Fast lock time

[nathanbowenarrow]

What lock maker would be your first choice for a southern mountain rifle. Is there a difference in lock time between locks? What type of modifications do you guys do to make your locks better?
Thanks for your comments
Nathan

 

[rich pierce]

Chambers Classic Ketland would be my first choice. Right era and English styling. And it would be easy to round the rear of the plate if you wanted to do that, as on many originals.

To speed a lock: Remove friction. Look for scraping of the moving arm of the main or frizzen spring on the lockplate and relieve the backside of that arm of the spring. Same for sear and sear spring. Polish the teat on the frizzen if it does not have a roller and the surface it contacts on the frizzen spring. Polish the nose of the tumbler where the mainspring rides. Take the lock apart and put oil with rottenstone in the tumbler hole and on the plate where the tumbler is. Do the same for the bridle where the tumbler axle goes. Re-assemble and work the lock 50 times. It will polish any friction points. Be sure to clean it really well to flush any remaining rottenstone out. Look to make sure the cock does not scrape the plate anywhere.

 

[more powder]

Chambers late kitland what i used on my[url] s.mountain[/url] rifle and i love it.

 

[Okwaho]

I agree with Rich and Ron here.I have looked at literally hundreds of old Tennessee and Western North Carolina rifles over the past 40 odd years and I don't recall ever seeing one with a Germanic lock.I once owned a restocked Charles Bean the elder rifle with a squared off rear end like the Ketland's percussion conversion lock.I don't know if the lock was original or had replaced a flintlock when the gun was restocked in the late 19th century.A lot of them had round tailed locks and as Rich has said,you can always round off the rear tit on the classic Ketland lock.There are some other locks which are OK such as Manton,Bailes, Durs Egg but I like these two better.Incidentally, I once saw a Tennessee rifle in Mississippi with a Harper's Ferry lock but I don't remember if it was flint or what the date was.
Tom Patton :m2c:

 

[eldeguello]

Lock time varies depending on how far the tip of the flint has to travel before sparks hit the priming charge, and from that point on, lock time depends on whaere the touch-hole is located, and how far the flash from the pan has to penetrate into the touch hole before it reaches the main charge. Some flinters have a lock times as short as a thousandth of a second!

 

[Rat]

I've never measured it, but I think I have one of them thar thousandth of a second flinters. It's a .61" calibre Jaeger, Colerain barrel. (usually called a .62", but I believe my barrel mic's out at about .612")

It has the Chamber's Colonial Virginal lock, and a White Lightning non-removeable vent liner.

The first thing I noticed about this lock is that it has a very stiff mainspring, which I thought would be hard on flints. However, it's turned out to be very easy on them...flint life is very good. ??

Obviously, I would touch NOTHING on this gun to improve lock time.

On my Pedersoli Brown Bess, I coned the outside of the touch-hole, and deepened the pan a bit, which in a sense raised the touch hole. That seemed to improve lock time. The Bess has a nice fast lock time, but not as fast as the Jaeger. It also has kind of a soft, slow, mushy mainspring, compared to the Jaeger, but again lock time is very good. I think the position and size of the touch hole is the most important thing.

I would guess that how fast the cock drops would be next, but unless the geometry of the lock is perfect, an overly stiff mainspring could result in a lock that eats flints pretty fast.

Rat