I've done it!! I have gone and done it!!

[leadball]

I have purchased and yesterday it came UPS!! I ordered the blue ridge flintlock!!! Happy birthday/fathers day to me!!
I am overjoyed beyond description. It's more beautiful than i could ever imagine it to be. fired the first ball through it today. seems to be accurate with the ball enough for hunting. .50 caliber. even with 1;48 twist. My wife wasn't happy but it's my Bday present to myself and after xxx number of years on earth i felt I was entitled to a flintlock :applause: :applause: :applause:

 

[Rebel]

Congratulations. I think you will like the Blue Ridge. The only thing you might want to do is open up the inside of the liner and drill the vent hole out to 1/16". They have a very good sparking lock, and are quite accurate. Have fun and Happy B-day/Fathers day.

 

[musketman]

Happy birthday to you...

 

[JerryToth]

Hi Leadball;

First, Happy Birthday! "You done good", as a fellow can get a lot worse things and do a lot worse things for his birthday than buy a flintlock!

Second, you seem amazed that a roundball might be accurate enough for hunting? My thought on that is that my flintlock, and indeed most frontstuffers are every bit as accurate as a lot of centerfire rifles out to around 75 yards. I can do as well, or perhaps better, with my longrifle at 50 or 75 yards as I can do with my open sighted lever-action centerfire rifles. And I'm not even particularly good!

There is a bit of learning to do with muzzleloaders, and you will definitely need to find the best charge, the best patch, and the best lube for your rifle. But, rest assured that once you do, the limiting factor in accuracy will be you... how well you can see the sights, and your shooting technique. Smokepoles are scary accurate if you know what you're doing.

My experience with 1 in 48 twist barrels is that mine definitely have one powder charge that will be the most accurate. Any more than 5 grains higher or lower and accuracy does fall off. (My 50 caliber T/C 1 in 48 twist barrel shoots most accurately around 75 grains of Goex FFg...less than 70 or more than 80 and the groups open up.)Now my 1 in 66 twist barrel doesn't care as much if I go up or down by 15 grains or so from my favorite load of 80 Goex FFg. We are talking all 50 caliber roundball here in both rifles.

If there is anything about the basics that any of us can do to help you through the "learning curve" with you new rifle, don't hesitate to ask!

Congratulations, and again congratulations!

Ironsights-Jerry.

 

[Huntinfool]

Congrats leadball now you have joined the ranks of a few good men. LOL!

You'll always be glad you did it!

Keep Dry Fellow,
"The Chuckster" ::

 

[frontloader]

leadball. Check the depth of you liner into the chamber. Mine was deep into it. I had to thin it down a little and open the vent. Made a whole lot faster.

 

I just got through reworking one for a friend. Same procedure, drill the vent to acceptable ID. That sucker goes WAY down into the Patent breech! It's threaded on the shank too, can't trim it down any. That spark had to travel a half inch at least! No wonder there were missfires! Got it sorted out now. Ream the liner, widen the vent, it will pop every time. Don't worry about the twist until you make it to the national chunk gun matches. Your gun will shoot better than 99% of the people that pick it up.

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

leadball,

Be sure to post some pics of the proud Dad with his new arrifle... ( aaarg )

LEJ

 

[leadball]

I fired it a few times and it seems to fire ok. as far as thinning the vent liner and opening the vent more, is this something a local gunsmith can do? If so, what should I specifically ask him to do? Also, the recommended priming powder is ffffG but i use FFFg for both priming and main charge. Is this a good idea. By the way, the reason I was surprised by the accuracy of the 1:48 twist with PRB is that I have a 1:66 twist traditions percussion that shoots PRB well and I dont really see a difference in accuracy. I shoot 490 ball with .015 patch in the traditions with 85 grains of fffg and it seems the blue ridge is better with a .490 ball and .018 patch and 75 grains fffg. But so far, no misfires as of yet. But anything to keep them from happening. anybody kill anything with the blue ridge using prb? I truly understand the allure of the flintlock.

 

[roundball]

I think it's another of those old hand-me-down sayings that may have had some basis in fact decades or centuries ago, but I've experienced those same excellent accuracy results with patched round balls in 1:48" twist barrels.

I personally ran side by side tests with 3 different calibers on 3 different weekends, shooting 5 shot groups of full power hunting loads at 50yds, in my 1:66" RB barrels, then my 1:48" standard barrels, and if the targets were shuffled together like a deck of cards, I would have had to pause and look to pick out the ones made by each barrel, they were that close.

Used .45/.50/.54 calibers, Hornady .440's/.490's/.530's, .018" prelubed pillow ticking, and hunting loads of 90grns Goex FFFg