How long is the barrel? Pistols are not like shotguns or rifles. There is a real limit to the amount of powder you can put in them and get any real increase in velocity.
Locks eat flints for three basic reasons.
a. The frizzen spring is too strong. Take the spring out. The gun should spark and throw sparks in the pan without the spring being present. Put the spring back in, and using a trigger pull gauge, pull back on the very top fo the frizzen when its closed to see how much weight is required to open the frizzen. 3 lbs. is about right. Sometimes just polishing the top of the frizzen spring where the heel of the frizzen rubs, and polishing that heel will reduce the tension enough that it works correctly. Most of the times, you need to file the spring itself to reduce the tension adequately.
b. The angle that the flint hits the frlzzen is too square. At the point of contact, it should be between 55 and 60 degrees using the bottom of the flint( op of the lower jaw) as one axis, and a line drawn from the point if contact to the top inside face of the frizzen as the other axis. Use a protractor to measure the angle. They cost less than $1.00, are plastic, and can usually be bought in a grocery store or drug store, in addition to school supply, or stationary stores.
c. The mainspring is too strong. You only need about 10-15 lbs. of tension to create sparks, and often the mainspring will be twice this in weight. Leave the lock in the stock, make sure the gun is empty, and then put the butt on a bathroom scale. Note how much the gun weighs on the scale, then slowly push the cock back until it clicks into Full cock, keeping your eye on the scale. Note the highest weight recorded. subtract the weight of the gun. That give you the weight of the mainspring tension.
Sometimes polishing parts, relieving areas where parts are rubbing where they shouldn't can take a lot of the tension off that cock. It is mostly part of the solution and not the complete solution. But, you have to take the lock apart, and test each of the moving parts without them being under tension to feel for burrs, or friction that indicates something needs to be polished . Once that is done, than go back and test the spring tension again, and that will give you a true reading. The last lock I did had all kinds of friction problems, and after I had polished away all of them, the tension was a full 3 pounds less than when I first tested it. The spring still needed lots of filing to reduce its tension, but I was 3 lbs closer to the desired tension!
If you want to tune the lock yourself, contact me and I will tell you where on the springs to file, or grind, or both, and how to do it properly so you don't break a spring.
