Help from Flintlock hunting experts

[azmntman]

Pound till it sounds expensive :thumbsup:

:slap:

:rotf:

sorry :redface:

 

[54ball]

Or pull it.
In the automotive world there is tight, then there is hillbilly tight.
This is an example of hillbilly tight.

You get a new set of tires. The cross eyed kid running the impact wrench is zipping those lug nuts down like a Marine with a belt fed at Guadalcanal's First Annual Cherry Blossum Festival of 1942. They're not just tight they're bonded at the molecular level. Kind of like a TC breech plug.

Wheels tightened in such a manner are an absolute joy to find when a tire is flat.

 

[Heelerau]

Mate that is a lovely rifle, swamped barrel by the look. When you first picked it up you would have loved the balance and feel. The round faced locks are lovely and plenty of size, lots of sparks. You will be much happier with a custom rifle, and a great boon that the rifle smith only lives a few miles away !! Now for the horn and bag to go with it !

 

[malfakir]

After a whole lot of shooting, and an almost an entire undershirt worth of patches, I finally got to the bullseye at 50 yards (see photo in link below). The two holes in the center diamond were the last two shots. The combination used was 80 grain FFFG, .530 cal ball with a .015" patch. It took a lot of filing of the front sight and lots of tapping on the rear sight. Two complaints:

1) The ball is very difficult to push in. Forces me to tap it in instead of just pushing it in. I assume this will deform the ball but I even tried a light coat of oil in the barrel and it helped a bit, but not enough. I can see a problem while hunting if I need a follow up shot. Should I use bore butter? Thinner patches?

2) The fire is always delayed, like probably a quarter of a second between the flash pan and main charge. This rifle has a very generous sized flash pan. I put in around 4-5 squeezes of FFFG but it could easily take double or triple that. Any tricks to reduce this delay? Should I push the primer against the flash hole? I recall the builder saying that the hole was already around 0.060" (not 100% sure) so do not want to make it any bigger and lose pressure.

Regards
Moe

Target Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tr5kgb4snoxfi4f/20181111_171648.jpg?dl=0

Rifle Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/43lfzppp4k0gpfa/20180829_225011.jpg?dl=0

 

[Black Hand]

After a whole lot of shooting, and an almost an entire undershirt worth of patches, I finally got to the bullseye at 50 yards (see photo in link below). The two holes in the center diamond were the last two shots. The combination used was 80 grain FFFG, .530 cal ball with a .015" patch. It took a lot of filing of the front sight and lots of tapping on the rear sight. Two complaints:

1) The ball is very difficult to push in. Forces me to tap it in instead of just pushing it in. I assume this will deform the ball but I even tried a light coat of oil in the barrel and it helped a bit, but not enough. I can see a problem while hunting if I need a follow up shot. Should I use bore butter? Thinner patches?

Smaller ball, thinner patch and/or different lube. A little tap isn't bad, but having to pound it into the barrel is a problem. The ball shouldn't deform much (if any) because it is the patching that is being compressed. Undershirt isn't very tightly woven, and as such, makes poor patching. Find a tightly-woven cotton or linen (if you are feeling rich), wash it in hot water, dry in the dryer and use it instead.

2) The fire is always delayed, like probably a quarter of a second between the flash pan and main charge. This rifle has a very generous sized flash pan. I put in around 4-5 squeezes of FFFG but it could easily take double or triple that. Any tricks to reduce this delay? Should I push the primer against the flash hole? I recall the builder saying that the hole was already around 0.060" (not 100% sure) so do not want to make it any bigger and lose pressure.

Drill out the touch hole to 1/16". If this doesn't help, go larger using fractional bits until you get consistent ignition.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Use number bits to open the touch hole. There are 5 number bit diameters between 1/16" and 5/64". I don't recommend going larger than 5/64".

T-shirt material is wayt too thin and loosely woven to be a good patch for round ball shooting. You need 100% cotton pillow ticking or drill cloth.

Pan priming should be spread out along the pan, but don't use soo much that the touch hole is covered.

 

[Rat]

Indeed, smaller ball, thicker patch. And "real" patch material. Try to avoid the pan-charge covering the touch hole. (sometimes hard to do when hunting) Reduce the amount of powder in the pan until you get faster, but reliable ignition. Ignition delay should be barely noticeable...but never completely absent. (my Jeager is very close to instant ignition) Unless the touch-hole is/was silly-small, it should not make ignition noticeably delayed. Is the touch-hole above the level of the bottom of the pan? If it is even with the bottom, that will make for a slower ignition.

 

[Rat]

I have a little trick, that works for me, as far as using a tight ball/patch combo for hunting. I always hunt with a cold, (obviously) clean barrel, so I load it with a fairly tight fitting ball and patch for accuracy. But the balls in my loading block contain thinner patches. That way, a follow up shot or shots reload easy, and as mentioned above, by someone, loss of accuracy is minimal. Also consider that a follow up shot will normally be at close range, so opening up the 100 yard group by an inch means nothing at twenty yards. Or in other words, the load in my barrel, when clean, uses a .023" patch, my "reloads" in the loading block use a .010" (or close to that...maybe .015") patch. If the animal runs off, or out of sight, then I'll sit down, take my time and wipe the barrel, and reload with a thick patch from the possibles bag.

 

[Stumpkiller]

1) The ball is very difficult to push in. Forces me to tap it in instead of just pushing it in. I assume this will deform the ball but I even tried a light coat of oil in the barrel and it helped a bit, but not enough. I can see a problem while hunting if I need a follow up shot. Should I use bore butter? Thinner patches?

2) The fire is always delayed, like probably a quarter of a second between the flash pan and main charge. This rifle has a very generous sized flash pan. I put in around 4-5 squeezes of FFFG but it could easily take double or triple that. Any tricks to reduce this delay? Should I push the primer against the flash hole? I recall the builder saying that the hole was already around 0.060" (not 100% sure) so do not want to make it any bigger and lose pressure.

1 - experiment. I like a lube that allows me to shoot five times at least before I need to spit wipe. Some shoot better than others, and usually the one that doesn't need much is an accurate one (globs of lube leads to inconsistency).

2 - it don't grow back so before you open the vent (which lowers velocity and also may hurt accuracy) I would try LESS powder. Too much it has to burn through to the vent like a fuse. I dn't know how much powder is in a "squeeze" but if you have three to five grains (about as much as a ground up Asprin tablet) that may be enough.

 

[Huntschool]

For the possible follow up shots, I keep two or three pre cut round patches in my cheek...... yea, they are wet.... but they will load quick if I need one. If I reload and don't need the shot I just dump it.... no big deal.

As others have said.... don't over load the pan with powder and I would hope the touch hole is at or even a slight bit (1/32") above the center line of the pan.

Nice rifle from what I got to see.

Have fun. That's what its all about.

 

[Rifleman1776]

My hunting procedure was similar to what Rat described. I loaded at home into a clean barrel. I used my normal ticking patch and a .445 rb. Tight fit. In the loading block I put the same patch and lube but with .440 balls. But, I ALWAYS swab between shots, even when hunting. Getting a ball stuck halfway down while in the woods is no fun. Plus those few seconds involved in swabbing allow for a bit of a calm down before tracking.

 

[Rat]

Yes the calm-down, if you lose sight of the animal then the wiping is good. If I just sit down and try to wait....I have trouble being patient. You are exactly right on about that. If the animal goes right down, but is flopping around, (or even not flopping...I've seen dead animals get up again!) then a really fast reload is important, because they often get up again, and in that case I'd rather be reloaded, than wiping.

When I got my Brown Bess, the touch hole was even with the bottom of the pan. By lowering the bottom of the pan, (grind) I was able to fix that. But there's a limit to how much you can do that, especially with a round barrel. More wiggle room with flats. I also "coned" my touch hole a bit, from the outside, thinking that maybe that would direct the flash into the hole a little better, and bring the flash closer to the main charge. I know that some of the old guns were coned on the inside of the barrel, to put the main charge closer to the pan. I think the outside cone kind of does the same thing. On the other hand, my Jeager has a White-Lightning vent liner, which is only coned on the inside, and that sucker has almost instant ignition.

On the pan charge I'll say again, reduce the amount until you perceive ignition getting faster, but don't get flash-in-the-pan miss fires. Indeed, you don't want a fuse, you want the flash to set off the main charge. Fuse slow, Flash fast!

 

[FlinterNick]

Hello everyone,

I could use your expert and amazing knowledge again. I decided after 25 years of hunting inlines, to move to a Flintlock. I knew very little about them, so I went to Cabelas and bought a Perdersoli Hawken. I tried it for one season and I hated it. Main reason is that despite the short barrel, it was super tip heavy (I will skip the ignition problems, probably user error). I sold it. My wife owns an old TC Hawken passed down to her by her great uncle, and it looks and feels awesome.

So in the market for a flintlock, and I see many folks recommend the GPR. I like the looks, but I have never handled one, and worried about the same thing happening: Buy it online and discover its also very tip heavy and hate it.

Now, muzzleloaders are tip heavy, and I know there is no way around that, but to a reason. My wifes Hawken is very manageable. So what are my options here?

I also know the GPR comes in both 60" and 32" twist barrels, for rounds and conicals. If a GPR is the way to go, what is the recommendation on either (from a hunting perspective). I will admit I am not a purist and will go for accuracy before anything else. I may even entertain buying both barrels and trying out to see which one I like better.

The key question I would like to ask: discounting the cheap "deer hunting" models out there, what other LIGHTWEIGHT QUALITY flintlock rifles out that should I consider for buying. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I have to carry it up a steep mountain in PA during the flintlock season.

I would recommend a rifle with good balance. not too long not too short barrel, 33-35 inches is good. The drop in the butt should be around 2-2 1/2.

Dixie Gun Works sells some good Pedersoli Frontier Rifles and Kentucky Rifles, these are factory reproductions that are great first time flint shooters.