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- Aug 12, 2005
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Looking outside today it was not raining or snowing. I figured this was a good day to shoot. So I got out my TVM .54 caliber 1-54 twist 42 inch swamped barrel flintlock. I first cleaned the oil out of the barrel and off the Chambers lock.
The load would be 90 grains of 2f Schuetzen black powder, a .530 home cast ball, pillow tick patch, moose milk lube, and 4f prime powder.
The snow was only about eight inches deep in the range trail so I walked out a box and set it up at 31 yards.
That is a close up of the top of that garden stake from the last time I tried. Now that I could get closer to it. Some thing interesting was just for fun I shot the distance again with the range finder from the stake to the back door of the house. This time I got 24 yards is all. So I must have shot past it the last time I reported the distance.
I set up my bench rest (after repairing it since it got smashed by snow falling off the roof of the house). And my Rock Jr. rest. I got all set to shoot this fancy rifle again.
The first shot on a spotless clean barrel was right on the bottom of the bull, where the front sight was set. So it was not really low, at the bottom of the bull. The without swabbing I made the first mistake of the day. I tried to load the rifle. Well this long devil likes to hold soot. It was shall we say a tight trip down the bore to seat it. But I got it down and even felt crud down there and almost short seated it, but the witness mark was not right. So I avoided that mistake. And then shot that off. It hit a little higher and to the right.
Now realizing that this rifle was shooting right where the front sight was on basically, I swabbed the rifle clean. And I mean clean. Loaded it and held front sight dead in the very center of the bull.
But something I discovered.... That fine German silver sight, while pretty, is hard to see. With my new eyes I can look at the back sight or the front sight, but hardly both. So I took a black magic marker and blackened the back of the silver front sight. Big improvement for centering the sight.
So now, being able to see the sight and line it up, I held dead center in the bull and let it fly. The shot hit, 9:30 cutting the 10 ring. Again, cleaning the rifle, I shot again and hit 1:00 ten ring cutting. I was smiling now as I cleaned the rifle but was also watching a rain cloud moving in. And there was no way I was going to let it rain on this rifle. So I cleaned real fast and shot the final shot in that target... inside the 10 ring. That was close enough for me.
I swabbed it. And looked at the clouds. Loaded it up again and this time aimed at a one gallon paint can laying on its side at 100 yards. Aiming at the 3/4 top of the can I squeezed the shot and the can jumped in the air a little. Really made me smile.
But the weather looked like it would change. So I plugged the touch hole or vent hole with a shaved wooden stick match and poured some Birchwood Casey Black Powder cleaner down the barrel. Then tipping it back and fourth for a few minutes, I let it sit.
A few minutes later I pulled the match and held the rifle to the side on an angle and let the cleaner run through the touch hole. Five patches of Bircwood Casey Swabbed later, I had a good clean patch so I ran dry patches through it until it was dry. Then oiled it up.
So far I am pleased with the rifle. And this Chambers lock is FAST!!! I can't even tell its a flintlock when it goes off. And the Douglas trigger is crisp, no creep, and breaks so clean.. just a pleasure to shoot.
