I have never needed a quick change of flint in a hunting situation. The only change in the field, so to speak, I have had to do was during a parade, where my gun club was participating. We were firing off blank charges from your guns, and I looked down to find a large, U-shaped HOLE in the edge of my flint. There had apparently been a hidden "vug"( a deposit of foreign matter within a rock) in the flint, which broke free when the flint struck the frizzen on the prior shot.
I had my flint wallet in my hunthing pouch, so I simply:1.) used my flinter's tool to loose the cock screw,2.) backed the screw out,3.) removed the broken flint and its lead wrap from the jaws, 4.)removed the lead wrap from the flint,5.) put the broken flint in the pouch,6.) pulled out my flint wallet,7.) removed a new flint,8.) put the flint wrap around the new flint,9.) set the cock at half cock, 10.)put the flint and flint wrap in the jaws,11.) held the flint in place while hand turning the cock screw down,12.) then used my flinter's tool to tighten the screw down to hold the flint. I 13.) checked the flint to make sure it didn't strike the barrel, or the bottom of the flash pan, then 14.)checked it for the distance to the closed frizzen, and 15.)for squaring. Then I 16.)tightened the screw down harder.
With the gun still empty, I 17.)dropped the hammer 5 times, to set the flint into the lead. Then 18.)tightened the cock screw again, about 1/8 turn. I 19.)checked it again for alignment with the frizzen face, then 20.)used the heel of the frizzen to knapp the flint by holding the frizzen open with my right thumb- outside edge- cocking the hammer, and then firing the hammer so it struck the frizzen at the heel at a steep angle. That knocked off a thin "spawl", on the underside of the flint edge, leaving a nice, sharp, square to the frizzen edge to use for the rest of the parade. I 21.)put the wallet back in my pouch, 22.)the flinter's tool, hanging from a thong also went back into the pouch, and I was ready to load and fire again.
Several club members came up to watch me do this while walking, because, like the rest of us, they had never tried to change a flint other than at a loading bench at the club range, or at home. I was as amazed as they were that I was able to do all that while walking fast enough to keep pace with the rest of the club. The gun was carried cradled in my right arm the whole time.
In the woods, hunting, I would expect to be standing still while changing a flint. But, you could obviously have this problem arise during a Seneca Run or Hunter's Walk competition, and have to do much the same as I did.
I have been shooting regularly since 1979, so worrying about changing a flint in the field is Not a High Priority in my daily life. Like others here, I tend to put a new flint in the gun when going deer hunting, and use the slightly used ones on the Range.
I can't think of any reason to go deer hunting, considering the limited time I have to do that, and the limited number of deer I can take, without putting my gun in top shape. That includes, obviously, using a new, sharp flint. :hatsoff:
