Flintlock touch hole

[Dick Pincombe]

As I mentioned a week or so back, I recently purchased a Lyman reconditioned "Great Plains Rifle". The touch hole is not centered directly in the middle of the pan. It is sligthly centered toward the rear of the pan. Does this creat problems in firing the rifle??? I called Lyman today, the gal that I talked with had to ask an engineer for an answer. The reply I got was "You purchased a reconditioned rifle and, and it will work fine". You sure can tell the difference in talking to the customer service people at Thompson verus Lyman. Anyways does this situation have any bearing on the rifle's performance??? I would really like to know.
Thanks,
Dick

 

[Rebel]

As long as the center of the hole is level or a little above the top of the pan, you should be ok. A little off forward or backwards is not a real big deal in most cases. Only way to know for sure though is to try it out. Good luck and have fun.

 

Have you shot it?

Does it work?

Can't get to the range?

Have you put a few grains (5-10) down the bore, primed it and pulled the trigger on the blank charge to see if the flash connects? (disconnect the smoke alarms)

All of the opinions we can express don't mean Jack. They are opinions and mean nothing once you pull the trigger.

Each gun is an individual. It will shoot or it will not shoot.

You just wanted to know what to expect!

We can't tell you.

All we can do is speculate.

Half of us will say yes and half will say no, there will be another half that tells you to send it back to the factory for free service before you ever fire it. Yes, that is possible here! (Forum advice is very predictable!)

I speculate that you will have to load it up and pull the trigger to find out.

If it dosen't work our speculations can become more precise.

If it works most of us would not know what to do with it anyway!

:front:

 

[LRB]

Ghost, that was good. And about dead right.

 

[roundball]

As I mentioned a week or so back, I recently purchased a Lyman reconditioned "Great Plains Rifle". The touch hole is not centered directly in the middle of the pan. It is sligthly centered toward the rear of the pan. Does this creat problems in firing the rifle??? I called Lyman today, the gal that I talked with had to ask an engineer for an answer. The reply I got was "You purchased a reconditioned rifle and, and it will work fine". You sure can tell the difference in talking to the customer service people at Thompson verus Lyman. Anyways does this situation have any bearing on the rifle's performance??? I would really like to know.
Thanks,
Dick

Dick, welcome to the Forum...your question is a perfectly understandable one...I have a couple TC Hawkens that I've cobbled together from different stocks, tangs, barrels, etc...mostly converted from percussions...and due to minor differences in tolerances of tang positioning, lock mortise positioning, etc, a couple of them ended up with the vent hole slightly offset behind the center of the pan, about half the diameter of the vent liner...they both work perfectly...can't tell any difference between those two and others I have with "normal" alignment, unless it's that they might even be faster.

Of more importance is that the vent hole be at or slightly above the level of the pan, or at least above the level of the priming powder in the pan...

:redthumb:

 

[Wart]

I'm in agreement with Ghost on this .... your going to have to shoot it (more than once) to find out. Please let us know your findings :thumbsup:

 

[MikeChapin]

As everyone else says you will have to shoot it to find out. I have a .36 that I built about 30 years ago. It was the first rifle I built and I put in a cheap lock. Changing locks a couple of time, the last lock I put in was a Cochran that has been in the rifle for fifteen years or so.

That said, all the lock interchanging ended up with the touch hole setting low enough to gas cut the flash pan. As long as the pan powder is over to the left side and the pan is not full the rifle goes off as fast as any. It is just more sensitive to where the powder lies in the pan is all.

 

[TomFoolerythe3rd]

I own a GPR and have not had a complaint about Lyman. I had the rear sight screw split on me, and they sent me two replacements for free. Lady might have been having a bad day at home and brought it to work.

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

Half of us will say yes and half will say no, there will be another half that tells you to send it back to the factory...

So there's three halves of us? :: ::

 

[cayugad]

Dick.. I just checked my Trade Rifle made by Lymans and believe it or not the vent hole is just a hair above the pan and a little back towards the shooter from center. My rifle shoots fine. It sparks great although it will eat flints, but the ignition is real fast.

Whether yours will be the same, I found that I only need a small amount of 4f in the pan. I think that primer flask drops 3 grains of powder is all. I like to have it towards the outside of the pan and then kind of level it back towards the vent hole but not in it. When I touch that off it is as fast as my percussion I swear.

I would go out and shoot it. My .54 caliber lives on 90 grains of 2f and a patched roundball. Very accurate load!!

Good luck with your rifle.. :thumbsup: