Now I see what you guys were talking about.

[hanshi]

In any endeavor that one pursues the necessary equipment must be at some reasonable level of "dependable". But in all my many years of hunting as well as being around other hunters, I eventually came to the conclusion that success comes not from the equipment's quality but from a quality human using that equipment.

 

[mmb617]

the 3/4" will make another difference for the better. Make sure to keep the bearing loose and free on the hammer (frizzen). There is some good you tube videos about the relation of the cock and hammer with flint placement. It is possible to remove the hammer on your old traditions lock, heat to a cherry red and and quench in water. Be careful, I have over hardened hammers that just snapped when the cock and flint hit it.

I got the 3/4" flints now so I'll install one of them the next time I need a new flint. I got to the range again yesterday and I'm convinced the new lock has solved my problems as the gun is now quite reliably firing.

As for that little bearing on the bottom of the frizzen I will make sure it stays cleaned and oiled. I always remove both the barrel and lock from my guns as soon as I get home from shooting and give them a good cleaning and oiling. They may be cheap guns but I'm still going to take good care of them.

In any endeavor that one pursues the necessary equipment must be at some reasonable level of "dependable". But in all my many years of hunting as well as being around other hunters, I eventually came to the conclusion that success comes not from the equipment's quality but from a quality human using that equipment.

There's little doubt that a lot of gun problems are actually gun operator problems, but when someone has multiple guns and only one of them continually gives him problems I start thinking it may actually be an equipment problem. I could be wrong though. Sure wouldn't be the first time that happened.

 

[TrapperDude]

In any endeavor that one pursues the necessary equipment must be at some reasonable level of "dependable". But in all my many years of hunting as well as being around other hunters, I eventually came to the conclusion that success comes not from the equipment's quality but from a quality human using that equipment.

The bulk of my modern firearms are the more reputable brands and cost a pretty penny. You know what, though? I decided to grab a couple of examples of "bottom-of-the-barrel" pieces from a brand known to be popular with gangbangers just because they had a reputation of being robust and reliable despite the ultra low price point. Sometimes, it's fun to go out and run something cheap but good just for the sake of it. It reminds me that my own skills take priority over my equipment.

I did a lot of reading about different flintlock brands before I bought my Trapper, and I found a good article on tuning it up. As it turned out, I didn't need to tune it. It functioned great out of the box, although I may use a razor blade to "shoe" the frizzen (I think that's what they call it), or I may do a hardening job on it if it starts to look too dinged up. For me, even if I have the moolah for the high-end guns, I don't feel the need to buy them if something more reasonably priced does the trick. If I can get good performance out of something with a little more effort, then it makes my fundamentals that much better.