Vent hole location?

[Keyhole]

Used flintlock, unknown maker. Green Mountain .50 barrel with a Chambers siler lock. Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?

 

[Gtrubicon]

I wouldn’t call it ideal. But judging by how dirty and pitted the barrel is on the exterior, I’d hate to see what the bore looks like.

 

[EC121]

Probably OK, but I would use my Dremel to grind the front edge of the pan a bit more foreward. I would grind it to be even with the front edge of the liner.

 

[Keyhole]

I wouldn’t call it ideal. But judging by how dirty and pitted the barrel is on the exterior, I’d hate to see what the bore looks like.

Bore is shiny and spotless, go figure. I’ll give her a good cleaning…

 

[stubshaft]

I'm with EC121 and take a little off of the front of the pan. There may be a reason the bore is bright and shiny, like not having good ignition!

 

[olskool]

that would stop me from buying it! but then again i am particular,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[ChuckJonesWagon]

I'd advise as others have, grind a bit off the front of the pan to open that up. Be careful that you don't grind off to much that when the pan is closed you have a gap for the powder to fall out.y

I'd buy that rifle if the price was right. The close up pic of the barrel showing its finish appears to be whatever type of finish the builder used. That, and the lock finish itself can be changed easily enough.

It's a bit hard to tell if the lock inlet has gaps\spaces in the metal\wood fit. That too may be able to get cleaned up.

OTOH, if the rifle ignites consistently and you're happy.......load and shoot!!!

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Used flintlock, unknown maker. Green Mountain .50 barrel with a Chambers siler lock. Previous owner says she is a reliable shooter and it’s his favorite deer hunter. Do you think the location of this vent liner is an issue?


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It could very well be. That is definitely not an ideal location. Ideally you'd like it even with the middle of the pan and also raised up a little bit so the flash hole is even with the top of the pan or slightly above it. As-is, I would expect that I needed to be careful not to overfill the pan so I don't end up with the Shhhhhhhhhh-BOOM fuse effect where it has to burn through the powder to get to the vent. If that's not a reliable shooter, I would try to extend the pan to the left using a dremel tool to grind it out. The pan will hold more powder with that trough extended to the left and will have a better chance of igniting it than where it is.

HOWEVER, be sure to shoot it as-is to see if it is a reliable shooter. If it works fine like as-is, just put up with the off center look of it. Basically "if it's not broke, don't fix it".

 

[French Colonial]

Just shoot it!

Have you ever watched, I mean really watched a buddies flintlock go off, a good lock and the flash and gun going off is almost instantaneous, even if the pan is completely full (which is not needed) the gun goes off very quickly. This is assuming a properly sized vent hole (check it to see that is a minimum of 1/16").

I think you will find it probably works just fine.

All that being said, it does appear that whoever stocked it could have done a better job.

 

[wiscoaster]

Probably OK, but I would use my Dremel to grind the front edge of the pan a bit more foreward. I would grind it to be even with the front edge of the liner.

My thought, too. There's plenty of material there to work with. Current location probably works OK, but is an extra PIA when priming to make sure some primer is touching the vent hole.

 

[Absoroka]

Interesting that the barrel shows so much deep pitting but the pan only shows a little around the touch hole. I wonder if the maker finished the barrel to look that way intentionally. My go to shooter shows some barrel pitting above the pan from endless flashes but also shows some cutting of the pan just below the touch hole from many seasons of shooting and hunting. Main question is the ignition reliable.