so 1st "Vous of the year and I decided for some asinine reason that i was only going to take my fowler to shoot. no other long guns.
  I really haven't shot this gun much due mainly to the wallop it brings, even with lighter loads.  but I was determined to learn to shoot this baby.

 20ga flinter ( you've seen the pics) with 100gr 2f leather OP card,  .600 ball,  cut wool blanket wad.   also tried it same load but bare ball and PRB, no real difference in the kick.
 
started the day with a 19 target trail walk, miss miss miss, hit, miss miss and so on. hit 3 total and the reason is that as I continued the shooting my right cheek began to hurt and by the end of the walk it was guite sore .  suck it up, all part of the fun.

 shortly after a group of us headed out to the fort shoot, My first time doing that, and desperately wishing I had brought ginger along for the fight. by the end of that shoot ( 20 + shots) I couldn't even cheek my Fowler but held my face off the stock to fire. not to accurate.
 
 That evening my cheek was swollen, hot and had a slight bruise, couldn't even shoot yesterday. 

 So the lessons I learned were sell my Fowler  , never leave ginger at home and If it hurts after a while maybe I should stop that particular activity for the day.
 
 It's all good now, face is feeling better, now to try and figure out why that damn 20ga kicks so bad. It is heavy gun I think.
 I fondled a few smoothies while there and the one thing I noticed were they were all maybe 6-7# and all have thin wall thickness in the barrels ,really thin.
 mine by the eyeball is an 1/8" at least, seems thick , I'll measure it.  this is a straight Bbl too, not swamped.  maybe I should weigh the whole gun just to see, but I wonder if the whole mass of the gun contributes to the beating I'm taking.

 I don't know.
 
kevin.



 

 

 at rondy this w/e a comment was made ( by a Flintlock shooter) along the lines of " well when did we start allowing coil spring guns at pre 1840 events"  basically relating to TC hawkens and the like, of which there were quite a few. 
 so I quickly asked the guy what time it was and he immediately pulled up his sleeve to check his timex and I pointed at it and said " that's when"
 No feelings were hurt.
 
So the Question is, would you change out a ( mine to be specific) TC spring coil lock for a more traditional V leaf spring.
 I have read that coil springs were a thing in the late 1700s but steel coil springs were not patented till the late 1850s .

I am not the most HC guy so I'm not really worried about it. I like the mentality of if I cant see it its OK .  just like the wrist watch.

Ok  start the debate !

kevin
 

I WILL NOT use any beeswax, lard, bore butter or wonderlube or ky jelly, or, or in any of my barrels for anything, beaver milk to lube patches break free to store, never ever have to swab or clean during a shoot and never a rust problem anywhere, your mileage may vary.

Thanks Kees. The reference to Fix'n wax was using it in a muzzleloading barrel. So looking at the recipes, I suppose you could do that, except the ones with salt in. But my routine seems to be working so I won't be changing anything.