Traditions rifle

[buickmarti]

Local store has a traditions deer slayer 24" barrel plastic stock.
Are the locks any good on these or are they not worth looking at?

 

[TreeMan]

I had a little traditions something or other that was a flintlock a few years ago. It was hard on flints until I lightened up the frizzen spring a bit. After that it was as reliable as more expensive flintlocks I have. High end they aren’t but they seem to work fine if you don’t mind maybe having to tinker with it a little. There is as much tinkering done on higher end flintlocks too so if it’s cheap I say go for it. There are many 1000s of inexpensive traditions and cva Guns that got us all started and addicted to the sport.

 

[buickmarti]

$279 compared to $489 for wood stocked traditions percussion Hawkins.

 

[deermanok]

I have 2 Traditions deerhunter rifles, cap locks. 45 and 50 caliber. I also have a Traditions Tennessee rifle, 50 caliber.
The deerhunter is a basic no frills gun. To me, they're woods guns. If they get dinged up, no big deal.
My Tennessee rifle is a bit more expensive and I have to take good care of it, so it doesn't get in the woods much.

 

[Bearkiller]

I've got two older Tradition flinters just keep the touch hole clear and they go bang as often as my custom gun.

 

[azmntman]

I have a traditions flinter hawknish rille. Very reliable but is a flint eater. I dont know how to lighten springs n such but I now can knap so I get way more than 8-10 shots out of a flint. It would be a great gun if I could tune and is a 90 yd clay pigeon buster as is. Get it, plastic aint so bad once ya get used to it.

 

[necchi]

Are the locks any good on these or are they not worth looking at?

Uhm,, they work and you can tune them, for trigger release.
But it's the cheap offering of the spanish lock with no bridle. Meaning all the spring tension has to pivot on the tumbler arbor and lock plate alone,,, they wear much faster.
The "upgrade" of the spanish rifles is/are the offerings with double trigger. Those locks have a bridle to support both side of the tumbler along with an installed fly detente.
I remember seeing that same rifle offered at a wally years ago for $69 on a clearance end cap.
I passed,,

 

[mmb617]

I can only relate my experience and maybe I've just been lucky. I bought a Traditions Deerhunter .50 caliber flintlock with the plastic stock 3 1/2 months ago as my very first muzzleloader. I didn't know enough about it to even think about trying to tune the lock in any way, so I shot it exactly as it was out of the box.

I'm a records keeper type so I can look at my spreadsheet and tell you that to date I've shot 726 balls through it and I'm presently on my 8th flint, so I'm getting around 90 shots on a flint. I do use them up till they are simply too short to clamp in the jaws and still contact the frizzen. A lot of people would throw them away before I will.

I paid a total of $310.54, taxes and shipping included and consider it to have been a real bargain as I've had way too much fun with it.

The only real negative I can say I've noticed is the trigger pull is heavier than I'd like and I don't feel comfortable trying to change that. Instead I'm planning to eventually get a rifle with a double trigger that can easily be set real light.

 

[rafterob]

The locks, even without the bridle to support the tumbler, hold up for a long time before wear is noticed. I wouldn't be keen on the short barrel and plastic stock, but all depends on what you want to use it for and how much you are going to shoot it.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I had a little traditions something or other that was a flintlock a few years ago. It was hard on flints until I lightened up the frizzen spring a bit. After that it was as reliable as more expensive flintlocks I have. High end they aren’t but they seem to work fine if you don’t mind maybe having to tinker with it a little. There is as much tinkering done on higher end flintlocks too so if it’s cheap I say go for it. There are many 1000s of inexpensive traditions and cva Guns that got us all started and addicted to the sport.

Absolutely false. There is nowhere near the amount of tinkering required with say a Chambers Siler or a Davis lock, than there will be with Traditions locks. Traditions locks are small, more like pistol locks than rifle locks. Take dinky little 5/8ths flints, and there is barely any room once the flint strikes the frizzen. If the flint is even just a tiny bit long it will hang on the frizzen and not drop the cock all the way down.

IMO, if it's all you can afford then yes buy one, however if you've got a little more dough in your wallet, I'd go with something better. And No, I'm not saying to go buy a Kibler, but I'm sure somebody here will chime in and recommend one.

 

[TreeMan]

Absolutely false. There is nowhere near the amount of tinkering required with say a Chambers Siler or a Davis lock, than there will be with Traditions locks. Traditions locks are small, more like pistol locks than rifle locks. Take dinky little 5/8ths flints, and there is barely any room once the flint strikes the frizzen. If the flint is even just a tiny bit long it will hang on the frizzen and not drop the cock all the way down.

IMO, if it's all you can afford then yes buy one, however if you've got a little more dough in your wallet, I'd go with something better. And No, I'm not saying to go buy a Kibler, but I'm sure somebody here will chime in and recommend one.

Absolutely not false. I didn’t mention Siler, chambers or Davis. I was referring to higher end than a traditions. There are hundreds of posts right on this forum asking for help with Lyman, Pedersoli, and L&R lock problems. All supposedly higher end locks than traditions. There are a few posts with problems with even the locks you mention. Traditions has sold thousands upon thousands of flintlocks over the years. Lots of people use them. I have myself. If they were all as big of a POS as you believe they’d have went out of business years ago. Luckily they are available for people with small funds and less of a snobbish attitude.

 

[Elkhorse]

Many moons ago I was in walmart and was walking by a display that had a 16 oz. wooden handled hammer that was cheap steel, could tell right off being a carpenter, when we did things by hand.
I picked it up and SOB if it didn't feel like it just grew in my hand. I bought it for $3.99. Being cheap steel it was kind of soft, but it also seemed to have more traction on the nail heads when in use. I used that hammer for a long time (yrs) and the head never came off even pulling spikes. Still got it somewhere.
Sometimes cheap outperforms expensive and sometimes the other way around.
I see people talk about IAB 1863 .54 carbines being junk or had bad luck.
Wouldn't trade mine.

 

[Eric Krewson]

My only experience with these guns was when I was having a flintlock shoot off off my deck with a few of my friends. I hosted an annual wild game pot luck lunch after which we played with bows and guns.

One of my friends wasn't into BP but like to play with guns, the showed up with a Traditions Deer Slayer plastic stocked flintlock, we were a shooting custom or guns we made.

He didn't know how to load a flintlock and didn't have the materials, we were well stocked and showed him the loading process, his rifle was a .50. I was surprised at his first shot, his gun went off with no lag time and he hit right where he aimed.

We all shot his gun and were impressed, at the time I think he paid about $100 for it new. I couldn't get past the ugly of the gun but it performed flawlessly and was very accurate.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Yeah. I know a guy who bought a set of those Castle Rock trailer tires for his utility trailer. He was too cheap to spend a few extra bucks on decent rubber. Now anyone who knows anything about tire brands, knows to steer clear from China Bombs, as they're called. Well, he learned his lesson the hard way. After no more than 500 miles, one of those cheap tires exploded while he was on a back road not far from his home, and it was not due to his running over something. It was found that the sidewall had bulged, leading to a blowout. This has happened many times with these cheap tires. It caused him to almost lose control of his rig. The trailer went into a ditch as it lurched sideways, and his mowers were damaged(he was in the lawn care business). Luckily no one was hurt. After that he swore he'd never buy cheap tires again, and cursed himself for not listening to us when we told him not to buy those garbage tires.

Moral of the story, you get what you pay for. Nobody is saying you must buy top shelf. But when you shop in the basement, don't expect much.

 

[Pete G]

Preferring quality is not being snobbish.

 

[hanshi]

I've only owned two Traditions rifles, both were caplocks however. But they still performed as well as any rifle I've fired, including my current "treasures". The Crockett in fact was unbelievably accurate. The worst flintlock rifle I've owned was a Pedersoli, otherwise a fine rifle that was very accurate.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I am a B/P gun snob as well and swore I would never own another factory rifle. The last TC that I bought new was the worst gun I ever owned, it was a flintlock and the lock was held in place in the inlet with hot melt glue from the factory. I didn't know this until I pulled the lock for the first time.

Fast forward 10 years or so, I had made 4 guns and had two very nice longrifles given to me, my snobbery was firmly in place. Then my brother found an ancient TC Hawken kit in my dad's closet after he was sent to assisted living.

Having built a few guns I decided to put the kit together using my newly acquired gun building skills, I made a beautiful one of a kind rifle from the kit, I really trimmed the excess factory stock wood to make a slender gun. Then I put a GM drop in barrel in the kit gun and really had something special.

My next move was to buy a decked out TC Hawken stock, put the GM barrel in it and go back to original on the kit gun to keep it "dad's" rifle.

So, now I had to back up on my snobbery, I have two rifles that I swore I would never own and love them both.

Not everyone has a love for fine rifles and the money expenditure involved,( my current build has $1100 in parts alone) they just want something to hunt with and hopefully kill a deer. I had exactly the same mindset when the first M/L seasons were opened on all the Alabama management areas in the early 70s. I bought an H&R Huntsman, the cheapest rifle available, then I went out and killed a deer with it.

 

[stewart.leach]

I recently had the opportunity to tune up the lock on a Traditions Kentucky rifle, the one with the two piece stock. The following needed attention:

Cock jaws needed roughening up a bit so they would grip the flint and leather better. Used the electric engraving device used to mark tools.

Pan was shallow and short side to side, so short a small flint was too wide. Dremmeled it out with a carbide bit, then polished.

Cam on the bottom of the frizzen was rough, as in as cast condition, and too long. Stoned it smooth and shorter, and changed the shape a bit so it would turn over earlier.

The frizzen spring was waaaayyy too heavy and when relaxed with the frizzen off the lock bore heavily against the underside of the frizzen mounting ears. Had to get clever to compress it a bit and still get access to the spring mounting screw. Slowly ground off metal on the outer side of the spring- many dips in water to preserve temper- until a moderate one finger pull on the top of the frizzen face pops it over.

Was it worth it? Yes and no. Lock functions very nicely now, but this took a lot of time, especially narrowing the frizzen spring. But I'm retired and recovering from some health challenges, and the tinkering took my mind to a more interesting place.