Traditions Flintlock Problem

[bluemax-ct]

I have owned a Knight Wolverine .50 cal inline for several years and the thing shoots like a centerfire rifle at 100 yards.

Recently I purchased two use Traditions rifles. The Kentucky .50 cal percussion and a Shenandoah .50 cal flintlock rifle. The barrels were in good shape, in fact the flintlock's barrel looks almost unused. At $130 each I could not pass up this deal. The Kentucky percussion shoots well enough for hunting up here in the northeast's dense woods, usally 50 yards or less. The Shenandoah flintlock gave me problems as I could not get it to spark, guess that's why it was sold. Anyway after some investigation I found the problem. With the flint placed in it's proper postion the top flint hold down plate was striking the frizzen and pushing it away from the flint near the bottom of the stroke. I grounded off about 1/8" from this top plate and now it sparks up a storm.

Off to the range. First thing I found was that the Flintlock did not like 2F Pyrodex powder. I had to feed some 4F BP into the tounch hole to make it fire and the shots were erratic. When I switched to 3F black powder I had no problems at all. Plus the grouping improved to a 5 shot 2 inch grouping at 50 yards from a rest, with 3 shout within a 1 inch grouping. I was using a 90 grain hunting load. On my next range outing I'll try some 100 yard shots to see what this rifle will do. I'll also try the 3F BP on the caplock to see if it will improve it's groupings.

I really lucked out with these Tradition rifles and I'am selling my Knight inline. :winking:

Keep you powder dry,
Bluemax-CT

 

[Cherokee]

I have the Traditions Kentucky rifle cap lock. I only use 3f in all my rifles and pistols.
My traditions cap lock is 100% reliable and pretty accurate too, more accurate than I am.

 

[bradmartin]

I was having the same problem with my Traditions Kentucky flinter. If you turn the flint over so the longer side is up, the clamp will miss the frizzen. Don't know if you tried that or not.
Your stuck now. I thought one rifle would be fine. I'm on my 3rd and looking for another( once I find a way to get it past my wife :hmm: ). Have fun.

 

[Cherokee]

Scarecrow,
IM in the same boat. One rifle has led to 2 and one pistol led to 2 and im waiting on my third rifle.
The wife has lost count.
I figure I'll throw enough christmas gifts at her and she wont have any interests in it lol

 

[bradmartin]

My wife likes to shoot with me. So she knows what I have. Hard to sneek any more in when I picked up two this year. "I can't pass up this deal", will not work any more. I'm stuck with one a year. So next year I want to build a flint pistol.

 

[mikelange]

Bluemax --

As you found out, flintlocks don't like Pyrodex. The flash point on Pyrodex is higher than on authentic black powder (higher? lower? it takes a hotter spark to touch it off, is what I'm trying to say), and even using 4f as your priming powder won't assure reliable ignition. Congrats on working out two fairly substantial hurdles and getting the rocklock to work!

If you're using saw-cut, angular flints, go to the Track Of The Wolf or Dixie Gun Works website and order appropriately-sized (either 1/2" or 5/8", I'm not sure which) knapped English flints. They're still bevelled on one side, but often aren't as radically so as the cut flints. They can also be re-sharpened a lot more easily than the cut type, extending their life and that of your dollar.

It being the time of season that they show "A Christmas Story" over and over, I will close by saying have fun, and, "Don't shoot your eye out!"

 

[shmrck1]

I have owned a Knight Wolverine .50 cal inline for several years and the thing shoots like a centerfire rifle at 100 yards.

Recently I purchased two use Traditions rifles./quote]
I'm glad you did i was afraid this was going to get ugly :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
snake-eyes

 

[mmahlock]

I also have a Traditions Shenandoah but mine is in .36 cal. I questioned the same problem with the flint/top jaw/frizzen alginment. My solution was much simpler than yours. Start with the right sized flint (Tom Fuller 3/4 Square) install it bevel down to start and after it wears down some flip it over to bevel side down. The real solution would be to alter the geometry of the cock and possibly the frizzen. Not worth it given the value of the rifle.

 

[bpollock_sr]

Flintlocks hate bp substitutes.That being said, your 90 grn load should be quite sufficent out to 100[url] yds.In[/url] order to achieve the best accuracy you may have to play around with different patch thicknesses and lubes,and adjust your powder charge + or- a few grains.
3f will work quite well in the pan, just remember that when you charge the pan, you only use enough powder to get reliable ignition. Too much causes a fuse effect .You will find that your caplock will be much more reliable with bp also.