Mountain Rifle Flintlock experimenting

[exMember]

A really nice day, snow on the ground, no wind, nice heat from the sun, yet cool from the snow, just a really perfect day to shoot.

I loaded up the Traditions Mountain Rifle .50cal flinter and headed over to my 50 yard range to experiment a little.

I used my standard load of 70gr Olde Eynsford 2fg, .015" patches lubed with Buckskinner's lube, .490" round ball and French Amber flints. For Pan Powder, I used 2fg Olde Eynsford to see how well it did.

After experimenting with the 2fg pan charge, I found it likes 2 dribbles of powder from the pan charger horn. I am having trouble with powder sticking inside the horn and giving me issues with it dispensing a consistent amount from one press to the other, so I am going to find my other brass charger and see if that does better. The horn seems to stop up the powder unless I shake it around.

Hundreds of strikes on the MR's frizzen and just a little marking where the flint first comes into contact. This actually isn't even dug in other on the right hand corner when A flint broke and the edge really got it. Still not deep though. This lock sparks like the 4th of July.

Sadly I lost this flint while shooting! I think my leather was to short and wasn't holding it as well as it should. I went in and cut a new one and replaced the flint. Hopefully I can find it once the snow melts off a bit.

Next I switched back to 4fg Goex and will stick with it, its just a lot easier to deal with and I feel more comfortable.

Normal pan charge amount for both of my Traditions flintlocks.

I also tried using just 1 push on my powder pan charger and this amount wasn't enough to fire consistently. It lagged quite a bit VS the charge above. Use what your rifle tells you to use!

 

[Okie Hog]

That's a well tuned rock lock.   Is that the rifle you hog hunted with?

 

[exMember]

No this is a different flintlock Floyd. I used the Hawke woodsman for the hog. I'll be bringing it again! It's an amazing feeling you get when you get the chance to aim at a hog lol.

I still crack up laughing when I think about that day pig that waddled across the road when we were driving to another stand. So much fun those 4 days!

 

[lighthorseman]

Are those French amber flints you're using?

Jon..using the same powder to prime as you load your main charge with, works best with a large pan found on a musket with a large touch hole......why you found ffffg better in your rifle pan. Musket touch holes would burn out so much, that charges would often leak into the pan. I was standing next to a guy on a firing line whose touch hole was so large that when he fired, a piece of ffg hit me about 1/4 inch from my left eye...and left me with a tiny blue tattoo for several years.

 

[exMember]

Yep, french amber. I am a huge fan of them.

Today I actually had a really good day, no flash back in the face from powder or flint. Lost one flint due to the leather issue but other than that, beautiful day!

Next time I will use thicker patch material and try to shoot for a group.

 

[exMember]

Forgot these pics!

 

[patocazador]

Be careful or you'll set that purty hat on fire .. to say nothing about damaging your eyes.

I'm curious why you even attempted to use 2F in the pan. I use 4F for pan powder in both of my flintlocks in order to try to avoid hang fires. Although I think the thing that helps most is leaving the pick in the touch hole while loading. That seems to keep the chamber powder from compressing too much and eliminating the air spaces needed for combustion.

 

[exMember]

tried that leather trick too! I got slower ignition. In my rifles I find it best to seat the ball hard and then ignition is instant.

 

[drsimm1776]

How are you adjusting the frizzen spring to make the "faster" mode?

 

[exMember]

I just used a small c clamp to compress the frizzen spring a little. They are super stiff when you get the rifle new, so it has to be weakened a bit otherwise it can just eat up flints like crazy.

 

[exMember]

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[lighthorseman]

Great example of the quickness of flintlocks..........keep this up and you'll get even the inline shooters addicted!!!! :thumbs up:

 

[Hanshi]

While I've tried 3F for prime and found it more than satisfactory, 4F is is my normal prime.  It's nice and fast, meters well and gives a quick flash.  I only use a small amount of prime and find it quicker than a pan full.  Your MR is a quick firing one, that's for sure.