New Flintlock Hunter Here

[Twisted_1in66]

One of the most important things to make your experience enjoyable instead of frustrating when shooting a flintlock is to make sure you have a good slicing angle of the flint onto the frizzen.

That angle needs to be 55° to 60°. If you get your flint to strike the frizzen at that angle it will give you lots of sparks and will be self knapping. If the angle is less than that, say 45° or less, you will be crushing the tip of your flint every time it hits the fizzen. That means you will constantly be knapping your flint and will always end up with blunt rounded flints.

So flip it bezel up, bezel down, move it forward in the jaws or back in the jaws. Do whatever it takes to get that 55° to 60° angle and you will get lots of sparks and long life out of each flint. You want the flint to slice along the frizzen, not smash into it. And don't worry about it contacting almost half way down the frizzen. As long as it is making a slicing stroke along the frizzen it will work fine. If you try to get your flint to strike the top of the frizzen you will constantly be crushing edges and breaking your flints.

Hope this helps, it made a HUGE difference for me.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[54ball]

Hello - my first post.

I picked up a Conneticut Valley Arms, Mountain Rifle in .54 cal.

I took it apart, cleaned it up and shot it yesterday. It has a browned barrel and furniture and a very low serial number. Deos anyone have any information on the rifle?

It shoots very well at 50 yards touching every shot. At 80 yards it spreads out to at least 6 inches. I use 4F to prime and 2F in barrel.

It did not go bang(4 clicks) until I primed the heck out of the pan (almost full). Does the primer powder have to touch the touch hole? I read not to let the primer charge near the touch hole. After 8 shots it seemed to go bang more often even getting three in a row with the pan loaded. I started to pick out the touch hole every shot and brushed the pan. Seemed to help. The touch hole looked to be set back a few millimeters from the pan is this the correct position?

Thanks for any input.

Dave

Dave,

I expect my flintlocks to be battle ready.

This means I do not worry about how much prime I use, I just pour some powder out of the horn in the pan's general direction and call it good.
Sometimes I fill it, sometimes it's 3/4 or less, sometimes I have to brush some away to close the pan.

It's a rare occasion I have to pick a gun, usually when it's so fouled, after about 15-20 shots or so in a row, like at a reenactment.

My touch holes are not overly large.

I care little about bevel position or flint/cock angle or touch hole location as long as the gun shoots reliably.

I actually care little about what powder I use. My guns will eat them all 2ff or 3fff in prime and load. I suppose they would also do OK with 1f.

Sometimes my horn is mixed with both 3fff or 2ff with no ill effect. I still have a 20 year old can of 4ffff, I never use the stuff. My go to load is straight 2ff for prime and main.

This stuff is not rocket science but it is a skill that must be learned. Some folks are anal, They like ABC and 123. So they have to have a ritual that they adhere to. Hey if it works for them that's fine. Some are like myself...load an shoot simple, simple. You can lean from all and mix shooting methods to come up with your own method of success.

The only way to gain success with these archaic mechanisms is experience. The only way to truly know if you indeed have a fundamental problem with your rifle is experience and ruling out the variables which can be many and all intertwined.

You and your rifle need to bond. That is key.

So the best advice I can give you is...Shoot the rifle.

First make sure you have proper sized good flints. Hand knapped French Amber and Black English have done very well for me. Make sure you have a good quality, proper flint and then...
Shoot the rifle.

Eating flints? Experiment with flint position. Polish the frizzen face.
Shoot the rifle.

Experiment with prime. You may find it does better with 2f prime or 3f prime. Prime load, if it takes over filling the pan to get it to light, so be it. As you lean it you, you likely can correct it..so
Shoot the rifle.

Pan flashes with no boom? Load looser, as do not seat the ball down with excessive force; flintlocks need some air between the grains to promote burning. The ball should be seated firmly on the powder but the charge should not be overly compacted. Period writings mention not to "bruise" the grains when seating the ball.
Pick it. This may sound crazy but some of my guns used to require ritual picking. They do not now and really nothing was done to them. Did they improve or did I improve?
You may need to deepen the pan and polish it. This is the only time I'll recommend the dreaded Dremel as most factory pans are way too shallow. Be careful though... Try things like this.
Shoot the rifle.

Those old CVA Maslin locks could be finicky and troublesome. Indeed it may need to be replaced, that's always an option. IMHO though, since they can be somewhat finicky in what they like, many were condemned to the trash heap before the shooter learned their quirks.
So
Shoot the rifle and confirm you have a problem before really doing heavy modifications.

 

[outbackzack]

Technically, it is rocket science. After all, rockets and bullets are both propelled by controlled explosions. :rotf:

 

[Briarhunter]

No it looks to more like 1/4.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and knowledge shared.

 

[Grenadier1758]

That gap of 1/4" isn't too bad really if you are getting the slicing action and a lot of sparks. You may want to try and move the edge of the flint closer to the frizzen.

 

[bpd303]

54ball has given the best possible advice. Shot the rifle... a lot and have fun, be safe.

 

[Col. Batguano]

One thing about flints. They're all somewhat unique, and as such, individuals (unless you are getting the precision-sawn ones which is usually a waste IMO). One flint may be thin, and another thick. One might have a high hump and another a low hump. (I know I know, here it comes; "what hump"? :wink: ) So from the same batch of flints, one flint might have to have the bevel up to work, and the next one might need the bevel down, and not work otherwise. That's why when you change your flint, you need to test spark it a couple of times to see that it works. Out in the game field after many hours or days of pursuit is no time to find out that the bevel on this individual flint should have been different. :nono: