flint conversion?

[steve hill]

I have this rifle that I found at a local shop
it looks like a youth rifle from the size.It
has a two piece stock with the forearm being
curly maple and the stock looks like birch.
There does not appear to be any markings on the
gun except deercreek 50 cal faintly on barrel.
the outside of the barrel seems to be almost rough
but the bore looks better than some of the newer
guns I've seen.My question is the gun has a drum
and nipple on it and I wandered if this could be
converted to flintlock or not thanks also if anyone
has ever seen any guns like this my best guess is
it was an old kit gun but don't really know

 

[Zonie]

Off hand, I don't know where you would get a Flintlock lock for it.
You might try getting ahold of Deer Creek and ask if they know what the gun is and if they have a lock for it.

 

[mikelange]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Deer Creek rifles use CVA locks, or near copies of same. The gun you describe certainly sounds like one of the CVA or other Spanish-made "Kentucky" rifles with two-piece stocks. I'd find someone with a CVA rifle and compare the locks. If they're the same, simply buy a CVA or Traditions flintlock, install a vent liner, and swap locks.

There was another Spanish-made flintlock, used on old CVAs and the Jukar-brand guns, that was a little wider than the newer CVAs, with a round tail. I have one that's gathering dust -- if it would fit and you want it, you can have it. You could send a tracing of your lockplate for me to check against my lock. My e-mail is [email protected]. If you're interested, contact me and I'll give you my address.

 

A lot of those Jukars, and CVA's have a very strange drum in them and cannot be converted to a flintlock. The drum is more like a bolt that threads thru past the bore and has a cutout in the side that lines up with the barrel. Anyhow a regular vent liner won't fit. Finding a lock can be a problem also. I would personally spend my money on something better than that. My two cents worth. Bill

 

[mikelange]

My first rifle barrel was actually a CVA that came with the type of percussion drum described by Bill. Not having anyone to advise me, I worked out on my own how to convert this system to flintlock. Bill's right, the percussion drum threads all the way through to the other side of the barrel, crossing the face of the breechplug in the process. The threads of this drum are, if I remember right, 10mm fine. I found a bolt of the same thread size, threaded it into the barrel, and used a Sharpee marker to indicate which point on the bolt was at a right angle to the bore. Removing the bolt, I ground it flat at the point I'd indicated, cut it to thread in flush with the side of the barrel, drilled a 3/32" touchhole that angled forward to exit at roughly the center of the bore. I enlarged this hole in from the flat, in effect coning the touchhole somewhat. Cutting a shallow slot for a screwdriver in the face of my makeshift liner, I threaded it in. We'll skip the trial-and-error of my first stockbuilding and lock inletting attempt, and get to the good part: this setup touched off reliably and served me well until I upgraded to better barrels. The CVA barrel, for what it's worth, got cut off and re-breeched for percussion, and went on a gun for a kid who needed something to start shooting black powder. I never had any complaints as to its accuracy, and the recycling part worked out well.

Obviously, if your barrel has a conventional type of drum, all of the above is irrelevant. I only went into so much detail to show that it can be done, and how.