Hi,
I worked over the lock, trigger, and touch hole on a Caywood trade gun owned by a top notch shooter. It was a gun made in the 1990s and very well made for what it represented. The owner did well with it but he always hated the slow ignition and heavy trigger pull. He wrote a popular book and guide to shooting flintlocks published by the NMLRA so he knows flintlocks. Anyway, we tested the gun at my range and the ignition was terribly slow, a really obvious click, whoosh, ...bang every shot. I drilled out the touch hole and installed a Chambers' White Lightning vent liner and his slow ignition issue was gone. The next issue was the trigger pull. I examined the lock carefully and was very impressed by the quality of it. Whoever made the lock knew his business and it was the equal of the Chamber's round-faced English lock in every regard. It needed polishing internally, and I worked on the full cock notch to reduce the trigger pull. I polished up the frizzen spring, which smoothed the action of it and I also case hardened the frizzen in bone and wood charcoal and tempered it. It was fine before but I improved its sparking by casing it. I also lightened the mainspring, which was unnecessarily strong. Those changes reduced trigger pull quite a bit but I discovered the real secret to that for this particular gun. There is no metal trigger plate. The trigger is just slotted into the wood as it should be on this style trade gun. However, the rear of the trigger lever is supported by the trigger guard. Without the guard in place the lever pivots below the level of the stock. Therefore, trigger pull is affected by how much the screw behind the trigger guard bow is tightened as long as the trigger lever is high enough to always make contact with the sear at full cock (no trigger rattle at full cock). If that is the case and you tighten that screw, the guard pushes the rear of the trigger lever upward making trigger pull lighter. Loosening the screw does the opposite up to a point. The trigger rattled at full cock so I welded steel on top of the lever bar, ground it to shape until it just touched the sear at full cock. I cased the trigger when I did the frizzen. Then after working on the lock and then tightening the trigger guard screw a little more than it originally was, I lightened the pull substantially. None of this indicates a problem with the gun. It is just useful information if you own one. I reduced his trigger pull to just under 2lbs, his lock sparks really well every time, and ignition is now lightning fast.
dave
