Failure to fire rate

[BadDaditood]

Of course I did dry ball once at a shooting match. Very embarrassing and humbling.

ONCE?!?

 

[Art Caputo]

Like others, I expect a 100% fire rate from my flintlocks.
Being primarily a hunter, I will periodically check my pan/charge, flint, flash hole, particularly in wet/damp/humid conditions and refresh if deemed necessary.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Any recommendations?

There was a man named Toby Bridges who has several books about muzzleloading. I can't recall titles, but he was very informative. They might be a little dated but are still valuable. I'm sure I'd you perform a search you can come up with one.

 

[Stumpkiller]

one thing I am curious on is, in a well tuned flintlock what is an acceptable misfire rate or rather how often can I expect it to go bang and not fizzle?

As an experiment I fired my flintlock smoothbore 30 times in one session with only loading and priming. No vent pricking, no lock cleaning, no tweaking the flint, not even wiping off the frizzen. Went off with no hang-fires or miss-fires.

When hunting (in cold, damp NY State) I cover the lock with a waxed "cow's knee" to keep rain and snow off. I think I've had one flash and non-fire in memory. I pull the charge if it has been out in rain/snow or before the work-week but if it has stayed dry I leave it overnight on weekends or consecutive vacation days.

Some years ago (when I first started) I had a Dixie Gun Works TN Mountain Rifle in .32 caliber. Not accusing them, but it was 50/50 that it would go off. I spent a lot more for my current rifle and smoothbore. The locks are both Jim Chambers kits that were assembled and tuned by expert gunsmiths (John Donelson for the rifle and Tip Curtis/Mike Brooks the "fowler") and placed where they should be in relation to the vent. That seems to make all the difference. That and good flints.

 

[Britsmoothy]

To be honest I have more misfires with caplocks!
If my flint feels sharp on my flintlocks and the vent was pricked during loading I KNOW its going off.
And I hunt all weather's with them.

 

[Feltwad]

To be honest I have more misfires with caplocks!
If my flint feels sharp on my flintlocks and the vent was pricked during loading I KNOW its going off.
And I hunt all weather's with them.View attachment 85661

How many times have I said LOAD WITH THE HAMMERS DOWN. on the nipples
Feltwad

 

[Sparkitoff]

You’re mixing mechanical operation and human operation. Neither is 100% fool proof. If the gun is operating correctly and you did the loading and prepping correctly you reduced the odds of failure to a very small #. My rifle has gone 50 shots in one range session with a consistent loading procedure. No reason it couldn’t have gone more. I just didn’t try. One rifle has been carried hunting in different terrain, seasons and climate over the past few years. It has fired when asked in every one of those hunts, with an occasional reload and second shot too. About 20 shots at game in 4 years all delivered.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

I like Feltwads approach .Wether it's an unmentionable hammer gun, a cap gun or a flint lock. Load with the hammer down.(Hammer used to be what some now call a frizzen). The photo shewn has a very wide shallow pan. Why did the Mantons have so much better fire rate with their narrow deep pans?? O.D.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I have to admit that my fail to fire rate is way more than zero. It's still a very small percentage, but I do occasionally get a flash that doesn't set off the main charge and occasionally drop the hammer and fail to get a flash. I've been hunting and shooting with flintlocks for at least 35-40 years and almost never shoot percussion, so I feel like I'm a reasonably experienced flintlock shooter.

I'd say one out of 20 might have some sort of issue and not fire, but typically it's the result of a flint that's wearing down (if I had to rely on the gun going off, I obviously would be more proactive about that), a loose screw, etc. etc.. It happens, but really not that often. I agree with those that say they have more misfires with percussion than flintlock.

 

[hanshi]

Another one, here, who hunts exclusively with my flintlocks. A flintlock can be at least within a percentage point or two of the reliability range of a well kept percussion. But with a flintlock there is less "mechanical" involved in shooting than with a caplock. There is, however, much more art involved with flint. I've never had a misfire when hunting with a flinter - except with a factory piece with a lousy lock - even when I reload quickly (quickly for me, that is). As long as one starts with a quality lock, keeps the flint sharp, has a vent liner hole that's within at least about 1/16", doesn't let the frizzen & flint get coated with fouling and gets to know what the gun likes; one should experience near 100% reliability. I virtually never have to pick the vent; if there's a FITP (no ignition) I will pick and that's uncommon. I don't touch the flint until the pan fails to ignite. When that happens I normally wipe the frizzen face and flint first and then continue shooting. If it happens twice in a row I scrape the flint edge which usually takes care of it for at least a couple more shots. FTFs after that have me knapping the flint, moving it forward, etc, until a new flint is needed. That's only at the range, plinking and fun shooting. In the bush chasing after game I start with a fresh, sharp flint.

Flinters simply demand more shooter involvement and familiarity with the individual piece. With percussions one can merely shoulder and fire one after the other and know each time will likely be identical to the time before. Not necessarily the case with flintlocks when firing shot after shot. There's a learning curve and one which is shortened when a GOOD quality lock is used.

 

[Okie Hog]

Last fall before deer season i shot with a friend; he fired over 30 rounds frim his rock lock without a misfire.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

On that note, what are some locks to stay away from and locks to look out for? Bearing in mind all small american makers will not be available here. I see pedersoli (mostly), Antonio Zoli, Armi Jager and sometimes Lyman come up for sale here.

 

[Britsmoothy]

How many times have I said LOAD WITH THE HAMMERS DOWN. on the nipples
Feltwad

I DO

 

[jdw276]

On that note, what are some locks to stay away from and locks to look out for? Bearing in mind all small american makers will not be available here. I see pedersoli (mostly), Antonio Zoli, Armi Jager and sometimes Lyman come up for sale here.

So silly question, could someone over here, buy one for you and ship it to you and get it through customs? Not to get around any laws, anywhere, but if available, since covid supplies are tight, to speed up shipping and expand on availability? We are all friends here teying to enjoy our sport.

 

[M. De Land]

Of course I did dry ball once at a shooting match. Very embarrassing and humbling.

Only dry balling once at a match ! Sure sign of a Rookie ! I once started collecting balls with screw holes in them that I had to pull from match dry balling and when it got to five over I'd guess a year or so I remelted them to destroy the evidence. The odd thing is then I can go for quite a spell without doing so but eventually it will happen again.
I've wondered if mixing ignition types (flint and percussion) adds to this by loading cadence change up from the flint , pan and flash hole management.
To be perfectly honest it happens to me when I'm BSing while shooting a match and having a lot of fun with the banter.

 

[Jaegermeister]

Truer words have not been spoken lately. BS’ing causes many breaks in procedures. Especially when everyone at the local shooting range comes over to marvel at the old guy shooting a flintlock.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

So silly question, could someone over here, buy one for you and ship it to you and get it through customs? Not to get around any laws, anywhere, but if available, since covid supplies are tight, to speed up shipping and expand on availability? We are all friends here teying to enjoy our sport.

Yes it can be done, but there are a lot of hoops to be jumped through and money to be paid before it can happen. I thought about a kibler (kind of still am) but it seems like a lot of work. Australia isn't all that bad all the time, I recently tried to import some 50 cal conicals from the states, Aus required one form, the US side was ridiculous to the point of being not possible.

I was thinking I could buy a second hand pedersoli or similar, sand it back and let my wife do some carvings the stock before recoating it. This year is our 5 year wedding anniversary which has a wooden gift and something like that would suit me just fine.

 

[jdw276]

Yes it can be done, but there are a lot of hoops to be jumped through and money to be paid before it can happen. I thought about a kibler (kind of still am) but it seems like a lot of work. Australia isn't all that bad all the time, I recently tried to import some 50 cal conicals from the states, Aus required one form, the US side was ridiculous to the point of being not possible.

I was thinking I could buy a second hand pedersoli or similar, sand it back and let my wife do some carvings the stock before recoating it. This year is our 5 year wedding anniversary which has a wooden gift and something like that would suit me just fine.

Are the rules that specific to include flint locks? I mean it is a lock, no bullets, no powder, no brass cases, i mean it is a part. I have never personally tried it, ship out of country from here so no clue how it is to be done. If so, all i can so is whoa.....that is nit picky.....

 

[smo]

It cost my Wife $68 too ship a $30 crock pot to Belgium once….

 

[Lbrown]

I'll give you my take as a newbie. I've taken my Pedersoli .50 cal to the range about five times now. My experience is about 10% misfires. Once, I think I had oil in the bore that fouled the charge. A few times, the pan ignited, but no fire. Most often, the flint did not produce a spark. There's a bit of a learning curve, but it gets better fast. Mainly, keep a good edge on your flint. Best of luck!