Most likely you are going to find that gun has the OLD T/C lock in it. The angle of the flint to the frizzen is not good, and you may have ignition problems. If you send the lock back to T/C, they will replace it with a new lock, that shoots like all get-out. I have not seen one complaint about the hew T/C flint lock, and almost everyone here who shoots them, loves them.
YOu probably DON'T have everything you need to load shoot and clean that new gun. Here's a list:
1. Range Rod: This is a rod separate from what comes with the gun. They care made of steel, aircraft aluminum, Brass, and Brass tubing. They have handles on them, and are fitted with the proper size jags, and brushes to clean and load the barrel. The Handle is needed for when you join the ' Dry Baller's Club ". It is not a question of " IF " you join; only " When ". And most of have joined several times, and expect to join again even though we have been doing this for 30 years and should have learned by now. You want to invest in a good ball pulling jag, and you might as well also buy a patch pulling jag.
2. Brush
3. Ball pulling Jag
4. patch Pulling jag.
5. Powder measure- you really need an adjustable powder measure so that you can work up a load that shots accurate. I prefer the kind that has a funnel attached to the trunk of the measure on a pivot, so that I can simple tip the measure with the funnel in the muzzle to pour my powder down the barrel. You can make a fixed measure from antler, or horn tips, or wood, or anything else you fancy after you work up a load.
6. You need some kind of range box to hold all the gear.
7. You will eventually need to have a hunting bag, to carry a lot of this stuff when you go hunting.
8. You want a good solvent/patch lube to use on your patches you wrap around the lead RB. Hoppe's Black Solve is good. So is Stumpy's Moose Milk, and that formula is found here under Member Resources at the top of the Index page. His Moose Snot is a great patch LUBE which is used separately by folks from the solvent/cleaner, which tend to be more liquid. You will want a bottle of rubbing alcohol for Sub Freezing cleaning chores if you shoot in the winter.
9. Try both FFg and FFFg powder in that gun. Sometimes the finer grained 3Fg powder works better in the big bores. No one knows why. You should find that FFg works best in the gun, however.
10 Powder charges: Using that huge 260 grain, .560 Round Ball, I find three loads listed in the Hodgdon reloading manual for PRB:
50 G. FFg = 884
60 Gr.FFg = 972
70 Gr.FFg = 1054
The rest of the loads are for shooting minie balls.
Since an ounce weights 437.5 grains, a 260 grain ball is a huge projectile. It doesn't have to be going fast out of the muzzle to be still going fast enough to completely penetrate a deer at 100 yds. Stick with the lighter loads for range work, until you find out exactly what load the gun shoots the best.
11. I recommend that you buy some Over Powder Wads, and use them to protect your patch from being burned in the barrel. These are inexpensive, but they contribute much to consistent burning of the powder charge, and therefore consistent velocity, and smaller groups. Accuracy is the name of the game with large balls, not velocity. Do some penetration testing with your gun to see how powerful even that light load is. Compare it to your father's gun, using his favorite load.
12. Recoil becomes a problem with large bore guns. BP does not usually kick you like smokeless powder, but it does shove you around. You will want to try shooting 100 grains, or 120, or even 150 grains of powder in that gun, and I guarantee you will know the difference. But I highly doubt that you will shoot the gun as accurately with such loads. Remember that you are shooting a ball that is larger in diameter when it enters a deer's hide, than most modern expanding bullets are when they exit the deer. Your RB is likely to expand to about .80 caliber in a deer on a broadside shot, before exiting. Sometimes it will expand even larger. It does not take a lot of velocity to get a pure lead ball to expand. That ball leaves a huge primary wound channel, and deer do not run far when hit with that size ball. The gun and a PRB are capable of killing at much longer ranges. The only question is are you capable of holding the sights well enough to hit a deer at longer ranges using the sights on the gun. T/C makes a peep sight that you might want to use on the gun for hunting.
13. You need a vent pick to clean that vent, and to poke a hole in the primary powder charge. You can use an ordinary pipe cleaner for these tasks, or make your own pick from a piece of coat hanger. Make a loop at one end for a handle, and some way to tie the pick to your bag. Then hammer or file a rounded point that is narrow enough to enter the vent, and go all the way across the bore. If you have a propane torch, you can make it fancy, by hammering the wire square, then twisting it with one end held in your vies, and the other in some visegrips or pliers, while red hot. This makes a decorative pick. You can heat weld the loop. I even make a heart shaped loop on one pick and heat welded the end to the shaft to close the loop. If you drop the hot pick into oil it will turn the surface a rich black. You can buy picks from suppliers, but making your own is fun.
13. You probably will want a pouring spout for the can of powder. Suppliers sell lids with cartridge casing soldered to them, to act as a spout and funnel. You can do this yourself if you have the soldering equipment.
14. Powder horn. You can buy them, or make them. We flintlock shooters here have pretty much decided that we don't need to use FFFFg Priming Powder in the guns, and can make do with whatever powder we use in the main charge. There is no reason to have both a powder horn for your main charge powder, and a smaller, separate priming horn. I have them, and still use them, but if and when I use up my FFFFg priming powder, I will retire the priming horn to the range box, to be used only to help out shooters who have dry-balled their rifles or can't get their percussion rifles to go off, and need to put some fine powder under the nipple to shoot the load or ball out of the barrel. A pound of FFFg powder lasts a long time. If you want to try some, find someone at the range or club who already has some, and buy a small container full of the stuff. Even an ounce of the stuff is going to last a lot of shots, figuring 2-3 grains of priming powder per shot.
15: Cleaning patches -- Cotton flannel, or pocket drill, or muslin works best.
16. Patch material for wrapping that lead round ball. It comes in various thicknesses, measured with either a micrometer or caliper. PIllow ticking can be bought by the yard at Walmart, and most fabric stores. So can pocket drill, muslin, linen. Before ordering any, buy a sample packet from a supplier( see the links at the top of the index page)so you can try various thicknesses with whatever diameter ball you use, and see what works the best. If you use the OP Wads, to seal the gases behind the PRB, you can usually use a thinner patch for easy loading than if you don't use the OP wad.
17. Short starter. T/C sells a dandy of a short starter, with a bore protector and a nice round ball for a handle to save your hand as you smack the starter on the PRB to seat it in the barrel. I made my own short starter out of deer antler, but I have to confess I prefer using that T/C short starter more.
18. Plug scraper: If you are one of these guys who insists on seeing how many shots you can fire without cleanin the barrel, then you will need to buy a jag that has a blade on the front of it to scrape the crud build up on the face of your breechplug. It looks like an oversized screwdriver blade made of brass, or soft steel. You run it down the barrel to the breechplug, and twist it to scrape through and scrape off the crud. I found that if I use alcohol to remove all oils and greases from the barrel put there for storing the gun, before going shooting, and then clean between shots, I don't get a crud build up unless the humidity is simply horrible that day.Then after 20 shots I may have a build up that requires attention. Normally, Moose milk loosens it enough to come out with cleaning patches. In more than 30 years of shooting, I believe I have used my scraper exactly once! That is why this is at the bottom of my list, and not up there with the other jags.
Read, read, read. There are some articles in the Member resources on shooting flintlocks that may help you with some ideas, too.
19. Obviously, you need a supply of flints. If you can get to Friendship, or one of the larger rendezvous, you will find suppliers selling flints in volume. That is how to get the best prices. If you order them from a supplier tell them the name and model of the gun( T/C Renegade) and they will tell you the correct size flint to buy.
If you have more questions, ask. That is why we are here.
Welcome to the " Dark Side " of flintlock shooting. It more a disease than a life style, much less only a choice of firearms. Other shooters will think you are nuts for shooting flint, until they see how well you can shoot. Then, you will never remember having so many friends! :hatsoff:
