New Toy! My First Flintlock!

[Bumpy Rhodes]

I have been reading books on the Revolutionary War recently and got an itch for a flintlock. I have been watching Armslist and the local gun superstore, checking every few days. This popped on the list at the local store today, a used Traditions Pennsylvania Rifle with a 40” barrel, apparently it is no longer made.

It clearly has been used, the frizzen is worn, there is corrosion/rust around the touchhole, but the bore looked good (as far as I could see with my good glasses and a flashlight). There were white particles in the barrel apparently left behind from the last firing, but the metal in the bore looked good, no visible pitting. And the price seemed good so I grabbed it.

I would really like to hear opinions about what ever you guys think. I know very little about muzzleloaders (my first was a ROA I bought a month ago) and I know absolutely nothing about flintlocks. If you think this is a POS, please say so. I have no problem selling and upgrading!

I need to buy powder, I have FFFg on hand, but I understand I really should get FFg for the main charge and 4Fg for the pan. Is there anything different about the 40” barrel that would affect charge and powder type? Suggestions on patches and balls would be great also.

I am an accuracy fanatic, so even suggestions on powder and cap brands that provide proven best accuracy would be greatly appreciated, as well as loading techniques, rituals, and animal sacrifices if necessary. (Just kidding! Unless it is a rodent!). My shooting will be 100y at a SR100 target. I sure would like to see if it can hold black!

Tomorrow I will completely disassemble it and give it a good bath and oil.

BTW: The store offers a 30 day warranty so if there is anything I should check please let me know.

Thanks!!!!

 

[Bumpy Rhodes]

 

[Bumpy Rhodes]

 

[flatcreek]

You can shoot the 3f and use it in the pan to get started. .490 ball and .015 patch to start.

 

[Brazos John]

suggestions on powder and cap brands that provide proven best accuracy would be greatly appreciated

What size caps do you plan to use on your flintlock?
This is certainly an item of interest with your ROA, but folks don't use caps on their flinters anymore.

And, I concur that FFF would work just fine, after making sure the touchhole and everything are clean.
Good Luck, and Keep Your Powder Dry!

 

[Bumpy Rhodes]

What size caps do you plan to use on your flintlock?
This is certainly an item of interest with your ROA, but folks don't use caps on their flinters anymore.

And, I concur that FFF would work just fine, after making sure the touchhole and everything are clean.
Good Luck, and Keep Your Powder Dry!

Yeah, I cross referenced, thanks for catching it. Hey! This muzzle loader stuff is confusing!!!

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

View attachment 372735

Congratulations on your new gun. Right off the start I will interject some comments that you asked for. This photo shows a no no gap where the pan meets the barrel. Powder will go down there and when the pan ignights, the powder behind the lock will too. Need to fix that before you shoot.
Second item, I suggest you dry fire with a unloaded gun and a hardwood wedge shapped flint. (at least 10 times) This will tell you if the lock and frizzen are working smoothly along with the trigger releasing the lock. Then make sure it sparks in the pan when you put a good flint in. When you go to shoot make sure you have what you need. Don't leave the house with something to remove a ball and to swab the bore. Check the sights to make sure they are nice and tight.
Good luck
Larry

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I have been reading books on the Revolutionary War recently and got an itch for a flintlock. I have been watching Armslist and the local gun superstore, checking every few days. This popped on the list at the local store today, a used Traditions Pennsylvania Rifle with a 40” barrel, apparently it is no longer made.

It clearly has been used, the frizzen is worn, there is corrosion/rust around the touchhole, but the bore looked good (as far as I could see with my good glasses and a flashlight). There were white particles in the barrel apparently left behind from the last firing, but the metal in the bore looked good, no visible pitting. And the price seemed good so I grabbed it.

I would really like to hear opinions about what ever you guys think. I know very little about muzzleloaders (my first was a ROA I bought a month ago) and I know absolutely nothing about flintlocks. If you think this is a POS, please say so. I have no problem selling and upgrading!

I need to buy powder, I have FFFg on hand, but I understand I really should get FFg for the main charge and 4Fg for the pan. Is there anything different about the 40” barrel that would affect charge and powder type? Suggestions on patches and balls would be great also.

I am an accuracy fanatic, so even suggestions on powder and cap brands that provide proven best accuracy would be greatly appreciated, as well as loading techniques, rituals, and animal sacrifices if necessary. (Just kidding! Unless it is a rodent!). My shooting will be 100y at a SR100 target. I sure would like to see if it can hold black!

Tomorrow I will completely disassemble it and give it a good bath and oil.

BTW: The store offers a 30 day warranty so if there is anything I should check please let me know.

Thanks!!!!

Congratulations on joining the Flintlock Fraturnity…I’m sure you’ll have a grand time.

 

[RobertIN]

Welcome! Once you get used to the delay and sights you should be good to go on 100 yard targets, Traditions makes very good barrels in my experience. Skip the 2f and 4f and see how the 3f does. I use it in .45, .50, and .54 both as the main charge and primer it works great.

As far as the gap mentioned above goes, that can be solved with deepening the inlet a bit. More than likely there are a couple of high spots that need scraped down and you'll be all set. Kibler's Longrifles has a couple of build playlists on YouTube that show you how. This video around the 26 minute mark will get you started:

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Welcome! Once you get used to the delay and sights you should be good to go on 100 yard targets, Traditions makes very good barrels in my experience. Skip the 2f and 4f and see how the 3f does. I use it in .45, .50, and .54 both as the main charge and primer it works great.

Robert. I respectfully beg to disagree with you. If a flinter is shootin right, there is no delay. Electronic timing a flinter against a cartridge rifle it is slower, but I would hardly call this a delay.
Larry

 

[RobertIN]

Robert. I respectfully beg to disagree with you. If a flinter is shootin right, there is no delay. Electronic timing a flinter against a cartridge rifle it is slower, but I would hardly call this a delay.
Larry
View attachment 372772

Certainly, but in my experience the Traditions locks aren't the fastest things around. I shoot mine from time to time as practice for shooting fundamentals for that reason. Still plenty quick but no contest in comparison to my Chambers/Kibler locks which are near instantaneous as the one in your video.

Being as this one is his first black powder gun aside from his ROA it's something different he'll have to get used to (Two in a month, he's one of us!) coming from unmentionables.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Looking at the rough surfaces around the pan, that rifle has been shot a lot. I would remove the lock to clean up the internal components as there is likely to be some fouling under the lock plate. @Bumpy Rhodes needs to do a deep inspection of the barrel. A patch with rust removal solvent to see what is pulled out. Be aware that the old, dried-up preservative grease will be pulled out and look like uncontrolled rusting. Once clean patches are coming out, and gray patches are good enough, a fishing bobber light can be dropped down the barrel to inspect for pitting. Some pitting can hold some fouling and will always discolor cleaning patches, but often the pitting doesn't adversely affect on target accuracy and Traditions barrels can be expected to be accurate.

As @Larry (Omaha) points out, once a lock has the moving parts well-polished, the delay isn't all that noticeable. Well, except for my observation that time slows when firing a flint lock and the shooter will perceive a delay even if to an observer, the firing is nearly instant. A properly sized sharp flint should be wrapped in a leather wrap to hold the flint in the jaws and the lock cycled to verify the production of sparks.

At this stage of introduction to traditional flint lock shooting, the 3fg black powder is suitable for the main charge and the pan charge. I do recommend a metal working rod to use for loading and cleaning. A bore sized jag to hold the cleaning patch and some old flannel to use as cleaning patches. Note: the brass brushes are a bad idea as they are designed for a one-way trip through the barrel and the bristles require a lot of effort to reverse often breaking off in the barrel or pulling the tip off the original wooden ram rod.

You should be able to find some flint lock shooting individuals to help with getting familiar with your rifle.

There is some wear, and I am not fond of the gap between the lock plate and the barrel, that rifle has been shot. So, other than cleaning it up should be serviceable for the shooting of the targets you have at your range.

 

[Spikebuck]

I bought one of those (except in percussion) for my wife back in 2000 or 2001. While the LOP was a bit long for her, she shot it very well and bench rested, it was very accurate. I cannot remember the load we used.

For me, it was too straight stocked, but a lot of production guns are. They can save money by fitting more guns into X amount of wood.

Regarding the gap at the pan, it could be the angle of the photo, but it looks like the pan cover/frizzen is interferring with closing the gap? If not, are the lock bolts loose? Just check that before performing surgery on the lock inlet.

Have fun cleaning it up and getting it shooting again. Should be a good shooting rifle.

 

[reddogge]

Go easy on oil in the bore. Oil lightly and wipe to get excess oil out. It will foul your charge.

 

[Gvilleddie]

Before proceeding, check to insure it isn’t loaded.

 

[Mcat]

I bought the same rifle in 50 cal as my first black powder gun about 12 years ago. Nice looking gun. It was very barrel heavy. Way more wood in the fore stock than required. The left side was much thicker than the right. You could see roller indents from a drum sander. I removed a fair bit of wood from the left side. Ignition was good, but I never enjoyed shooting it off hand. Sold it a few years ago. Shooting a Lancaster kit rifle in 54 cal., a Pedersoli Mortimer sporting flintlock in 54 and a Miquelet lock kit gun in 54. All very nicely balanced.

 

[rp77469]

View attachment 372735

Apologies if I missed someones post, but I did not see any mention so far about the gap between the lock and barrel. Powder can get behind there and blow the lock off. I have a used Jackie Brown rifle with a 0.022" gap at the touch hole. I will not shoot the rifle until that is fixed.

 

[Bumpy Rhodes]

Congratulations on your new gun. Right off the start I will interject some comments that you asked for. This photo shows a no no gap where the pan meets the barrel. Powder will go down there and when the pan ignights, the powder behind the lock will too. Need to fix that before you shoot.
Second item, I suggest you dry fire with a unloaded gun and a hardwood wedge shapped flint. (at least 10 times) This will tell you if the lock and frizzen are working smoothly along with the trigger releasing the lock. Then make sure it sparks in the pan when you put a good flint in. When you go to shoot make sure you have what you need. Don't leave the house with something to remove a ball and to swab the bore. Check the sights to make sure they are nice and tight.
Good luck
Larry

Thanks Larry. And thanks everyone, you guys are extremely helpful.

I removed the lock and the top edge of the pan is eroded so I believe what appear as a gap from the top may be more of a crevice.

 

[Bumpy Rhodes]

I washed the bore and ran my $10 ebay USB bore scope down it. There is visible rust for the first 2.5" where the charge sits, rifling is thin but visible. After that the bluing appears with small rust spots all about, rifling looks ok. Then at about 7" from the breach there a a few rings of rust with rings of blued bore between, rifling is clearly visible throughout the rings. After about 8", it looks pretty good, 90% is my guess. I don't see any evidence of pitting, only surface rust.

I don't like the look of the crown, which is absolutely critical in modern rifles, not sure how much it matters with a patched ball. I may consider having it recrowned if the rest of the project goes well.

Now I need to find some patches and balls and give it a try!

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Thanks Larry. And thanks everyone, you guys are extremely helpful.

I removed the lock and the top edge of the pan is eroded so I believe what appear as a gap from the top may be more of a crevice.

View attachment 372948

If it were mine, I would put a bead of silver solder on the crevice and then file it down. The powder flash should be cooler than the melting point of silver solder.
Larry