Hello, I am thinking about coverting my southern mountain to a flintlock.I bought it in the early 90s and it has a large siler caplock on it. I have heard that the flint should interchange with it but I don't know if the new ones are the same size. I was wondering if any of ya'll have ever done one of these conversions and if it was very difficult or not? Any info or tips you guys could give me would be appreciated. Thanks Dew
Siler conversion
- Thread starter DEWB
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The best thing to do in my mind is to get a new Siler flintlock for it instead of getting a lot of parts and re-fitting the existing percussion lock with them. You'd need a cock, top-jaw, top jaw bolt, frizzen, frizzen spring, and pan/bolster to re-fit the existing lock, and lots of work and heat treating of the frizzen.
I hope you've got a drum now- this can be replaced with a touch-hole liner and you're ready to go flintlock.
I hope you've got a drum now- this can be replaced with a touch-hole liner and you're ready to go flintlock.
I had a flint rifle I built several years ago that my Father-in-Law fell in love with but didn't like a flintlock, so I bought a large Siler percussion lock and installed a drum and nipple, the lock dropped right in. He used it for a few years and gave up hunting and gave the rifle back fortunatly I kept the flintlock. All I did was remove the drum and nipple, installed a vent liner and reinstalled the old flintlock and all is well.
Hope this helps.
Regards, Dave
Hope this helps.
Regards, Dave
The locks for the Convertables I've built were bought at the same time, so I'm just guessing when I say the new Siler lock plate should be the same as the old Siler lock plate.
The lock plate seems to be common to both locks.
This should make the Flintlock almost a drop in.
I say almost because the plates are castings and castings do have tolerances.
If I were to do this, I would try the Flintlock in the lock mortice. Those areas which were interfering, I would file down to obtain the fit.
(I would not remove any wood to fit it.)
The only thing you might have a problem with is the position of the sear arm.
Here again, if it fit and the trigger was a little loose, I would live with it.
If there was just a little interference with the trigger I would remove a little material from the sear arm.
Only if there was a lot of interference would I consider bending the sear arm because it will require annealing before bending it.
Annealing can be done by lightly clamping the sear end of the sear arm in a pair of locking pliers and placing the pliers and sear in a pan of water such that only the arm sticking out above the water level.
Heat the exposed material to cherry red and slowly cool it by backing the torch slowly away from the material.
By keeping the nose of the sear under water, it's hardness will not be effected.
IMO, there is no reason to have to re-heat treat the arm.
When installing the vent liner, don't forget to trim off the length so it doesn't extend into the bore. (been there, done that :grin: )
The lock plate seems to be common to both locks.
This should make the Flintlock almost a drop in.
I say almost because the plates are castings and castings do have tolerances.
If I were to do this, I would try the Flintlock in the lock mortice. Those areas which were interfering, I would file down to obtain the fit.
(I would not remove any wood to fit it.)
The only thing you might have a problem with is the position of the sear arm.
Here again, if it fit and the trigger was a little loose, I would live with it.
If there was just a little interference with the trigger I would remove a little material from the sear arm.
Only if there was a lot of interference would I consider bending the sear arm because it will require annealing before bending it.
Annealing can be done by lightly clamping the sear end of the sear arm in a pair of locking pliers and placing the pliers and sear in a pan of water such that only the arm sticking out above the water level.
Heat the exposed material to cherry red and slowly cool it by backing the torch slowly away from the material.
By keeping the nose of the sear under water, it's hardness will not be effected.
IMO, there is no reason to have to re-heat treat the arm.
When installing the vent liner, don't forget to trim off the length so it doesn't extend into the bore. (been there, done that :grin: )
