Flinting in the wind

[JOHN L. HINNANT]

Greetings Out A Hunting,

Yes, wind can blow the priming out of a flintlock pan.

Before the the ALAMO battle of February/March, 1836, the Mexican Army had control of San Antonio (called Bexar or Bejar at the time).

In December of 1835 a volunteer Texas army beseiged the town and finally assualted it. The fighting rapidly degenerated into street fighting and house to house.

On one particular day, a group of Texans were on top of a house shooting at Mexican solders. The wind was blowing hard enough to blow the priming out of the flintlock pan.

The Texans finally had to give up and get down off the roofs and fight from the street level.

As a side note: The Mexican Army withdrew from the town and retreated to inside the ALAMO and fought from those walls until forced to surrender. Most people do not know that part of the story.

And one more side, if you have not seen the latest ALAMO movie (2004) I highly recommend it. While it is not perfect, it does the best job to date of telling an accurate story.

Besides, there are some great custom made flintlock rifles used by the actors. For more information about these rifles, check out Caywoods web site.

Best regards, John L. Hinnant

 

[jtmattison]

See, I'm not crazy. There is written evidence of my claim in the history books.
Thanks to everyone for the valuable input.
Interesting discussions we get into over a little question.

Huntin

 

[Herb]

Yes, I have had trouble in the wind and I thought it was the flash being blown out of the pan. Probably a .54 caliber Siler or Durs Egg lock, don't remember. Stumpkiller, never saw a flashguard before, I'd sure put one on if I expected to be hunting in wind.

 

[Howard]

On windy or really damp days, use FFg in the pan.

 

[roundball]

See, I'm not crazy. There is written evidence of my claim in the history books.
Thanks to everyone for the valuable input.
Interesting discussions we get into over a little question.
Huntin

:hmm:
Well, I'm still not sure I'm following all this...you mentioned you got pan flash which says the priming was still in the pan but you got misfires of the main charge...John's Alamo response was about wind blowing priming out of the pan, I assumed he meant while they were trying to prime...not sure

I just finished a 40 shot range session this morning with wind blowing in my face strong enough to have the trees swaying, which as I've read, means it should have been in the 15-20mph range...I sheltered the pan with my body when priming, then fired my target shots into the wind, no misfires...even did two shots upside down and the lock fired normally both times...
::

 

[jtmattison]

Okay, I give up. It was me, not the wind.
I surrender to your extensive knowledge of flintlocks for I am just an amature :master:

Huntin

 

[roundball]

Okay, I give up. It was me, not the wind.
I surrender to your extensive knowledge of flintlocks for I am just an amature :master:
Huntin

I just asked a question...that's your answer?
:crackup:

 

[riarcher]

First off,,,, I just cant belive even a 50 m/h breeze would beat the lock/flash time.
However, by experience, I get many more misfires in the wind. :hmm:

 

[jtmattison]

I just asked a question...that's your answer?

That's the best I could come up with :blah:

The priming charge did fire but the main charge did not. That's why I asked the question.
With the flash hole drilled out to 5/64 I thought it would fire better.
The only outside factor I could include was the wind because it seemed to be blowing my priming flash away.

Look's like I'm getting about a 50/50 on this one.

Huntin

 

[Greg Walden]

What? didn't you burn it bad enough the first time?

Held it out away the second time! :thumbsup:

 

[musketman]

With the flash hole drilled out to 5/64 I thought it would fire better.
The only outside factor I could include was the wind because it seemed to be blowing my priming flash away.

A 32/64 hole would aid the flash too, but velocity would suffer a tad... :crackup:

:imo: The problem with larger flash holes is that moisture stands a better chance of getting into the main charge as well as the priming powder...

 

[blackpowder shooter]

I agree that a flinter should go off upside down. Is your lock time quick enough? Have you tried using 3f in the pan ? Are you putting to much powder in the pan? Try drying the pan before priming.

 

[jtmattison]

MM,
I agree, too big of a hole would cause trouble for sure.
I put a new liner in today, a 1/16.

I went shooting this morning and had no misfire trouble. The wind was very light and in my face.

Who know's what the real problem was the other day. I still blame the heavy wind.

I think I can enjoy this flinting thing. It takes a lot of discipline.

I still can't stop myself from flinching. Time and practice will cure that.

Huntin

 

[Cap'n ted]

Flintlock,
During a late December hunt, I found out about the situation you describe. The wind was over 25 mph and the priming charge would flash well outside of the pan., It was nearly -20 degrees, and darned cold. I had the situation you describe happen 3 times in a row, at the same doe. She finally got disturbed and left the sheltered spot and walked away as I tried, in vain, to reprime and fire. It was the only time in over 15 years of hunting with that rifle that I had such an experience. Mr. Cochrane was very gracious when I sent the lock back to him for refurbishing prior to the next hunting season. He had never had anyone request him to rebuild one of his locks prior to that! The lock worked well after that, but I didn't ever use it again when it was that cold and that windy! :m2c:

 

[JOHN L. HINNANT]

Greetings Roundball and All,

My apologies for not getting back to this subject sooner.

It was my understanding of the wind and flintlock ignition problems to be caused by the wind blowing the priming out of the pan while in the act of being fired, However, it has been years since I read the story, so I will visit the DRT Library next to the Alamo, try to find that book again, and verify my interpertation of the story.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to shoot a number of unaltered original flintlock rifles, and the majority had extremely slow lock time. Perhaps that was the major cause of the problem at San Antonio in December of 1835.

The fastest lock I ever pulled the trigger on was an original Manton flintlock rifle. Lock time on it was almost as fast as a cap lock.

Best regards, John L, Hinnant