22 Cal Flintlock Rifle, Need some info

[Ka'imiloa]

Good reply, Fyrstyk. By using a slug, you greatly increase the surface are of the projectile against the rifling, and thus it is far less likely to "strip" the rifling in passing down the bore, especially if it is microgroove rifling as in this thread's original post. Plus, your mink oil in the hollow base (itself a plus for the slug taking the rifling well) helps the BP fouling considerably and hence you can shoot 4-5 rounds without cleaning.

The microgroove rifling may need a lesser charge both to decrease velocity and to decrease fouling. But a flintlock loses some of its velocity, and pressure, due to gas escape at the touchhole tho, and thus the same charge may work.

Aloha, Ka'imiloa

 

[watersteps]

Thanks for all this great info, I will now back down to 4g behind a 14 g bullet and see what happens. I have been busy putting yard stuff away for winter and getting Christmas lights set up. Maybe I'll get time tomorrow, thanks again.

 

[watersteps]

OK Guys, right now I'm as happy as a possum eaten road kill.
I loaded my hand built 22 cal flintlock with 4 grains of 3f powder followed by lubed patch (.007) 14 grain lead bullet (.203) and pushed her down the barrel. It did not have a lot of side pressure going down, I may want to increase the patch size in the future. I placed a small amount of 3f in the pan, closed the frizzen and cocked the hammer. Now remember I built this rifle several years ago and it just sat around until last week when I decided to clean her up and fire her for the very first time. Well I held my breath and squeezed the trigger. Now that is the most wonderful sound I could have hoped for, a small flash and a boom and a cloud of smoke. I almost forgot, the sound of a lead ball hitting my old burn barrel topped off everything.
I did not try to hit a given spot just a 2 foot wide barrel at 20 yards.
My wife said I was nuts and I made to much noise when I walked back in the house.
I ran 2 patches down the barrel and they came out very black the 3rd and 4th patches looked cleaner and the 5th one was clean.
Now I will just sit here and drink a cold beer and feel proud. When it warms up a little I will start testing thicker patches and see what happens.
Thanks guys for all the help, and 4 grains was all but perfect.
I love the smell of that black powder smoke!

 

[earlwb]

Nice going. It looks like you got a winner there for sure.

 

[Bad Karma]

“My wife said I was nuts and I made to much noise when I walked back in the house.” They all say that…