Small Caliber Flintlock

[musketman]

Let's have some fun...
This is just food for thought, nothing more than that.

I would like to have a custom flintlock squirrel rifle.
I would also like to have something smaller than a .32 caliber.

Let's say I have a 30 inch barrel that is cut for a .26 caliber.

.26 caliber...

I could use a patched #3 buckshot (.25 caliber)

[Buckshot Sizes 000 00 0 1 2 3 4
Pellet Diameter
Inches .36 .33 .32 .30 .27 .25 .24]

So I have a .26 caliber flintlock that takes a .25 diameter round ball and a .010 patch...

What powder and charge do you think I should use?

I say, 7 to 10 grains of FFFg as a main charge.

What would you think is best?

Maybe 5 to 7 grains of FFFFg as a main charge...

Think about it.

 

[Birddog6]

Wouldn't take much to really zip a small bullet like that. 10 grains of Swiss should put it well over 2000 FPS I would think.
There was some guys on the old shooters.com site some time ago talking about shooting them at 100 to 200 yards and getting tremendous accuracy with them.
I saw a real beaut of a .22 ML at Friendship last fall a guy was sporting around.
Way too small a bullet for my clumsy fingers to handle in the cool weather. Have enough problems with a .32 or .36 calibers!

 

[RJR]

Got a guy in our club who has a .25, 42 in. swamped Getz barrel, 1 in 48 twist. He shoots 8gr of FFFFg as a main charge (I think it's almost as much as in the pan)

. Thing shoots flat as hell, just don't make enough noise on the clangers. All you hear is a tink, and that's if you don't have your ear plugs in. Looks sweet and holds beautiful. Take care, Rick.

 

[TwoShadows]

Hey DeadDog...don't "tink" count the same as "bong"?...A friend just brought his second .29 caliber over this afternoon.....shore is a sweet little riflegun.

 

[Chuck Deaton]

At the moment I am working on a 32 caliber with a 3/4 " straight barrel. My ultimate aim is to eat squirrel mulligan.

Where would you source a barrel smaller than 32 caliber and smaller than 3/4"?

 

[Darkhorse]

30 plus years ago I used to attend some shoots in North Ga. There was an old man there from Tenn., white hair, white beard, .28 Cal. Flintlock.
You "DID NOT" want to bet against him. Even at 100 yards in a stiff wind. I tried to allow for the fabled wind drift and put 5 shots into the Buff's nose at 100 yards. The old man said "Allowed for the wind, Eh?"
"Yes" I said, "Didn't you?"
"No, never do" he said as he showed me his target with a tight cluster of little holes right around the bullseye.
I can't remember his name but he used to make ML targets. Crows, Groundhogs, the Nightmare. The name of his buisness was "Owl Hollow targets" or possibly"Possum Hollow".
I still have some of his targets somewhere.

At the time I wasn't interested in the small calibers. I only wanted something I could also hunt big game with. However now I want a squirrel and turkey rifle and and am reconidereing the smaller calibers. I am thinking about the .36 or .40.