What do you carry.......

[Protrucker]

in your possibles bag for changing flint in the field? :hmm: I've never really thought about it before, because I always started out with a flint that lasted the season for me, since I switched from T/C's to a semi-custom. With the T/C's I just carried an old nail with the point files flat. This year was different. I needed to change flint & didn't have a screwdriver to change it with. I had the flints, but no way to change them! DUH!!! :shocked2: I'd like to get something to carry in the bag that would be like what was carried "back then". It needs to be small, so it won't take up too much room. What was probably used in the mid to late 1700"s?

 

[MikeChapin]

I use a flint wallet that carries four extra flints. It has a pocket for small tools that I carry a knapping hammer/screwdriver combo and a vent pick. It fits nicely into the back pocket of my bag. I don't hunt in primative gear but the wallet fits nicely into a pocket out in the field.

 

[rice1817]

I have changed flints with my knife blade. Maybe not ideal, but it worked. Frontiersmen would have done the same, or carried a small forged "turnscrew".

 

[paulvallandigham]

I carry a Hawken flint tool, from the Hawken shop. You can also buy it from Dixie GW or Track of the Wolf, and probably other suppliers. It has a sufficient screwdriver blade on the side to tighten the cockscrew.

I carry a small flint wallet-- homemade, about 6 inches long, and 2 inches wide, with a long pocket at the bottom to carry a piece of lead flattened to serve as a new wrap, and extra flints, or broken flints I can use in a pinch, still. Above it, I have sewn separate pockets to hold flints, 4 of them, so that the flints are protected by leather from bumping into each other, and nicking their edges. My wallet is a " wrap ", in that the top continues with extra leather, so I can wrap the two rows of " pockets" with more leather, and then run a strip of the leather through a slit to hold the wrap closed. I don't want heavy things, my short starter, needlenose pliers, tins of patches, ball bag, ball block, screw driver, banging those flints, in the bottom of my possible bag, and chipping the edges. The wrap covers the flints with enough soft leather that this problem is solved. Its very P/C, even if mine is not very pretty.

 

[boar]

Paul I have one off them. How does it work for a main spring vise? I figure you cock the gun, then slip the notch on spring, then release the hammer. Now if you was replacing a spring,after one broke and you had a extra one, how to? Dilly

 

[Rancocas]

I use the same bag for both flint and percussion. When I made the bag I sewed a small pocket in the back of it that two extra flints fit into.
Also in my bag I carry the following:
a small leather pouch containing a ramrod adaptor, cleaning jag, ball puller, patch puller, and a vent pick;
in another small leather pouch I carry about a dozen extra round balls;
loose in the bottom of my bag is a small pair of pliers that has one handle tip ground down to make a screwdriver (this combination pliers and screwdriver is also my flintknapper. I've used the pliers to grip and pull out a stuck ramrod, and also to pull porcupine quills out of my dog.);
a percussion capper;
patch material;
cow's knee;
a small tin of gun grease/patch lube
That is all.
I've been carrying this same shooting bag for about 20 years now. I've never had to make any repairs on it, but it is showing its age.

 

[boar]

I have a tool I carry made out of key stock. It is shaped like a T. The bottom of T is screwdriver. The right hand side is the hammer, the left side is bent in curl, curl is to the top, you use this to hook under the bottom of flint,while still in gun to pressure upwards to chip off little pieces of flint to knapp it. The curl is hammered out like snall spoon. It is in the picture of my custom gun I bought Labor Day. This a flinter I bought from Log Cabin Supply. The tool is made simlar to the one that has a pick where this one has a curl. Dilly

 

[paulvallandigham]

Boar Dilly. You have the working of the hawken tool correct. It would not be of much use when replacing a broken spring. You need some way to compress the spring enough to fit the sprint tabs into the lock plate and bolster, or align the screw hole. I use a small set of vise grips for that job.( My mainspring can be done using my spring vise, but the vise is too large to be used properly on the frizzen spring.) My jaws are purposely " dull ", but if you were worried about scoring the spring steel, you can put masking tape on both jaws to protect the spring. I compress the V-spring down in stages, doing a trial and error approach to determine when I have just enough compression to the spring to get it into the lock. I don't want to overdo it. That is usually how the spring was broken the first time.

I think this is the problem a lot of shooters have with working on their own gunparts. They are impatient, and not cautious enough. They want to horse something into place, instead of talking to it, and finessing it into place. I constantly find myself telling guys to treat those locks as if they were a fine swiss watch! They are only one step beyond those " Fine Swiss Watches," and all you have to do is examine a wheellock action to see where those fine " swiss watches " came from.

A V-spring worked because it was far cheaper to make, it was much stronger, and less prone to break, and could more easily be repaired or replaced by a common skille blacksmith, where as the coil spring in the wheel lock was delicate, prone to break, hard to manufacture, and required skilled artisans to make at all. It could not be easily repaired on a military campaign, nor could it be changed easily.

For the most part, there should be very few reasons to remove a frizzen spring, and then only in a well equipped workroom. Things tend to fly off in all directions when removing a spring is not done right. In the wild this guarantees the pieces are lost unless you have magnets to locate them.

The Hawken tool is fine for what it is. It is well thought out, has a wire to pick a nipple or vent, has the screw driver blade, the notch if needed to remove the frizzen or main springs, and it can be used as s striker with flint to make fire. I like the "churchkey" design of the screwdriver blade, because it gives very good control when tightening the screw and great torque.

 

[armymedic.2]

i have an allen wrnech off of the pocket knife folding kind. i put a leather whang through it to hold it on my bag. i dremel the end small enough to be a vent pick, and leave the rest stout enough to put through the hole on my corkscrew to install flints. works great and is 1 less thing to carry. my flints ride in my bullet box

 

[boar]

Thanks Paul. I got mine when I bought a nice possible bag at a flea market I got the bag for 25.00 and I looked up the price on the tool and Dixie had them listed for 16.00. So I made out. Plus there was a few other things,loading block, short starter and some brushes for a smootbore. Dilly

 

[Coot]

I make a little (about 1 & 1/4" X 3" when shut) folding flint wallet for each rifle/fowler. The wallet holds 2 (or 3 if small) flints with each flint in a separate "pocket" to prevent chipping the edge or cutting a finger. Under the wrapping or flap, I put a leather loop that holds a small handforged turnscrew. Each turnscrew is ground or filed to be an exact fit for the cockscrew of the gun that the wallet goes with. Since each gun has its own bag, the wallet with the correct size flints and turnscrew is always available if a flint change (or tightening) is needed in the field. Small, light, PC and no "buggered" screws. The turnscrews are available at rondys & from most of the usual suppliers.

 

[Stumpkiller]

in your possibles bag for changing flint in the field? :hmm: I've never really thought about it before, because I always started out with a flint that lasted the season for me, since I switched from T/C's to a semi-custom. With the T/C's I just carried an old nail with the point files flat. This year was different. I needed to change flint & didn't have a screwdriver to change it with. I had the flints, but no way to change them! DUH!!! :shocked2: I'd like to get something to carry in the bag that would be like what was carried "back then". It needs to be small, so it won't take up too much room. What was probably used in the mid to late 1700"s?

Here's a mixture of "authentic" and not that I carry normally. The world is anxiously awaiting that hunting pouch untampered with from 1750 we can all learn from.

I have a tool roll that contains: 12 cotton cleaning patches, four flints, three feathers that fit my vent, a turn screw, a vent pick-awl, a wood handled flint nibbler, a 1911 pistol tool (OK, so that one is WAY anachronistic but it is so cheap and handy I give in - I also nicked it to used an an alternative flint nibbler. It was even more handy with my Bess as the top jaw screw had a hole and I could torn it with the pin driver end). Also, a jag, and an Ted Cash oil bottle with Birchwood-Casey Sheath inside. Inside my patchbox is a ball-puller, a tow worm loaded with tow and another flint.

In fact, there's a little pocket inside my bag that has two more flints (we're now up to seven!), two spare flint leathers and a spare priming flask. You'll notice that my priming flasks look coincedentally like a 7.62 X 54R case with a wood plug and a copper clip silver-soldered on the base. History is full of such mysteries.

I also carry a folding knife (a bone handled A.G.Russell Arkansas Toothpick). My normal patch knife is my belt knife.

Last image is pretty much all my fixins for 35 shots - my normal gear assortment. The tin is Moose Snot and not shown is a three foot roll of cotton tick for patching and cleaning. The little stub starter is all I carry for that purpose and it's lashed to the ball block (which has it's own sheath on the back of my bag). And the little bag to lower left is beeswaxed deerskin and has three feet of pre-lubed (dried Moose Juice) patch ticking.

PS - the strip of leather is for grip if the rammer gets reluctant and the 3' or twine (tarred) is if it gets REAL reluctant - I tie a hitch on the rod and the other end to a branch and back away from the tree. Works great!

 

[Thunderchild]

stumpkiller

Thanks for showing your shooting bag and all it contains. I just bought a Hawkin and have been toying with the idea of getting a shooting bag, horn ect. I am currently using my civil war stuff and some modern to load,shoot and clean the Hawken. I do not know where to start (a subject for a nother post and I do not want to hijack this one).

 

[Halftail]

Stupkiller,
Nice Lookin gear you have there! :thumbsup:

 

[reddogge]

Here's some of my dodads I carry to manage the rifle and flints. The bag has jags, patch pullers, ball pullers, lock vise in it and I have another little bag with flints.

 

stuck ball puller
small alen wrench to tighten flint jaws
1 extra flint
4 relaods (primer/patch/ball)
ramrod
feather vent pick
gutting knife
cellphone (just in case)
NO SHORTSTARTER (coned muzzles are bangin')

 

[mazo kid]

I carry a tool similar to armymedics'. I also drilled the cockscrew on all my flinters that weren't already drilled. Makes it easy to get the flint secured tightly and not worry about buggering the screw slot.

 

[armymedic.2]

indeed.......love that antler pan brush!