first flintlock

[Hermanoshawken]

Thank you for answering. The Shenandoah is a good rifle for the price. Good for target shootting or hunting. It has a twist in 66" for round ball and patch. Guess yours will be in 50 caliber. In Spain, it is where it is manufactured, sold only in 45 caliber, precisely because the rest of the production is for the USA.I had a Shenandoah rifle in 1990. It was a percussion gun.

 

[Spikebuck]

http://www.stonewallcreekoutfitters.com/flints/

I have ordered from these guys and the shipping was fast and the flints I got were perfect shape and size. They also arrived very sharp and give off great sparks.
I use the 7/8" black English flints.

+1 :thumbsup: I use ToW a lot, but not for flints anymore. IMO Stonewall Creek Outfitters sells superior flints to those offered by Track. If ordered in bulk, they are lower cost too.

As far as resharpening flints, I have come to like the method of just barely nibbling the edge of a dull one with a pliers. There are a bunch of methods and a search on the forum will probably come up with some various methods to try.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

The flintlock ignition system is different from percussion - the flame from the priming powder is of much lower heat than that of a percussion cap. Thus, the main charge needs plenty of oxygen - a lot more than your typical percussion load. When loading a flintlock, don't tamp down the powder, and don't compress the powder when ramming down the ball. Be sure to seat it firmly on the powder, but don't keep pounding it - you want some air in between the individual powder grains. Just be 110% sure that the ball IS seated on the powder charge - having an air space in between the two can be deadly, causing the barrel to rupture.

Respectfully, the advice is spot on but the reason often given for it is a misunderstanding. The powder contains all the oxygen it needs, but in a flintlock, it needs good permeability to allow the initially-low-pressure hot powder gasses to flow easily among the other powder grains. This is one of the reasons for most of the original versions of patent and other chambered breeches - any packing of the powder charge would "bridge" on the mouth of the chamber and the portion of the charge that ignited first would retain the higher permeability, and as it got going, would shoot a jet of flame up through the middle of the rest of the charge, whether it was packed or not. It's been established in the percussion and cartridge crowds that gunpowder (the original/REAL stuff) burns most efficiently and consistently with a certain amount of compression. A properly designed chambered breech (not all current ones are) allows a flintlock shooter have the best of both worlds - the bulk of the charge packed for efficiency while having the desired permeability where the charge starts burning.

Regards,
Joel