Traditions .50 Kentucky Pistol? Questions...

[Paul_R]

I picked up a .50 Kentucky pistol that was represented as "about 5 years old but like new and never fired". That part appears to be true. It's a really nice piece. Good metal, fit and finish, and a nice piece of what appears to be maple with an almost burl look on the left side.

Here's where it gets weird. The seller stated he has no idea who the manufacturer is and there are no marks visible on the assembled gun. However on the underside of the barrel there is faintly etched "Traditions .45 caliber" along with the standard warnings and stuff you would expect. I mic'd the barrel and it's definitely .50 caliber. Anybody seen anything like that before?

The other question I have is about spring tension. Compared to my Lyman GPR (which works great), this pistol has a main spring and frizzen spring that are way way more stiff. I'm new at this whole flint and muzzleloading thing but these springs seem way over powered. Is there anything that can be done if this lock turns out to be a rock crusher?

Thanks in advance guys!

Here are a couple of pictures:

 

[Zonie]

Buy a flint or two and use some leather to hold it in the jaws.
While your buying, you might want to pick up some .010 thick patches and some .490 diameter roundballs if you don't already have them.

Pistols don't need the thick, tight patching that rifles use and using the thinner patching material will make loading the gun a lot easier.

Using real black powder, charge the barrel and prime the pan and touch it off.

If it starts bashing the flints, then we can worry about the spring pressures and what can be done to improve things.

 

[desi23]

I wouldn't worry too much about the spring tension, most of my flintlocks have stout springs and I still get decent flint life out of them. As to the Traditions marking being on the underside of the barrel I would suspect that the markings were applied wrong at the factory and it just got sent on through anyway.

 

[rafterob]

The other option on the barrel is that it was a refurbished barrel. Maybe sent back with a flaw in a .45 barrel. Or perhaps just rebored when the Tradition's american market went to strictly .50 caliber. I have the percussion version, very accurate. The wood is beech and some of the stocks can have very pretty grain, some nondescript.http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/558312/ Old pictures of mine, if they still show up.

 

[greggholmes]

 

[Dickydalton]

I think you should sell it to me and let me worry about it.