Hope to get out tomorrow (testing a flinter)...

[exMember]

Hope to get out tomorrow and put some balls down range!

.50 cal J&S Hawken built by GRRW.CA - flintlock that Buck sent me as an early Christmas present................ :face: 

 

[Vincem]

Nice rifle, enjoy that beauty!

 

[Buck Conner1]

.50 cal early Hawken flintlock that Buck sent me as an early Christmas present................ :face: 

Don't get old guys, I don't remember getting the kid a Christmas card or telling him what he said ....  Damn what's wrong with my memory, sat on the toilet for an hour (feet fell a sleep) and still don't remember a Christmas present mentioned ???? 

  :?:   :no:   :Questuon:​

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<div align="left">Items that I felt needed to be looked at, tested or upgraded are:​

1. Accuracy Testing – sights will need to be worked on (now in unfired condition). 
2. Bore Treatment – before and after pictures.
3. Internal Lock Polishing – check if needed.
4. Trigger Polishing – Carl Walker is very good at checking the locks and triggers.
5. Accuracy Bedding – like you said the tang may benefit here.
6. Coning the Muzzle –will be interesting to the forum for a before and after test on accuracy & ease of loading.
7. Finish - Birchwood Casey's "Genuine Oil" finish – try and make the stock and ramrod darker (red looking color to me that GRRW used on most of their early guns 40 years ago).

Will be interesting to see your results Jonathan and findings in your future article in the Backwoodsmen …     Jon before and after pictures on everything.​

Several of the members here are interested, as they are considering having the same work done on their rifles.   :Red tup:​

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[exMember]

Hey Buck, can you tell me what maker the barrel is, rifling twist and depth?

 

[Buck Conner1]

Colerain barrel cut rifled with fancy radius groove rifling, in the correct twist rate for round balls:

• 1 turn in 56 inch twist, in .50 per their ad.  :Red tup:
  Rifling depth is .016” per side, cut round bottom ( radius groove ) rifling. This is an old form of rifling that because of the lack of corners in the grooves is much easier to clean, and also allows the patch to better seal. All rifling are 6 grooves on the larger barrels.

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[Kentucky Colonel]

Sure is purty. Sometimes, I wish we were closer so we could all play with the toys together without pulling a Lewis and Clark.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Sure is purty. Sometimes, I wish we were closer so we could all play with the toys together without pulling a Lewis and Clark.

No kidding KC, we would have fun. Have done the L&C thing several times from CO to St. Louis and further south on the Mississippi. 
Too damn old now for water travel when your supplying the power to move downstream.  :dodo:   ete said what

<h2 class="post-content">KC did you look at this: NEW FIND - GRRW Leman Trade Rifle Kit.</h2>

 

[exMember]

Well, I broke her in!

5 shots at 25 yards, picked the vent after loading.

<a href='/tags/1' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #1'>#1</a> thing I feel, is that the vent hole is to high. 3 grains of 4fg will not set the rifle off, but once I double that to around 6 grains, BANG! She is instant.

Recoil with 70gr 3fg Goex feels so light and easy on me to.

Trigger feels amazing, rear sight now that I filed it larger, looks beautiful.

Bore loads easy with a .015" patch lubed with frontiers anti rust and patch lube ( no swabbing ) The first 1 1/2" to 2 " of the bore at the muzzle feels like a little gritty after each shot but after that area, the patched ball goes down smooth as butter.

Sights are perfectly adjusted! Dead center and aprox 1" high which should get me pretty close at 50 yards.

So right now, I have 3 out of 5 shots touching at 25 yards. I think my amateur level of experience with a flintlock was the cause for the 2 shots not in the group.

I thought... Has anyone ever added some molten lead to a flintlocks pan and then filed it down for adjustment? I really think the powder should be a bit closer to the vent than it is right now.

I'll play with it a lot more before making any final say on this issue. I can always open up the vent hole a touch and see what happens.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Well, I broke her in!  (5) shots at 25 yards, picked the vent after loading.

<a href='/tags/1' rel='nofollow' title='See all tagged subjects with: #1'>#1</a> thing I feel, is that the vent hole is to high. 3 grains of 4fg will not set the rifle off, but once I double that to around 6 grains, BANG! She is instant.

Jonathan for years 5-6 grains was standard for flinters.

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Recoil with 70gr 3fg Goex feels so light and easy on me to.

Sounds good kid .....

Trigger feels amazing, rear sight now that I filed it larger, looks beautiful.

Great, glad to hear this.

Bore loads easy with a .015" patch lubed with frontiers anti rust and patch lube ( no swabbing ) The first 1 1/2" to 2 " of the bore at the muzzle feels like a little gritty after each shot but after that area, the patched ball goes down smooth as butter.

Coning as planned and your bore product should clean this up.

Sights are perfectly adjusted! Dead center and aprox 1" high which should get me pretty close at 50 yards.

Sounds good ....

So right now, I have 3 out of 5 shots touching at 25 yards. I think my amateur level of experience with a flintlock was the cause for the 2 shots not in the group.

Try it again after you eat something sweet. No kidding, use to watch the hot dog shooters at National Matches. They would do their practice shots, clean the gun and then eat a candy bar before shooting the match target. Have seen this dozens of  times, it seemed to work.

I thought... Has anyone ever added some molten lead to a flintlocks pan and then filed it down for adjustment? I really think the powder should be a bit closer to the vent than it is right now.

Never tried it but sounds like a solution if really needed ???

I'll play with it a lot more before making any finial say on this issue. I can always open up the vent hole a touch and see what happens.

The gentleman with the two GRRW.CA Hawkens opened up the vent hole on both guns for faster ignition.
.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Nice rifle, enjoy that beauty!

Vince, I hope he doesn't enjoy it too much ....     :shock:   :Questuon:

 

[exMember]

I'd enjoy it more if this rain would stop :evil:  Doesn't rain until I have something fun to do.

Oh well, may hope with the cimarron fire that broke out recently.

 

[Buck Conner1]

I'd enjoy it more if this rain would stop :evil:  Doesn't rain until I have something fun to do.

Oh well, may hope with the cimarron fire that broke out recently.

How close are you to the fire Jonathan?

  Firefighters with a little help from Mother Nature were able to stand their ground Saturday and keep the flames from spreading into a community of almost 1,000 residents.
  But on the other side of the Ute Park Fire, firefighters say activity picked back up, forcing the residents of Ute Park to evacuate again.
  As of Sunday morning, the Ute Park Fire has burned 31,930 acres, up from a reported 27,290 acres the day before. That's the least amount of growth since the fire started Thursday afternoon -- between Thursday and Saturday the fire had seemed to double in size on every update. The fire remains 0 percent contained.
  The fire is burning on both sides of Highway 64 and is threatening the town of Cimarron (population about 900) to the east and Ute Park (population about 70) to its west. Both communities are under mandatory evacuations.

 

[exMember]

Its at least 70 miles from us but blowing the smoke our way. The rain has tamed down the smoke.

The Whittington Center is offering free lodging/stables and meals for the evacuees. I guess they are slowly starting to fill up.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Good luck. 

Do you remember years ago the forestry service employee that burned her ex-lovers letter and damn near burned down Colorado Springs and south Denver. Think she should be out of jail by now....

 

[exMember]

Yes, she should have gotten more time IMO.

I got the flinter all cleaned up. Never had my heart pounding so hard in my life! Scary taking these custom pieces apart.

I did not remove the vent liner while cleaning however. The slot is super shallow and I was afraid it would just strip out and cause me to use an easy out on it. Not ready to ruin something after 10 shots on the range :lol:

I did however take the vent liner to the next size up and enlarged it to 1/16" and that should improve ignition.

We'll find out tomorrow if its not raining!

 

[Buck Conner1]

.  I have always used one powderhorn (3FFF) for loading and priming, so the vent hole would always be enlarged. Friends are always carrying a powderhorn for the charge, another for priming and in some cases a third one (little one with the small spring loaded tip). Man that's more crap than what our forefathers carried or could have afforded. 

   The main horn very seldom - would you see a smaller priming horn with original equipment (talking working man's equipment not some Duke or Lord). If you looked at the firearm that those horn/horns belonged to, the vent holes in most cases are really large (no vent liners just burned out, one was close to 3/16" - that's really large - wouldn't want to be standing on that side of that gun going off). The coarsest powder would still have set the gun off with the larger vent hole.  This gun mentioned was made by Beretta (your thinking modern shotguns). Beretta began operations in Brescia Italy in 1526, making it one of the oldest industrial companies in the world. 

History Lesson
   We always think of muzzleloading guns starting in the early 1600's when in fact they are much older than expected - The origin of gunpowder is unknown, and may have occurred in China, Turkey, or Europe. The first record describing the combination of charcoal, sulphur, and saltpeter, to produce a rapidly burning or exploding powder is a coded writing by Franciscan monk Roger Bacon shortly before 1250 A.D. Different ignition system (similar idea to Henry's handgonne) but it was the start of what we use today with flintlocks or percussion guns.  Fun stuff to kick around folks. 

 

[exMember]

I'll give 3f a try to Buck. I think that larger flash hole will improve consistency a lot.

 

[Buck Conner1]

Agreed Jonathan, later....  :Red tup: