Trouble with Pedersoli Flintlock

[vulture]

I own a Pedersoli Jager flintlock which I really like. I love the way it fits me, however I am a round ball shooter and the twist rate was killing me so I had it bored out and rifled to .58 caliber, much better now, except I have always had trouble getting it to spark. Some folks say they have had great success with this lock, a few others seem to have had the same problem I am having. I have considered trying to find a quality lock that I could fit to the rifle, but this is really a long shot. I am using quality English flints from Track of the Wolf, and I have varied the length and position, up and down, of the flints, and nothing seems to help. The flints do seem to dull rather quickly. Any suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated, nothing so frustrating as a flintlock that will not fire consistently.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Could you post an image of how it sits now of the cock and frizzen? Could be a number of things from alignment issues to the frizzen improperly hardened just to name a few. A picture of the overall area would help potentially "diagnose".

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

I own a Pedersoli Jager flintlock which I really like. I love the way it fits me, however I am a round ball shooter and the twist rate was killing me so I had it bored out and rifled to .58 caliber, much better now, except I have always had trouble getting it to spark. Some folks say they have had great success with this lock, a few others seem to have had the same problem I am having. I have considered trying to find a quality lock that I could fit to the rifle, but this is really a long shot. I am using quality English flints from Track of the Wolf, and I have varied the length and position, up and down, of the flints, and nothing seems to help. The flints do seem to dull rather quickly. Any suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated, nothing so frustrating as a flintlock that will not fire consistently.

I don't know anything about your lock, but you could have a weak mainspring or most likely a poor frizzen. If the cock is hitting the frizzen with a decent snap, then I would either get another frizzen, re heat, and temper the one you have, OR case harden. I personally like tool steel frizzens that are hardend, then tempered. A good mainspring, and proper hardness of a frizzen are two musts for a flintlock to function well. Your frizzen is most likely too soft or too hard.
Flintlocklar

 

[TerryK]

I bought one last year and it chewed up flints, the frizzen would snap back on the cock, and it would not spark well. Dixie said they had a bad run of frizzens so they were going to replace the frizzen and adjust the frizzen spring. I marked the frizzen, and they did not replace it as promised, and it did the same thing after repair. Their resolution was an anneal of the frizzen, and again that did not work. So I sent it back at my cost for refund. Shame because I liked it except for the misfires.

 

[Rat]

Well, there has to be a fine balance between the frizzen and mainspring. I'd look to the frizzen face first. My Brown Bess, a Pedersoli, has what I'd call a "soft" mainspring, but sparks good. Of course you can get like a ten-ton rock in the jaws of that big old musket lock. That helps. Not unusual for frizzens on production guns to come out with a soft temper, they probably do them in batches, and if the batch master had a bit too much fun the night before..........!!! However, bunch of different ways to fix the frizzen.

 

[leverfred]

I had a problem when I first bought my Pedersoli 36 flinter. I played with everything I could think of then an old timer had me reharden the frizzen, still sparking like a road flare every time for over 8 years.

 

[Surfinator58]

I'm going with rehardening the frizzen .Its the least expensive fix and a good first step.Especially with what your saying in terms of sparking. Adjusting the angle on the cock is more of a last choice.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'm going with rehardening the frizzen .Its the least expensive fix and a good first step.Especially with what your saying in terms of sparking. Adjusting the angle on the cock is more of a last choice.

Funky frizzen performance isn't anything new to Pedersoli, but it seems to be increasing.
I have an old tradegun, bought about 10 years ago used, and you can see the hardening line on it.

Most often when the angle of impact from cock to frizzen is bad, you quickly get chewed up flints.

In another situation where you have poor sparking, you see a visible location of impact, it will look like a stripe, from left-to-right on the frizzen face, then a small gap and then you will see the marks where the flint scraped down the face of the frizzen. What that stripe tells you is the frizzen is "rebounding"...it hits, the frizzen rocks forward, but it stops, then the flint impacts a second time BUT it has much less kinetic energy so doesn't cause many if any sparks. Folks talk about altering the frizzen spring, when actually I've had a lot of success by taking a look at the frizzen cam, the point where the frizzen hits the frizzen spring. IF that's too long, and if it needs a good polish, it can cause bad sparking. You can polish it and shorten it by tiny amounts until it is correct, by using a sharpening stone and oil, and hand polish that cam. It's easy but it needs to be done before you do any hardening or rehardening of the frizzen. Some very fine emory paper and a drop of oil to polish the flat of the frizzen spring where that contacts the frizzen is also a good idea.

So be SURE that IF you do a reharden, that it's the proper hardening at the right color. I've found on several Pedersoli locks, that a proper heating and quenching fixed sparking problems when cam adjustment or polish didn't do the trick.

LD

 

[vulture]

Thanks folks, I will start by polishing the area you mentioned Dave and then go from there. Like I said in my post, I really like this rifle, although I will admit that the diameter of the bore now is a bit tricky to match ball and patch too, it is somewhat tight compared to standard .58 calibers. I wish I could find a round ball mold slightly smaller than what is available, but right now can't afford a custom one, so I'm simply reducing the thickness of my patches. I know, why am I fussing over ball size when there are so many options for patch thickness, answer, because I have a ton of pillow ticking I use for all my other muzzleloaders and I tend to be a one way type of guy and now I have to go out and buy patches specific for this rifle, but then patches are cheaper than a custom mold, especially when you factor in how often I shoot this particular rifle. When I catch some free time I will start tinkering with this again. I am not really good at the hardening and tempering process, done it a couple of times, but with much more luck than skill. I know someone that could do it for me but talking him into it is a challenge. Doc White of the old Greenriver Rifle Works in Roosevelt, Utah lives ten miles away and I have known him for nearly fifty years, and like I said, he has the know how but not always the time. If it comes to that I might just give him a call and see what he says. Thanks again for all your help. Stew

 

[Rat]

Probably more that a few Qualified people around here, or that know of someone qualified, who would let you send them your frizzen and harden it to help you out. Although I would attempt it on my own frizzen, I don't think I'd want to ruin someone else's. And there are others, that others know about, that would/can harden the frizzen, and tune your lock for a price. Good luck!

 

[FlinterNick]

Pedersoli flintlocks guns tend to be on the more expensive side of muzzle loaders for a few reasons. One is the wood, Pedersoli uses a much higher quality cut of walnut than most other companies, second is the barrel, due to European proof laws tend to require European gun manufactures to produce a very robust barrel, I've tried to mark my own Pedersoli barrels with historical stamps and the steel is so hard it sometimes just can't be done and the barrels are much thicker than others. With these added costs, the one part of the gun that tends to be made the cheapest is the lock. Not to say their locks are poor quality, because they're good but the craftsmen ship of the locks tend to lean on the lesser quality side. Euroarms Inc. made some of the worst locks I've ever seen.

The Jaeger lock might have a combination of a few issues, the steel might require rehardening and tempering with carbon, the mainspring might be too weak and the frizzed attachment might be wobbly. A wobbly frizzed won't spark well, you might need a small bushing between the frizzed and the lock plate. Pedersoli frizzed springs for me have always been too weak, I've had to replace them (best to replace with forged frizzed springs. Mainsprings by Pedersoli tend to be on the weaker side too, I've replaced them with custom made springs ($100-200). A smith will take an old blade or high carbon spring steel flat and forge one.

Nick

 

[voltigeur]

for my blunderbuss, I used a flint lock of indian trade gun of pedersoli and I broke my flints at the end of maximum 5 shots.the geometry was not good, the main spring being made of steel to iron the donkeys, I 've replaced it with a strong French reglementary and hardened the frizzen.the flint is maintained by a piece of thick leather.I took quite a while to make it work properly, and it was my first flintlock, not obvious .

 

[Rat]

If your mainspring does really seem to be weak, you can put a shim in it, it's hard to explain, but between, or in the middle of the spring. ? Compared to my Chamber's lock on my Jeager, the lock on my Pedersoi Brown bess "seems" very weak, but it sparks well. I think that if the frizzen is stable, as mentioned, (Genda) and the frizzen spring and main spring are in "balance" it will spark good without heavy springs. The hardness/proper temper of the frizzen face would be the first place to begin with and/or correct. I wouldn't go messing with the springs first.