I have had percussion rifles for a long time but my only experience with a flintlock was when someone handed me one ready to shoot.
I bought a Lyman Trade Rifle and read about 40 pages on here learning about flintlocks. The only thing new I bought was some flints and a little priming flask.
I went to my friend's farm where I hunt and jumped right in. I wanted to shoot it with the buckhorn sight but after a few shots I knew it and my old eyes was not going to work. I put the Lyman peep on that I already had.
I wanted to see what my rifle liked so I used a .490 PRB .015 patch, FFFG Goex for pan and load.
I swabbed with a very lightly spit moistened patch between shots but nothing else. I did not pick,brush,wipe, bump the side of the breech or any of the other things I had read about.
I fired 16 times getting it sighted in with no problems. There was just one big boom but there is a milisecond delay that is different than a percussion. It was pretty dirty when I got done but everything worked fine and it was alot of fun.
I shot at 70 yards because that is about as good as my eyes will allow. I won't win any contests but I could keep all my shots in a 3-4" circle.
I took it home removed the lock and barrel and pumped water through it just like I had always done, blew it out with compressed air and oiled everything while it was still warm.
I have always swabbed the barrel with denatured alcohol before reloading again. Do I need to wipe the pan,frizzen and flint with it too?
I bought a Lyman Trade Rifle and read about 40 pages on here learning about flintlocks. The only thing new I bought was some flints and a little priming flask.
I went to my friend's farm where I hunt and jumped right in. I wanted to shoot it with the buckhorn sight but after a few shots I knew it and my old eyes was not going to work. I put the Lyman peep on that I already had.
I wanted to see what my rifle liked so I used a .490 PRB .015 patch, FFFG Goex for pan and load.
I swabbed with a very lightly spit moistened patch between shots but nothing else. I did not pick,brush,wipe, bump the side of the breech or any of the other things I had read about.
I fired 16 times getting it sighted in with no problems. There was just one big boom but there is a milisecond delay that is different than a percussion. It was pretty dirty when I got done but everything worked fine and it was alot of fun.
I shot at 70 yards because that is about as good as my eyes will allow. I won't win any contests but I could keep all my shots in a 3-4" circle.
I took it home removed the lock and barrel and pumped water through it just like I had always done, blew it out with compressed air and oiled everything while it was still warm.
I have always swabbed the barrel with denatured alcohol before reloading again. Do I need to wipe the pan,frizzen and flint with it too?