WHITE LIGHTNING

[Birddog6]

If you buy the vent liner from Jim Chambers it does come with instructions. From anyone else? who knowws...... :wink:

 

[ian45662]

I went ahead and put in an order for it and the drill and tap set to match it.

 

[Herb]

Track of the Wolf. They did not have instructions with them, have put in four or five so far. Just got a Mark Silver Virginia rifle kit from Chambers with two extra WL liners, 5/16 and 3/8, and by George, they do have instructions on how to install. But not a word on opening up the flash hole if you have flashes in the pan. The liner size for the .58 barrel is 5/16", would have thought it to be 3/8".

 

[Birddog6]

But not a word on opening up the flash hole if you have flashes in the pan. The liner size for the .58 barrel is 5/16", would have thought it to be 3/8".

One would think they would put instructions in for Installation, not on what size of vent hole you want for what caliber.

And on a .58 caliber I use a 5/16" vent liner also & same on a .62 cal. I would not use a 3/8" one unless I absolutely had to.

:thumbsup:

 

[Vaino]

Slightly off the subject but the "White Lightning" liner is all I install now and it's usually the 5/16" dia. size. Because of the WL's design, I don't think the depth of the ctsk yielding more or less TH land, is all that important unless the ctsk is so shallow that no land at all is present. One would think that the WLs are made in a computer controlled machine and that the depth of the parabolic cone would be held to a very close tolerance and would allow for deviance in the depth of the ctsk. As said before, seeing some just use a drilled hole for the TH, I think ctsking too deep isn't a problem {within reason} w/ the attendant longer TH land. I enlarge the existing TH w/ a #51{.068}drill and just so slightly ctsk the TH to break the sharp corners. If someone has erratic or lengthy ignition w/ the WL, it's due to other factors than the "White Lightning".......Fred

 

[Dphar]

We'll have to disagree on this one guys. Some years ago I wanted to see just what all this White Lightning thing was all about so I installed one on my Blue Ridge .45. That simply ruined what had been the most reliable flintlock I ever owned. With the old liner I never got a flash in the pan nor a hangfire and I never even bothered to pick the vent. With the White Lightnin I got nothing but flashes. I now always pick the vent and still even get occasional flashes. I think the best form for a vent liner is a deep cone on the inside and a shallow cone on the outside. You can't cone the outside of a White Lightnin liner because the web is too thin and once you tap to those odd ball threads you are pretty much stuck with it.
It seems to me that when ever one has problems such as slow ignition and hang fires the first thing they want to do is change vent liners when, in fact, they should be working on the lock to try to get a stronger and better shower of sparks into the pan. One spark will fire a flintlock but a strong shower of white hot sparks will give a much faster and more reliable ignition by lighting off the pan in dozens of places at once.

I think you have some problem aside from the WL. You are the first I have ever heard having this problem. Not knowing the difference between the old liner and the new its not possible for me to make an educated guess.
I have one WL but have made many of my own. In something like 250 rounds with the WL I have had 1 flash and it was caused by a flake of dry fouling getting in the vent. The vent on mine is about .070". Maybe a little more would have to gauge it.
If you can SEE the powder in the vent 1/16 or less from the pan there is some other problem keeping heat transfer from lighting things off. Vent too high, something.
If you can't see the the powder at the vent then something is preventing the powder from filling the liner properly.
You could try contacting Jim Chambers Flintlocks at[url] flintlocks.com[/url] and see what they say.
The design is excellent. Based on then top of the line late British flint guns.

Dan

 

[Herb]

My rifle was a .40 Jacob Wigle with L&R Jacob Dickert flintlock that always fired with my .080 drilled flash hole. With the White Lightning liner and Goex 3F and Swiss 2F and 3F, eight different loads, I got 32 flashes in the pan in firing 49 shots. During this session I picked the vent 22 times, but not before each shot. To get some shots to go, I had to tilt the 4 grains of 4F priming powder to run some into the hole. That hole measured .052, and for this lock it was not big enough. Opened up to .062 it worked most of the time, and at .070 it fired all the time. You say your flash hole is .070 and maybe bigger. You must have opened it up to start with. My point is, you have to find this out the hard way unless someone tells you if you have flashes in the pan.

On my .58 Hawken flintlock I just finished, the White Lightning .055 hole gave 15 flashes in the pan for 54 shots of Goex 3F and 2F. There was no wiping between shots nor cleaning between groups to clog the flash hole. Opened up to .0625, it still gives an occaisonal flash in pan, and I'd open it to .070 or .076 to cure that. Manton and Ashmore lock, wonderful lock. Got 105 shots out of the first flint, the most I ever got with any kind of lock.