Lyman touch hole too high???

[WVAED]

Guys, i am new to flintlocks. In fact Santa hasn't brought mine yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. When i was at Cabelas the other day i was lookin at all of their flintlocks and noticed that the Lyman rifles had the touch hole up from the pan at least a 1/16 of an inch or more. I then noticed that Cabelas flintlocks had the touch hole down even with the bottom of the pan. My question is, does this make a difference? If any of you have a lyman GPR or similar and the touch hole is up from the pan, let me know if this is an issue. Thanks Ed

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

There is some information out there that was put together by Larry Pletcher, good stuff.

Pan Priming

Vent Tests

More Vent Tests

 

[Stumpkiller]

IMHO you want the center of the vent even with the lip of the pan or even slightly higher.

 

[matt denison]

A little bit high..a little bit low will not make a whit's worth of difference. The IDEAL location is the sunrise position at the top of the pan. That is what to shoot for. A 1/32" or 1/6" one way or another won't matter.

:surrender:

 

[ebiggs1]

There is the “ideal” location but the others seem to work OK. The Lyman GPR's touch hole liner is the major problem, not where it is. The location is acceptable.
Upon arrival don't even mess with it just drill it with a 5/64”drill and cone the outside. Save yourself the dissatisfaction of mis-fires. Make it look like this one, which happens to be a Pedersoli but is equally as dreadful.

Now you can enjoy your new adventure! :thumbsup:

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Oh, I agree that the sunrise/sunset position is idea, but the vent a bit high or low is not gonna be a deal breaker.

There are far more things to be concerned about.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Pletch comes through with the light of truth once more, thank you so much Larry Pletcher. :hatsoff:

 

[cowpoke1955]

I have a .54 GPR flinter and it has the sun set position of the touch hole. At first, I had had flash in the pan issues. I drilled the touch hole to 1/16th". This seemed to help some. As ebiggs mentioned, I then drilled the touch hole to 5/64th" and coned both the inside and outside of the liner. Now she goes off every time. Don't bother with the cut flint that comes with the GPR. Get some knapped flints like the black English flints in 3/4" square. Don't forget to scrub the bore with brake cleaner, to remove the protective coating Lyman uses. Once you get to know your new rifle, you're going to love it :thumbsup:

 

[WVAED]

Thanks guys, I will wait until and if i get it and then proceed from there.

 

[Tccowboy]

Hey did you get your GPR for christmas? Mine came christmas eve, my first flintlock..i am trying to read and learn as much as i can on here to.

 

[Tccowboy]

hey cowpoke just read your post about using brake cleaner to clean new barrel..any certain type? hadnt heard this before. got my 50cal GPR flinter on christmas eve. I scalded the barrel,then cleaned it with some butchs barrel shine that came with it then coated it with bore butter.Should I clean it again with brake fluid?

 

[cowpoke1955]

You most likely removed the protective coating already. Any brake cleaner will do. I bought my .54 GPR percussion over 30 years ago. I didn't know about the protective coating and cleaned the bore with Hoppy #9 bore cleaner. Didn't seem to hurt anything. Been a straight shooter since day one :thumbsup: About five years ago, I got my .54 GPR flint kit and used some brake cleaner on the bore. The siflings are sharp and will cut your patched for about the first 100 shots or so. Afterwards, things will smooth out. You are going to love your new rifle :hatsoff:

 

[WVAED]

Yes i got mine Christmas Eve as well. I cleaned the barrel with brake cleaner and then used Hoppes #9. I drilled out the touch hole liner to 5/64 also. I am hoping to shoot mine in a day or so. I live in town and am about 30 minutes away from the range and about an hour away from my property where i have a cabin and hunt. In West Virginia we have three more days of doe season coming in the last three days of the year, so i hope to shoot my flintlock enough to take it hunting this week. Love mine so far. I did notice that the rear trigger is very hard to set. I don't know how many pounds but very stiff. I don't know if that can be adjusted or not.

 

[Greenjoytj]

I installed an RMC brand touch hole liner (M6 x .75 thread for Lyman) immediately I never shot the OME liner because of all the complaints I've read about it. I didn't want of modifiy the OEM part so I had ordered and received the replacement liner even before I received the rifle (its a GPR).
The RMC liner looks very much like the post modified OME liner you see pictured in a post above.
The hex wrench opening in the front acts like the conning and the back or inside portion is greatly opened up too.
The Lyman OEM vent liner touch hole is 1.25 mm or .049" .
The RMC vent liner touch hole is 1.5 mm or .059" which is = to a #53 drill bit.
For reference 1/16" = .062".
So far I've not experienced a failure to fire (dry balling it doesn't count) with this 1.5 mm touch hole size. I can always enlarge it if I start to have FTF problems.

The problems I've encountered so far with my new GPR are:

1) The rear wedge pin was too loose but was easily fixed by following the Lyman instructions in the manual.

2) There is a gap between the barrel and the frizzen that lets pan powder escape.

I think I need to slightly scrape the mortise the the lock plate sits into in order to close this gap. If I primed with 2fg the powder granules would be too big to escape through this gap. I prime with 4fg so I check my prime every now and then and have taken to carrying the rifle tipped to throw the power away from the touch hole. Just before I shoot I give the rifle a little jiggle to get the powder laying flat on the bottom of the pan.

3) Web sites that offer replacement ramrods says the GPR's ramrod is 33".
My OEM rod is 32.5" and that puts the rod end almost flush with the muzzle.
So far I've just shorten the replacement Delrin plastic ramrods I've ordered from October Country.

I am using the cut agate flint that came with the rifle and have bought more of them, they work in my rifle although some claim they don't work as well as knapped flints.
I have ordered and receive a bunch of hand knapped flints from track of the wolf but haven't tried them yet as the cut agate are working well for me.

Loading my tight patch and ball combo .018" + .535" did cause cuts on the patches on loading. JB bore shine on a brush and patch smoothed things out at the muzzle and down the bore, now no cuts on the patches.

This tight PRB load is very accurate in my rifle, but the trade off is it is tough to start into the bore.
I've modified my short starter, sanded large flat spots on two sides of the ball to save my hand some pain in starting the ball.
I've also started to use a greased (melted mink oil grease) .58 caliber (over size for a 54 cal bore) over powder wads these have further improved my group size.

 

[ssettle]

hey cowpoke just read your post about using brake cleaner to clean new barrel..any certain type? hadnt heard this before. got my 50cal GPR flinter on christmas eve. I scalded the barrel,then cleaned it with some butchs barrel shine that came with it then coated it with bore butter.Should I clean it again with brake fluid?

Do yourself a favor and do not store your rifle with bore butter. Shooting with it seems to work ok but bore butter is more for shooting as it keeps the fouling soft. I've been shooting since the 80's and found that I pulled rust color patches from my bore using the stuff. Also if you hunt in cold weather it can make it diffcult to load. This is just what i've found..broke a ramrod using the stuff once

 

[WVAED]

What do you suggest for storage of your rifle? I presently am using bore butter. I have used Crisco in the past.

 

[sepiatone]

What do you suggest for storage of your rifle? I presently am using bore butter. I have used Crisco in the past.

I like Barricade. Never had a problem.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Another vote for Barricade.

 

[Stubert]

I wipe down the outside with gun oil, I run an oiled patch down the bore after cleaning. I also had black gooey patches that would NEVER clean out when I was using bore butter, I don't know what it's from. I got rid of the bore butter and use crisco on patches now. cleans up alot better now. Just make sure you get the oil out before you shoot it, I use denatured alcohol.

 

[WVAED]

Where do i buy Barricade and what is it made of?