L&R Lock issues

[S.Kenton]

Hi all,
As many of you know, I am still fairly new to the flintlock community. I have shot mostly percussion rifles my entire BP career. Anyhow, now I have two Flintlocks, one smoothbore Northwest Trade Gun and a Pennsylvania Reading Rifle. The both have L&R locks on them. The Trade guns lock is perfect and works flawless. The Reading Rifles lock however I have MANY issues with, the first was this: The frizzen wouldn't open with minimal force. It would cam would break about the time the frizzen was fully open..till that point it took a lot of force to open. That caused alot of flint wear and poor spark also was wearing on the nose of the hammer. I fixed that by re-configuring the cam that rides on the frizzen spring..now the frizzen will "pop" open when there it's about 1/4 of the way off the flashpan. ( if that makes any sense). Now to the next issue: The hammer is cocked in towards the barrel, so I need to adjust my flint to the outer side of the jaws of the hammer in order for it hit the frizzen flat, I've also noticed that the bottom of the jaws hit the back edge of the pan....can I fix this and is this normal?? Also..have ANY of you guys had such issues with L&R? I called them and they said to send the lock back..that was BEFORE I messed with the cam on the frizzen, I think I may have voided the warranty. IF the warranty is indeed voided and I'm on my own, I think I would like to try and fix it..

 

[Rifleman1776]

I think you would do better to send it back to L&R and pay any repair costs involved. I wouldn't be surprised if they do not charge you anything. But, you do have multiple problems. Home fixable is questionable without having the lock in hand.

 

[galamb]

L&R is really good to deal with. Even if your lock is out of warranty or they say you voided it by "finger poking" they will fix it for you.

You send them the lock and for a flat fee of $15 (plus the cost of any parts they replace) they will get it all back in order (plus 8 bucks to send it back to you).

Hard to beat that deal - unless you can source parts locally you would pay to have them shipped anyhow and these guys know what they are doing and probably how to fix it after about a minute of looking at the lock.

Sweet deal...

 

[S.Kenton]

yes.. I should have sent it back. I still might call them, explain the situation and tell them what I did to fix the frizzen. The hammer is a totally different issue that they may fix.

 

[S.Kenton]

I will also say that this post is not intended in anyway to slam L&R lock co. They did offer to replace/fix the lock.

 

[S.Kenton]

L&R is really good to deal with. Even if your lock is out of warranty or they say you voided it by "finger poking" they will fix it for you.

I think I will call them monday..no more "finger poking" for me!! lesson learned!!!!.. :wink:

 

[jerrywh]

L&R is a very good company to deal with. I get real good service from them.
when I strted out you couldn't even buy a flint lock so I had to make my own. This was so much work and time consuming that I still feel real lucky to even be able to buy any flintlock parts. Therefore I never complain much about any defects. I just fix everything. Heat the hammer up and bend it to where it works best. I do a lot of work on every L$R lock I buy but the style is great and I feel lucky to get the great style that they have. I can always make a great lock out of them. We are all spoiled rotten these days. $125.00 is a super price if you ever made a lock from scratch it should be $1500.00 minimum.

 

[Leon/Iowa]

L&R will fix that lock and have it back to you in about two weeks. I had problems with a lock not sparking reliably. I e-mailed them about the problem and mailed it off two weeks before deer season. I had it back before the season started. Shot it at the range, and shot a deer opening morning of the 2013 season. That lock has taken three deer so far. Leon

 

[Birddog6]

Wow.......... people been ranting about issues with L&R locks on here for Years.......

People say with the new owners they are OK now & taking care of things. If I did have one with an issue, I would give the new owners a try & see if they can fix it.

I think flintlocks are kinda like auto transmissions in cars, in the fact that the normal backyard mechanic best leave it alone & let the trans. guy do the repairs. :slap:

Some guys can fix anything, :idunno: Jerry H. being one if them, and by being that type of person, the many locks L&R provides are great for him & a few others.

As for me, I don't have the patience nor the desire to rebuild something I purchased that is supposed to be ready to use, work, & be reliable. I have bought & used 6 of them in the past 15 years & ever one of them was a total PITA.

I hope the new owners will rectify the past issues & get their locks working Correctly & Reliabily. No doubt there is a need for them, but IMHO more of a need for better Quality & a Lifetime Warranty, then a need of so many styles with so many issues.

Keith Lisle

 

[Spikebuck]

I didn't have the energy to complain anymore. :grin:

Seriously, I have had Chambers, Davis, and L&R and the three L&R's have been a lot of work to get working correctly. I don't know how many hours I have into the current Hawken flint I'm using on my early Hawken build. All of the internals needed a LOT of work and the externals were far from what I see in Chambers or Davis.

Not sure when the new owners came in, but I wish them the best of luck and I hope they do get their products up to the level of their competitors.

 

[J.D.]

Among the better gun builders, L&R locks are considered little more than lock kits.

The last one I bought appeared to have the sear screw hole and the tumbler axle holes cast to size...and they were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy oversize. The sear screw hole was so large that the sear would cock to one side when pressure was put on the sear bar. It was so bad that only about half of the sear nose engaged the full cock notch.

It went back to the vendor, PDQ.

 

[kaintuck]

Keith, You've been talking with Tip haven't you?! :rotf:
I got my education about them thar locks and what to look for....I only buy one a year tho.....so, I'm a piker....

 

[Birddog6]

Actually......... :hmm: those L&R locks I had all the troubles with came from Tip. No disrespect towards him tho, he was selling a product I asked for. He even told me I would have problems with them, but my customer wouldn't change locks.
Since then, I did solve the issue...... if the customer or rifle requires a L&R lock, I won't build it. I do this for Fun, not as a living. I don't build anything I don't want to. I want it to be enjoyable, and not something that is aggravating. :idunno:

Now some say "I like to work on locks & make them just like I want them. And that is fine, you go right ahead & work on them. I don't want to rebuild new locks. :idunno: When I buy it I expect it to work correctly & reliably.

Keith Lisle

 

[Rifleman1776]

As for me, I don't have the patience nor the desire to rebuild something I purchased that is supposed to be ready to use, work, & be reliable. I have bought & used 6 of them in the past 15 years & ever one of them was a total PITA.

I have purchsed three L&Rs. They were things of beauty. Highly polished inside, fit well, worked well, and, best of all, sparked like fire monsters. I would buy another unhesitantingly. :thumbsup:
Now, let me tell you about my experience with a Davis lock.....OH, nebber mind.....I already have... :cursing:

:v

 

[vulture]

I own several L&R locks and have had no problem with any of them. I thought I had a lock problem with the first, the frizzen would snap open, creating a good shower of sparks but then snap back chiping the edge off from my flint. I tried a couple of fixes, that did work but didn't look so good on the rifle, so sent the lock back to L&R. They checked it out and sent it back saying they could find nothing wrong with it, so I went looking deeper and found that in inletting the loce I had not removed enough wood under a certain area and this was causing the problem. I found this one day when I left the lock loosely tightened in the mortise and low and behold it worked perfectly. Make sure the fit of the lock plate and internals are all correct and there is free play inside the mortise for everything to move freely, and for the cock being out of line it sounds like the tumbler was cast wrong, or the cock is not mounted straight on the tumbler, and no I'm not an expert, just a student in the middle of the learning curve when it comes to these things.