A Good Day for Shooting a Flintlock

[cayuga]

Today I decided to play with one of the flintlocks and see if I will ever be able to master the art of flint knapping. I picked the Lyman Trade Rifle in .54 caliber. The load I use in that rifle is 90 grains of Goex 2f (this rifle hates 3f powder) and a moosemilk Pillow Tick patch, with a Buffalo Bullet .530 roundball. I used Goex 4f as the prime powder. All shooting was done at 50 yards, as that's about as far a shot as I would get with where I hunt with this rifle.

I never had to swab the barrel the entire day. The moosemilk patches were really doing well. No burns, or shredding, so I just kept shooting. I did wipe out the pan and frizzen from time to time, and I had to finally clean the frizzen spring and hinge because it got so fowled, that the flint could no longer trip it open towards the end to make a good spark.

I took a poster's knapping instructions with me. And after following his directions, I actually think I got the hang of it... :applause: I did make a chipping tool out of a nail and used that to flake off the smallest of amounts while the rifle was on half cock. It must of have worked because the rifle ignition was very sure, and F..A..S..T..! Even though I thought the flint looked dull, it still fired perfect. I had two hangfires or lag fires for better words to call them. I would then knapp when that happened.

I first fired at the center target. It really took a pounding, but it gave me the sight picture I would need to hold which was a true 6 o'clock picture. I finally decided I was ready to adjust the sights. Not too bad, only took me a little over a year to commit to my load. I then shot three shots from a bench rest off a Caldwell bag, (picture C) to check my adjustment. I was more then pleased with this. So I got the shooting sticks out to see how I would do on them (picture D). Again, I was not all that unhappy with those results. The fast ignition really makes the difference with these rifles. Then I needed to knock my self down a little, so I took some free hand shots. As you can see, I kept them on paper, but I do need a lot of work in that department. (although I seldom if ever shoot free hand when hunting.. I almost always have a rest of some sorts.)

So it was a great day. The temperature was in the 70's and it was sunny with minor wind gusts. Maybe tomorrow I will take the Hawkins flintlock out and play with that one...

 

[BCS]

Ain't got no flintlock, yet.............but, I can smell a 36 cal and a 60 cal flinter coming my way.............someday!

Nice day for shooting, see that you were having fun!

 

[Dave James]

Ah FLINTERS!!!! Are you sure the hang fires was due to dull flint? my are normaly caused when i for get to prick the vent liner

 

[cayuga]

My Hawkin's is one of them rifles that I have to pick the vent hole each shot. My Trade Rifle though is one of the easiest to shoot of all the flinters I have. It just goes on and on when shooting. As long as the flint is sharp that rifle will fire perfect...

Of course it could have been a clogged vent..

 

[n8dawg6]

cayuga, great shooting. a flintlock is a recurring want (need?) of mine . . . recurring more often now that i've seen this post . . . ive almost bought a lyman deerstalker in .54 more than once. its kind of a tossup between that and a great plains rifle, the great plains rifle being a little bit more authentic and probably a little easier to shoot accurately offhand .. . but i tend to like carbines and ill probably like the deerstalker better for that reason . . . oh geez, im talking myself into this, arent i???

 

[Dave James]

A friend of mine fixed a vent liner on my 62 cal flinter, after all the trial and error on my part it was discovered the vent was bored wrong..

I have given up on the Hawken style of rifles just due to their stocks , shoulders just too beefy for the hooked butt plates

 

[cayuga]

cayuga, great shooting. a flintlock is a recurring want (need?) of mine . . . recurring more often now that i've seen this post . . . ive almost bought a lyman deerstalker in .54 more than once. its kind of a tossup between that and a great plains rifle, the great plains rifle being a little bit more authentic and probably a little easier to shoot accurately offhand .. . but i tend to like carbines and ill probably like the deerstalker better for that reason . . . oh geez, im talking myself into this, arent i???

Like you, I like smaller rifles because I do a lot of tree stand hunting and out of small blinds. I debated between the Great Plains Rifle, The Trade Rifle, and the DeerStalker. I finally picked the Trade Rifle because of its looks... what a beautiful rifle. Its balance.. it really shoulders well and seems to come up nice. The longer barrel.. I have lots of carbines so this Trade Rifle was a kind of in between option. The 1-48 twist.. I knew it would shoot roundball well and it shoots conicals as well also. I was shooting some Powerbelts out of it the last time and was amazed at how well it handled them. And I can get drop in Green Mountain Barrels to fit it if I ever want a different barrel.

So far this Trade Rifle has been a real good shooter. I want to get it back to 100 yards next and see what it will do at that distance.

 

[cayuga]

I decided to play with the Lyman Flintlock again. I was at what I thought was 50 yards but later checked it with a range finder and was shocked to see it was 43 yards. Distance really fooled me today.

It was hot. So hot I finally said, enough!! I shot the Lyman a number of times but did not test all the projectiles I wanted to try out. Even the barrel was so hot it was uncomfortable to touch. The metal ramrod was actually hot to handle..

Overall I was impressed again with the rifle. I tried dropping the powder charge and the group started to open up so I guess this rifle likes 90 grains of Goex 2f and a patched round ball.

I did think the maxi ball was doing well (upper left corner) and with perhaps some wads and powder charge changes it would do a great job with them as well...

 

[n8dawg6]

its hot here too that's some good shootin though. how is the flint knapping going?

where did you get those remington targets?

 

[cayuga]

The flint knapping is going real good. I counted shots off a new flint and got 18 shots off one edge, knapped and got an additional 8 shots total before I had to turn the flint.

I am now seeing if a flint will knapp itself. Every ten shots I turn the flint upside down. So far, I had one bad strike but it is doing pretty good. I just ordered more flints as there is a special on them at Cain's Outdoors. $39.95 for 50 of them including shipping for Thomas Fuller Black English flints. You have to call them on the phone, and all orders until August 15th, then no more deal. Normally the flints are $1.39 each. So that is a big savings. http://www.cainsoutdoor.com/cart/asp/catalog_index.asp That is a link to Cain's.

As for the Remington targets, a link was posted a while back. For $5.95 you could get 5 packs of them mailed to your house.. I could not pass on that deal..