a vial of real B/P to prime it with and out to my range we went.
He primed his rifle and touched it off, nothing, he primed it again, the prime lit off and actually took 5 seconds to burn completely out. I told him he had pydroex in his primer. I primed his pan with 4F, this time she went off like a champ, no delay at all, he was all smiles.
I told him to give the bore another 100 strokes with scotch bright, dry and oil the barrel and store the rifle muzzle down for a week or so to let all the excess oil drain out. I sent him home with a vile of 4F but told him his 3F would work just as well for priming.
Whew, that was a long narrative to emphasize one point, just a few of us know how to treat a B/P rifle properly, the rest of the population don't have a clue. As a newbie, be careful who you buy a used rifle from, I see a bunch of them for sale here that the owner says "great bore" but the bobber light pictures show the subtle signs of serious pitting.
