Failure to fire rate

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

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!

With my caplock I generally run some alcohol down the bore and sometimes fire off a cap to clear out the oil. With a flint I guess it's going to be swabbing with alcohol and hoping that does the trick?

Never been a Knapper but always keen to learn something new.

 

[M. De Land]

With my caplock I generally run some alcohol down the bore and sometimes fire off a cap to clear out the oil. With a flint I guess it's going to be swabbing with alcohol and hoping that does the trick?

Never been a Knapper but always keen to learn something new.

Knapping is actually quite fun and I feel part of the flint lock experience. With a little instruction, practice and some simple home made tools anyone can learn to knapp their own gun flint's any time the need or fancy takes hold.
I just adapted what I learned from books and videos about arrow point making from U-tube.
Do yourself a big favor and pay attention to pressure flaking for finishing up arrow points. That is what you will need the most for making good flat gun flints. Actually I use the debitage (waist chips) from point making to make my gun flints which is particularly appealing to tight wads like myself.

 

[waksupi]

I'm not even sure how many flinters I own at the time, I'd have to do a count. I've been shooting them for 47 years, and if I have a misfire, I know exactly what is wrong, fix the problem, and the next try fires properly. From what I see at the shoots around here, cap locks have a much higher failure to fire rate.

 

[waksupi]

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

I've dry balled so many times over the years, I've probably saved ten pounds of powder! Catch up, rookie!

 

[Britsmoothy]

My knapping resembles smashing . I do like a knap in the afternoon now though.

 

[Ironoxide]

Sadly, the book "Flintlocks, A Practical Guide for Their Use and Appreciation" by @Eric Bye is sold out. Maybe Eric could have an alternative recommendation.

Flintlocks – a Practical Guide for their Use and Appreciation — The NMLRA

However, this book may be helpful. Does any one have a copy to make comments about?

Selected Treatises on Gunmaking & Shooting from Nineteenth- Century Europe — The NMLRA

The paper book is sold out ("Flintlocks, A Practical Guide for Their Use and Appreciation"), but I managed to get a kindle (e-book) version on amazon. It was a bit pricey for an ebook at $20. Paper version went for $199 last time they had it

I'm 70% through the book. So far I think 10% contains really good info about the flint and lock geometry, troubleshooting etc, but most of it is in very succint verbal descriptions that could be misunderstood. I would also much prefer more technical drawings.

So far I'm a bit underwhelmed by it. In the 70% I read already there is a lot of general muzzleloader info as well as general safety, shoot organisation, targets and a lot of "extraneous" info. For a beginner that is useful. However, the author in the prolog mentions his wish for the book to be for flintlocks what "The muzzleloading caplock rifle" is to cap guns. So far I don't think this goal was accomplished. I would expect more technical info with detailed drawings on different types of flintlocks. Also perhaps more historical info. Don't get me wrong, the book does contain a lot of what I wanted, I just would like even more

Maybe I was expecting a bit more due to the slightly higher ebook price.

If anyone can suggest further reading please do.

 

[smo]

Iron,
Trial and error sometimes is better than any books.

There’s really not a lot too it… bevel up or bevel down. Which ever throws the sparks into the pan best.

Experiment with how much powder you use in the pan..
Some like it 1/2 full some less, banked too the right or left, the gun will let you know what works best.

Touch hole size is extremely important… the hole needs too be large enough too ignite the main charge consistently . most prefer 1/16”… Mine are larger than that , maybe 5/64…excluding wear.

Remove any oils from the bore prior too loading. I use alcohol for this , and wipe the frizzen & pan too insure no residual oil has migrated onto them.

I prefer not too compress the load with the ram rod , just insure it’s seated on the charge before firing… Some mark their ram rod for an indicator.

Make sure the flint has a sharp edge that’s another extremely import part as well as keeping the pan and frizzen wiped clean of any residue..

Other than that, just point and shoot. It’ll all work it’s self out.

Enjoy the ride!

FYI… some may experience a slight learning curve during the transition from percussion or center fire to a flintlock… But it should work it’s self out in 8 or 10 years… Hopefully.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

My knapping resembles smashing . I do like a knap in the afternoon now though.

Smoothy, so do I , but ours is spelt NAPP.".ZZZZZ."

 

[Billy Boy]

gday gentleman,

i tried finding this through a search with no luck though I’m sure it’s been discussed.

im keen to get into flintlocks, truth be told back in 2013 when I bought my first BP gun (an inline) I lamented the fact that I went that way and not a flinter. But I was nervous about the learning curve given there are so few flint shooters around here to help (none that I know of).

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?

bear in mind I am not a target shooter, I hunt with my guns. It’s really the first few shots off a clean bore that count for me. I do hunt in inclement weather but in those cases I’d probably take a caplock or centrefire anyway.

As an aside, because I have no one local, when I do delve in and get one I will be relying on the knowledge and willingness of people on this forum to help me through the challenges. To be honest I wouldn’t even consider it if I didn’t think the help wasn’t there so take that as a sign of my view toward the members here. It is a great bunch.

I’m a cap gun guy but I can say that if the flinters on this forum don’t know it, you don’t need it, there is an immense body of solid experience here!

 

[Grenadier1758]

And the flint lock practices that work for me may not work so well for someone else with a different lock or the geometry of the pan with respect to the touch hole. The top priority in all cases involving the shooting of a flint lock rifle or smooth bore is a lock that throws a lot of sparks into the pan. The sparks will ignite the powder in the pan and then the concern is to have a clear touch hole that leads to the powder charge so that the heat from the pan flash gets to the powder charge. Of course one needs an easy to ignite powder charge which means true black powder. Once those requirements are met, the failure to fire rate is very low.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

Iron,
Trial and error sometimes is better than any books.

There’s really not a lot too it… bevel up or bevel down. Which ever throws the sparks into the pan best.

Experiment with how much powder you use in the pan..
Some like it 1/2 full some less, banked too the right or left, the gun will let you know what works best.

Touch hole size is extremely important… the hole needs too be large enough too ignite the main charge consistently . most prefer 1/16”… Mine are larger than that , maybe 5/64…excluding wear.

Remove any oils from the bore prior too loading. I use alcohol for this , and wipe the frizzen & pan too insure no residual oil has migrated onto them.

I prefer not too compress the load with the ram rod , just insure it’s seated on the charge before firing… Some mark their ram rod for an indicator.

Make sure the flint has a sharp edge that’s another extremely import part as well as keeping the pan and frizzen wiped clean of any residue..

Other than that, just point and shoot. It’ll all work it’s self out.

Enjoy the ride!

FYI… some may experience a slight learning curve during the transition from percussion or center fire to a flintlock… But it should work it’s self out in 8 or 10 years… Hopefully.

What's the difference between bevel up and down (other than the literal difference) does one generally throw more or less sparks? Or is it just personal preference?

What is the deal with touch holes? Are they kind of inverted caplock nipples that screw in and out? Do they need regular changing?

 

[Centurion]

Took a new to me old Italian flintlock out for the first time and it worked flawlessly for a half-dozen shots. And then it didn’t. And wouldn’t. Eventually had to pull the ball and, finding no powder behind it, told my wife it was her fault. “How?” she says. “You distracted me.” I says. “How?” she says. “Either you were talking at ne so i couldn’t concentrate on loading, or you were just standing there looking so alluring i couldn’t concentrate. Either way, it was your fault!”

She says, “Either way, it’s nice to know i was in charge!”

Tough to out-talk some women... best to give up early.

don

 

[Daryl Crawford]

As far as bevel, it changes the angle at which the flint strikes the frizzen. It also changes the location of strike on the frizzen.
I have 4 flintlock weapons and 3 consistently spark better with my flint "flipped" in the jaws of the hammer.
As an aside, I'm not good at putting an edge on my flint and I'm not good at tuning a lock. These are things I'm slowly trying to progress at. I think they are critical to consistently getting the weapon to fire. Frizzens play a key role as well. Poor metal quality or inconsistent hardness of the frizzen effects the spark.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

When you set your flint, close the frizzen and have your hammer at half cock. The flint should just about touch the frizzen, or touch it without impeding the frizzen from sitting on the pan. Also, to my liking, the flint should strike the frizzen above the midline of the frizzen. If it doesn't, the frizzen may not kick back and sparks miss the pan. I like the flint to hit higher.
Others my vary. I suppose my rule of thumb is hitting the top third of the frizzen.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I get occasional misfires at the range. Usually after I've fired the gun a bunch of times. I swab about every 5 shots when it's not humid. About every 2 or 3 when it is humid. Usually when I do get a misfire the lock is getting pretty dirty and or the flint starts to loosen up in the jaws of the cock. That's when I stop, wipe down the frozzen, the flint, the pan, tighten the flint back up and square it up to the frizzen face etc. Then the gun fires as normal.

Now, when deer hunting, I've never had my rifles misfire. On a clean dry bore they fire every time.

 

[Kilo Charlie]

I’m an average shooter. The only flinter I ever owned used a large Siler lock. I always blocked the touchhole with a wire when loading, only used real FFG, always used 4f in the pan.
I fired about 200-odd shots out of her. I had no misfires ever.

 

[Slip6]

Get yourself a good book on the intricacies of flintlock shooting. It will go a long way. If you get stuck or have an issue crop up, you can always go back to the book to see what you're doing wrong.

When I got into muzzleloading, I had nobody to teach me. I read all that I could on the subject then just experimented. I've been at this for about 30 years or so and I probably still could learn a trick or two but I gained a lot just from getting out there and doing it.

Any suggestions on a book to look for?

 

[Cruzatte]

My knapping resembles smashing . I do like a knap in the afternoon now though.

Knap time then, eh?

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

I should not have started this thread, I dreamt about flintlocks last night!

How much shooting is required for a touch hole or liner to wear? 10s of rounds, 100s of rounds or 1000s?

 

[Grenadier1758]

Reasonable round ball loads can take thousands of shots to wear/erode the touch hole liner.