considering a Flintlock

[bluecarpenter]

Stopped in a local gun shop and picked up an extra nibble for My T/C Hawkins cap lock. As I was talking with the shop owner I mentioned that I would like to get my hands on a flintlock to see how it felt and also maybe shoot it. He said good luck as most he sees and gets in are inlines. He also said that shooting a flintlock can be troublesome?? said on damp wet days or windy days ya ain't going to shoot it. I didn't say any thing but I'm sure I had a puzzled look on me. I thought to my self didn't they settle this country with flint locks? any way he told me that they used to trade flint locks to the indians for bows and arrows cause they didn't work right.???
not sure what he was getting at maybe he wanted to sell me something else.
from looking at this forum for the last year or so (even though I'm just starting to post), I figure you all might know a thing or two about shooting rock locks.
I like my cap lock but I do believe I would like to have a rock lock... I know it would be fun to take squrrel ect. thinking about either 32cal or 36 cal. thank you all for this great forum and the help. mark

 

[paco97]

I gave up caplocks for good once I got my first flinter. Now I've got my second flinter on order. Mine is dependable 99.5% of the time, and so far, that .5 is either a dryball or a bad flint. They are a lot of fun to shoot and its amazing to see the look on preoples face when you go to the range.

Don't hesitate! Go out and get yourself a flinter!

 

[Roy]

I prefer my flinters to any other muzzleloader. I used to hear a lot of that, "not good in wet weather" or "thats one of those woosh....bang guns". Well there are a few critters that would argue that if they were still around. Just shows me that the people that are talking are just doing that and haven't tried or giving the time to use a flinter. There are tricks or things to do when hunting with one in the rain, that you do not have to worry about with percusions, but thats part of it and I have learned to deal well with wet weather and hunting. :v

 

[bluecarpenter]

I just remembered another thing he said. he said you can only prime with black powder not the stuff like pyrodex or the like. ????

 

[Rebel]

You can't use the subs in the barrel either. Well you can, but they don't work well.

 

[J.D.]

I once shot the last six shots of a match while shooting a flint gun in a down pour heavy enough to drown every frog within five miles.

There was no overhead cover, BTW.

A coupla cap shooters saw me shooting, and not wanting to be out done, decided they could shoot too. Their guns quit as moisture that collected in the flash channel and breech fouled their powder, but my old flint gun was easy to keep shooting. All that was necessary was to wipe the pan and dry the face of the frizzen prior to priming.

I finished that match in the top five. :thumbsup:

The scorer was not a happy camper, as he had to get wet to score the targets. :blah: :rotf:

Beware those who don't know what they are talking about.
J.D.

 

[Wes/Tex]

...and in the FWIW department, not only will flinters shoot in rain and wind but a well tuned lock will fire upside-down! :winking:

 

[Rebel]

Yea, but so will a poorly made caplock. :rotf:

 

[Steve A.]

I'd like to know where that guy got his info,bout the only thing he said that was halfway true was not to use the black powder subs in it. All the rest was pure :bull: Daniel Boone,Simon Kenton,and Lew Wetzel aren't famous for their skills with a bow and arrow. If you have your heart set on flint get one. A caplock won't quench the fire. Flints can be finicky and a little frustrating at first,but read here and ask questions. I've already learned a lot,but people here KNOW what they're talking about and can back it up. So don't be discouraged by other peoples ignorance. If you have your heart set on flint go for it You won't regret it. (but your pocketbook might :rotf: )

 

[Wes/Tex]

Yea, but so will a poorly made caplock. :rotf:

But hanging upside-down from a limb to do it can give you a headache! :blah: :rotf:

 

[Roy]

ya know I trust my flinters more than any cap gun too. If I have a misfire at the range I know pretty much right then and there why it failed to go off, and I never had one fail to fire when shooting at game. Ya do have to stick with the black powder when shooting a flintlock, but thats a good thing :grin:

 

[Rebel]

Not Sasquatch it won't. :blah:

 

[Todd Rickard]

Get a good quality flinlock to start with, stay away from bargin stuff and you will love flintlock shooting. A good flintlock is very reliable. Stay away from salesmen who have strong opinions of what type of gun you should shoot... :shake: 'specially when they have no idea :nono: , or are just plain liars. :bull:

 

[cowpoke1955]

Hi Blue,
I shot my .54 GPR percussion for about 15 years before I got my first flinter. My wife bought me a .45 Blue Ridge flinter. It was pure love from then on. This last Christmas, my wife gave me a .54 GPR flint kit. Nothing like a flint. I won't care if they say that flints causes cancer. I'd die happy. Real men hunt with flints :thumbsup: .

 

[Swampman]

I like both flint and percussion. Once you learn how to use a flintlock, there is little (if any)difference in performance.

Your dealer was simply repeating oft repeated myths.

 

[roundball]

Can't improve on what's already been said...and obviously the salesman didn't have a clue.
Since I switched from caplocks to Flintlocks several years ago, I've quit using anything else...fill my deer tags with them, plus turkeys, squirrels, crows, trap targets, etc.

Every year or so I'll take a caplock to the range for a session, but when I'm done I clean it and put it back up for another couple years and just keep shooting my Flintlocks every weekend.

 

[MikeChapin]

I have been shooting flinters for about 30 years and have only seen two instances where the weather had a large effect on flinters.

The first one was at a state shoot on top of the Bighorns about twenty five years ago. The shoot was on the Fourth of July weekend. It had snowed that morning but stopped and the wind came up and was blowing about 25-30 MPH cross range. I was trying to shoot some cross stick targets and two friends of mine were trying to shoot some flint targets. We were the only three idiots out there at the time. I was watching them try to shoot their rifles. The wind was blowing the flame out of the pan when they fired and the flash was a good six inches to the right of the rifle.

The second time was at a winter challenge shoot in the middle of winter. It was cold and just a light breeze. About noon it started to snow. The wind had stopped and it was one of those rare for Wyoming where the show was coming straight down. I was shooting my Tennessee flinter rather well. I had just shot a 42 on the 50 yard six bull and was well on the way to shooting a high score on the 50 yard big bull. I was dressed for the cold wearing a capote and had on a wide brimmed hat. I was getting ready to prime for my third shot when all the snow that had accumulated on my had brim fell into the pan when I looked down. Soaked everything and got into the main charge. That was the first time I ever had to use a ball puller.

I got my .36 flinter to finish up and did manage to repeat the preformance with it a few shots later. I gave up trying to shoot the flinters for that day.

Flinters are a little more vulnerable than caplocks because the piming mechanism is more exposed but it takes some very extreme
circumstances to give you any real problems. In the first situation, I was having no problems with ignition on the caplock but the wind was blowing the ball a good two inches to the right over 50 yards. None of us had any business trying to hit anything in those conditions.

The second situation would have been helped if I had paid more attention to how much snow was building up on the hat brim, especially after the first time. The flinter was going off fine as long as I could keep the blobs of snow out of the pan.

 

[Fullstock58]

As stated, flinters are a little more in the learning curve, If you like BP then it's the next road in getting to love BP, flinters are the epitome of BP shooting, theres just something about that rock hanging there waiting to attack that frizzen, it sure trips my trigger.

 

[rabjr]

I'm a reformed "Sinline" user. Caplocks, "Sinlines" was all I knew having never even seen a Flintlock until I decided to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the Corps of Discovery and build a Flintlock to try and hunt with. I do have one "Sinline" left but it has sat in a corner of my safe since the end of 2003.

Flintlocks are way to much fun. :thumbsup:

 

[amplatz]

I'm kinda in the same boat, so to speak. I've been hunting with a percussion rifle for about 17 years and decided to "go flint" about two years ago. I got a Jim Chamber's kit (that I haven't built yet!) and just ordered a GPR flnt kit (that I haven't gotten yet!). I figured I'd put the GPR together and learn from it before I start on the Chamber's kit.
I have to say that I have learned a lot from this forum and have asked several questions from different people and not once have I not received an answer fast and friendly. If you want to learn, I think this is the place to do it.