Talk me into a Flintlock

[Mike Payne]

I have been shooting flintlocks for 40 years enjoyed every minute. Just look at flintlock longrifle it just looks like a rifle ott to look like. Then look at the lock it is a mechanical work of art.
There is nothing more enjoyable than firing a well made flintlock. :2

 

[Artificer]

I started out as a "Cap Gun ONLY" Guy for a few years, but ...... if you want to do 18th century up through the War of 1812, you have to get a flintlock.

OR, if you live in a state like PA where only flintlocks are allowed for primitive hunting, then you have to get a flinter to hunt during that period of the season.

Heck, when I began doing WBTS reenacting, I started out with my Brown Bess, which was still authentic to the early part of that War.

I rarely shot a cap gun after I stopped doing WBTS reenacting. Really have no interest in shooting anything other than a flintlock smoothbore or rifle gun.

Gus `

 

[Pete G]

Contemplate the fact that most all that shoot flint started with a percussion. I have never heard of one that started with flint and then moved to percussion.(re-enactors excepted and assuming a good quality flintlock). A poor quality lock might cause one to take up golf

 

[Loyalist Dave]

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!!! :haha:

I spent several years in the USMC infantry. At one point I was trained to reach-out-and-touch-someone [1980's telephone company slogan] i.e. hit a man sized target at 1000 yards with a bolt-action rifle. There wasn't any challenge really, for me, with harvesting deer at a few hundred yards with a scoped, hunting rifle.

:idunno:

As a kid I'd done CW reenacting, and then as college student my hunting season was restricted to the BP season when I was home from school, so I had a caplock..., plus my state had really restricted where one could use a rifle by then, down to shotguns, and black powder rifles.

One day after I left the Corps, I started making a flinter kit..., it was right after Last of the Mohicans was in theaters, and flinters looked like fun. So the allure that I found was...,

They look cool...,
It's a small, fraternal group that knows how to use them and shoots them....,
They are quirky, so it's fun figuring out how to make them work....,
It's very relaxing and stress relieving spending a few hours at the range, even though I'm only shooting say 10 or 20 rounds....,
They are VERY accurate out to 100 yards...,
It's a challenge to get close to the deer...,
AND they DROP deer with a patched, round ball....,
I found the experience of harvesting deer with a flinter was so unique, that I don't hunt with anything other than black powder these days. In fact I even switched to a caplock SxS for upland birds, and use a flint trade gun for small game.

LD

 

[Snakebite]

I don't know what your motivation is for shooting muzzleloaders so it's hard for me to try to give you reason to go with a flintlock or percussion traditional muzzleloader.

I can tell you for me, it is the history of certain eras. I started off with the fur trade and mountainmen. It's now kind of progressed to the Texas Revolution and Republic, both of which had flintlocks and percussion.

So it's really up to you to decide on whether or not you want a flintlock. I will say that I find them fun to shoot, a bit of a challenge sometimes, but the more you shoot them, the less the challenge, at least for me. I would suggest you get a good one, you tend to get what you pay for.

Happy shooting,
Snakebite

 

[Larry Akers]

Learn to shoot a flintlock well and you will be a better shot with whatever kind of rifle you shoot.

 

[DennyDucet]

To me, it was a vacation from this era, from modern weapons of which I have been immersed in for decades. It was the slow, meditative, methodical, and ritualistic loading process, the sound the smell, the beauty and elegance of the rifles themselves, and the history they represented. It was the last time man interacted with stone as part of a weapons system of operation.

I didn't need talked into, I merely shot a few.

 

[Vaino]

Why should I do that? Just buy or borrow a flintlock and shoot it....you either will be further interested or not. What I or others think is irrelevant.....Fred

 

[Critter Getter]

It boils down to something called "a challenge". Some get it and accept the challenge. I have always enjoyed hunting the hard way with a bow. I can tell you this...... Shooting accurately and taking whitetail deer with a flintlock is harder for me than doing the same with a compound bow! I have taken many trophy size Iowa bucks with my bow but have yet to even take a deer of any kind with my flintlock after hunting two seasons! Shooting a flintlock makes me smile and I am sooo hooked on it. I have shot and hunted with my percussion guns for 33 years but am bound and determined to do so with one of my flintlocks! Be warned tho.......owning your first flintlock will just lead you to owning more and more flintlocks!! . Greg

 

[simonbeans]

Hmmmmmm, which has more aesthetic appeal?

 

[coloradoclyde]

I'm blind! I'm blind....Oh the pain.....

Ooooh...There the last picture eased the pain...


You could have at least warned me! :slap:

 

[BobinIL]

I did it! I just committed to purchase a Lyman trade rifle flintlock in 54cal. Im getting excited about shooting it when it arrives.

 

[Zonie]

Congratulations on your new rifle. :thumbsup:

I'm sure you've already read this but I'll repeat it just in case you missed it.

You MUST use real black powder in your new flintlock rifle both for the priming charge and for the main powder charge.

None of the modern synthetic black powder replacements will give satisfactory results.

Gun stores cannot have real black powder out on their shelves. Federal regulations require that they keep it under lock and key so remember, you must ask for it.

Because black powder in gun or sporting goods stores is locked away, often the sales people don't know they have it. Talk to the department manager.

Given a choice of black powder, buy the 3Fg granulation size. It is excellent for use in both the pan and as a main powder charge in your .54.

Have fun.

 

[simonbeans]

At least it is a flinter. Next time, a long rifle will excite your blood more.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Go smoothbore and really have some fun..... :grin:

 

[DennyDucet]

We had a good weekend at a rendezvous, and shooting this 42" 50 cal sure was a BLAST. That is how you get hooked. Go shoot a few.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH76CmvjeFE/?taken-by=dennyducet

 

[jj500]

Its kinda like reverse technology,you started with an inline went to a percussion then the natural graduation is to a flintlock,then another then another and finally ending up with a flintlock smoothbore to complete the process. You will not be disappointed ,learn on the Lyman but then move to a custom or one you make yourself to get one with the flint. :bow:

 

[Commodore Swab]

The best reason to date . . .

My brother in law living in a country where gun are very regulated hunts rats at night in the rice fields. The rats hunted are good clean rats (they live in the wild and eat the rice) for food. Their weapon of choice is a long gun (approx. 30-40" barrel) of about a .38 caliber. multiple odd shaped pellets are fired instead of a single ball. The wadding is a local vegetation and the gun home made. An ignition system is percussion firing a paper cap (like the ones used in toy guns). Powder is homemade as well in the village, while it isn't as potent as ours (I'm sure I could help with that) it is ground find to compensate.

Long story short they are using homemade guns with home made powder and shot but when shown a flintlock (I brought a lock there) they were stunned and amazed. The simple fact that they could use their weapons without caps was wonderful.

 

[tenngun]

Contemplate the fact that most all that shoot flint started with a percussion. I have never heard of one that started with flint and then moved to percussion.(re-enactors excepted and assuming a good quality flintlock). A poor quality lock might cause one to take up golf

Except near most of the folk between 1820 and 1850.
Corse I think it was just a fad.

 

[Zonie]

Contemplate the fact that most all that shoot flint started with a percussion. I have never heard of one that started with flint and then moved to percussion.(re-enactors excepted and assuming a good quality flintlock). A poor quality lock might cause one to take up golf

Except near most of the folk between 1820 and 1850.
Corse I think it was just a fad.

Actually, my very first muzzleloader was a flintlock.

I used it for both target shooting and hunting and it did just fine.

Later, I bought several cap locks and I enjoyed shooting them too.

I guess that's why although those first guns were sold off years ago I now have several cap lock rifles and pistols and several flintlock rifles and pistols and I shoot them all.

This is also why I don't get into the "Flintlocks are best"/"Caplocks are best", manure that I see too much of around this site.

They are all good and they are all fun to shoot.