Great Plains Rifle Flintlock

For Rebel and Birdog6 - I will give it a go and thanks for the comments. I don't like the sawn stuff either - but will use whatever works.

 

[Hunter66]

I have been shooting a GPR in .54 for years and it shoots great. It had a slow lock time when I got it. The touchhole was low in the pan and slightly to the rear. I fixed that and the lock time is much faster. I have seen the same conditon on a number of GPR guns so that you are forwarned. I also think that the Lyman frizzen is better than the T/C from my experience.

 

[Joey S.]

I've had a lyman 50cal Flint great plains rifle for over 5 years and had no trouble with it . I use a 3/4 by 3/4 flint. Joe

 

[bigbadben]

I bought the 54 flinter about a month ago. By and large I'm happy with it. It seems to shoot accurately and reliably. I'll add my voice to those who say you need to drill out the touch hole. I did that and it dramatically increases reliability while decreasing lock time. Before I drilled it out I would get a definite delay, sort of a fizz-bang. Now it's about as fast as a perc.

My biggest beef is with the sights. The adjustable on mine is manure. It looks like they pulled it from the mold, blued it and stuck it on the gun without ever filing off any of the rough edges. I took it off the gun and did that myself -but kinda think I shouldn't have had to. The finish on it was so bad that most of the groove was filled in and the sides to the left and right of the notch were different heights. I thought about going to the fixed sight that came with the gun, but found that it was cut for a narrower dovetail than was on the gun. Maybe it's just me, but I would think that if you provide two sights for the same gun you would make sure they were machined to work in the same dovetail.

But having taken the sight off, cleaned it up with a file and reblued it I'm finding myself happy with everything else about the gun.

Ben

 

[Steve A.]

Hey Hunter66 Could you explain a little more about your touchhole being 'low in the pan and slightly to the rear'? I have a GPR that i've only been able to shoot on a few times since i bought it in late september. After i saw your post i got to looking at my touchhole. It does apear to be centered slightly off center towards the rear of the pan. I'm not sure what you mean about being too low. What did you do to fix the problem?

 

[Hunter66]

The touchhole should be in what is referred to as the sunset position. That means that if you look from the side of the pan the hole should be half way above the level of the pan surface where the frizzen mates to it. It looks like the sun setting on a flat horizon. I prefer mine to be more than half way. Flame burns upward so low is a bad thing. I use a one inch machinists scale to lay across the pan for reference. The hole should also be centered in the pan front to back. I put a shim behind the tang to move the barrel forward about a 1/16" and also a shim under the the tang to lift it up but I don't remember how much there I shimmed. I now have an L&R lock on it and almost the entire touchhole which I have made .073 (no. 49 drill) sits above the level of the pan. It goes off instantly shoots really well and my velocity is only about 20 fps different with the larger hole.
I have also converted the 6mm x .75 thread to 1/4 x 28 thread by very carefully retapping. The two threads are so close in pitch that you can retap the hole without a problem. I also installed a White lightin' touchhole liner from Jim Chambers that I got from TOW but I don't see them in 1/4 x 28 anymore. When I wear this one out I will go to a 5/16 x 32 liner. By going to the bigger thread size I can pull the hole center to where I need and remove the shims I put in to start with. A gunsmith can do this. I am a machinist so I can do it myself which is alot easier.

 

[Steve A.]

Hey thanks for getting back to me. Ya i think i'm gonna have to talkto a gunsmith cuz I'm afraid that's all over my head. I'd probly just make things worse.

 

[Rebel]

Best way to find out if your vent is in the right place is to shoot the gun and see how it works. Some vents can be off from where the ideal place is and still work fine. Just be sure to drill the vent hole out to 1/16" and you may be good to go.

 

[paulvallandigham]

WADR, Hunter, I like the touchhole to be entirely above the line drwan over the top edge of the flashpan. That way, you can fill the pan with powder and the flame will enter the touchhole quickly. I have a rifle with the touch hole being half above, and half below that line, as you describe, and I have always had to bank my prime away from the touch hole to leave an air space under it in order to get consistently fast ignition. I was a firm believer in this positioning until I received a gun with the flash hole drilled above, as I describe above, here. The first few shots I fired with the gun, I still banked my powder away from the touch hole as I have done for years with my other rifle. However, just to see if the gunmaker knew what he was doing, I filled the pan with powder, leveled the powder with a knife blade, closed the frizzen, and fired the gun. It went off fast, and several more shots confirmed that it not only would fire fast, but might be even a little faster than when I banked the powder away from the touch hole.

 

[Hunter66]

I like the touchhole high, as I said mine is almost completely above the pan but I have never filled the pan with powder. All that powder is too much burning in my opinion. It is just supposed to be a quick flash to light the powder in the barrel not my campfire. Everybody I shoot with does the same as I do, just a touch of powder in the pan.

 

[Steve A.]

I finally got around to drilling my touchhole today. Now if only i could get out to do some shooting.I didn't try to 'cone' it like i've read about elswhere on the forum. I figured i'd start off simple. I used the 1/16 bit,but it really didn't seem much bigger than the hole that was already there. What size does Lyman use to drill out the liners?

 

[Rebel]

Not sure what size they are from the factory, but i do know that after drilling them out to 1/16" they almost alwways work better.

 

[lanedh]

I expect to receive a Lyman GPR flint (in kit form) in .54 or .50 caliber. What ball diameter/patch thickness combinations are you guys using for either caliber? (.54 was ordered, with .50 as backup if .54 is out of stock).

Brgds, Bluejacket

 

[54mountain]

I use a .530 rb and .018 pillow ticking in my .54 green mt. barrel with 60 gr ffg for targets and 100gr for critters.

 

[Rebel]

.530-.535 ball and .018 ticking for the .54 cal. and .490-.495 ball and the same ticking for the .50 cal.

 

[AeroncaTAL]

I use a .530 round ball with .018 pillow ticking on my caplock GPR.
Scott