Flintlocks at Local Shop

[DementedMindOfJac]

For $600 I'd buy that Blue Ridge in a heartbeat. Pedersorries are great guns until you need parts from them and you get Elisa on the line.

 

[Mike in FL]

I'd get the Pedersoli. I have a rifle with the Pedersoli lock and it works well since I replaced the touch hole liner with one from TOW that I drilled out to 1/16th.

 

[BP Addict]

I haven't had much experience with T/C or Pedersoli flintlocks but the CVAs I've shot were rock eaters.

My Issac Haines rifle with a Siler lock has 75 shots and still sparking. My English Pitol with an L&R has 50 and still going.

Good Luck!

Walt

 

[Alexitt]

My vote would be the Pedersoli personally, I have the same one that I also picked up essentially unfired from my LPS (along with its cap gun mate)... Ser. # dates them from 2008, I got it a few months ago... I've put a few hundred rb's through it, changed flints twice and haven't had any real issues with it...

 

[Jay Templin]

I’d advise getting the Pedersoli. I finally passed my Blue Ridge down to my son a couple of years ago. They’re very good rifles.
Jay

 

[R Ellis]

Well have you decided on a rifle .The comments are just repeating now it is time to let us know your choice

 

[DementedMindOfJac]

I haven't had much experience with T/C or Pedersoli flintlocks but the CVAs I've shot were rock eaters.

My Issac Haines rifle with a Siler lock has 75 shots and still sparking. My English Pitol with an L&R has 50 and still going.

Good Luck!

Walt

I have a L&R Ketland on my What-Started-As-A-Pedersoli. I lose track of the number of strikes to the flint, but 50 does sound about right, maybe more. I had a white French flint in her once that I named "Methuselah."

 

[Crawfish]

Best bang for the Buck are the Renegades. Blue Ridge also a good choice!
I would buy any of those three.

 

[nhmoose]

At the prices shown both TC would come home with me.

 

[Wounded Fox]

What did you eventually get, if any?

From what I have been reading on here, some of what matters is also WHEN the gun or kit was made by the brands that are still operating, with Pre-COVID guns tending to be better made than COVID/Post-COVID guns. Not at all surprising given the dramatic change reported in construction materials.

 

[Walkaheap]

Yup.
Now some poorly designed or built locks can be tuned and made good, some can't.
Seems the general consensus of your responders here would suggest the Pedersoli or TC locks are your safest bet.
It would seem that if you want to humt with it this year, you have a bit of a time crunch. No time to be messing with a sketchy lock.

Before this tall of difficulty with poor flintlocks turns you off from them let me say this. A lousy flintlock, (just talking about the lock here) either by design or assembly, will make one hate flintlocks and believe the old nonsense about how unreliable they are,,,,,, a good lock is a thing of beauty and precision. Personally, I can't speak for everyone or their experiences, I have found my flintlocks to be almost more reliable than my caplocks,,, when I do my part. And, when they do fail to fire, the flintlocks have been much easier to square away and get the shot off.

I agree with Brokenock. A flintlock is a complicated little machine and it's easy to get the geometry and physics wrong. In the old days one paid with one's life for poor quality and function, so they aimed to get it right the first time. People sometimes are amazed that the good locks work as well as they do. I always replied that if your life depends on the thing working, well it tends to focus the mind a bit more.
Walkaheap

 

[Mike in FL]

My first was a T/C. In the early 70s. I knew little about flintlocks and there were few resources. Always I had a slow psst/bang. I assumed that's just how it was. So I shot it and shot it until I could hold steady during the psst part. A great learning experience. Practiced daily with wooden flints and a mark on the wall until sight picture was not disturbed. Then I went to priming powder only, with the same routine. 50 years later I still have to practice that way. My point being that a slow lock can be good for a determined newby. I maw have told this story before. One of my meds causes short term memory problems.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I have the Pedersoli Frontier that is like the blue ridge in .54. The barrel is lighter since it is a .54 and it shoots really well. That .54 will harvest any game animal on the North American continent. The lock is excellent and sparks well.. That pedersoli .54 now sells for more than $1000. I hate the buckhorn sights on the pedersoli long rifle so I replaced it with a higher rear sight from the log cabin shop. Heck .... you should buy them all and sell some for a profit......
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

[William Sublette]

Take out a loan and buy them all…
You can Thank me later.

Just buy them all .

Sell the ones you don't want on here , and keep the pedersoli flint hawken for free.