In somewhat praise of the Lyman Trade Rifle

[dromia]

I was playing with my Investarms Flinter, which I suspect is the basis for the Lyman rifles, over the holidays, here are my experiences written for another place.

"31/12/2015

Well I thought I would take advantage of the glorious weather we are having to try out and zero the .54 calibre Investarms Flintlock "Hawken" I bought in the spring.

I picked this one up new in box from Krankies bin end sale for well under £200 so I didn't expect much from it.

Fit and finish isn't too bad just some places where the generic nature of the wood and metal are compromised for the different versions that they assemble for the yankee market.

The lock is a generic one taking a 3/4" flint, I binned the bit of slate that came with the gun and fitted 3/4" flint from Dysons.

I had the gun out shortly after I got it to try for function and shot it at 100 yrds. I had put around a dozen rounds through it. I was shooting it mainly to see how the lock did, what the pan liked and the loading regime needed to give consistent ignition. I was easily hitting the target at 100 yards but wasn't looking for groups or working on loading combinations. That is what I decide to start work on today.

The lock sparks well with a good, set up flint and the frizzen seems well hardened. Lock time isn't the fastest but not bad for a cheapy gun, there is just a slight pause 'tween squeezing the trigger and ignition. Interestingly this gun likes a full pan of priming powder, stacked away from the touch hole, which is bushed.

The barrel looks good nice and heavy, octagonal with the ubiqutous 1 in 48" twist, it is smooth with no rough patches when pushing down a cloth.

Sights are of a modern style with the rear sight adjustable for elevation and windage.

There is set trigger with a set let off at around three pounds.

For todays shooting I set the target up at 75 yards, shot standing using a tree stump as a rest.

I was using .534" cast lead balls and 0.012" Tanner patches dry lubed with Aquoil

I started with a load of 40 grains of Swiss fffg taking a six o clock hold on the target and they are the two bottom holes on the target.

I then moved up to 45 grains and shot the next four holes, I pulled the last one to the right as I had a hesitant ignition, the flint needed knapping and easing forward. These were shooting to point of aim just slightly to the right.

After fettling the flint the last two in the black were with 50 gns and showed promise but I had to pack in there as I was loosing the light.

I will start there again tomorrow weather permitting.

I am very pleased with this little flinter, it promises to be a lot of fun, seems to be quiet well behaved and nicely painless to get to shoot.






10/1/2016

After the days of strong east winds we are back to glorious weather again, so the day before yesterday I had another session with this little flinter.

Moving on from the 50 grain fffg load with a dry lubed Tanner 0.012" patch and a 0.534" ball I upped the load to 55gns and shot this 75 yrd six shot group standing rested taking a six o clock hold at the bottom of the black.



I then tried the same load with a 0.014" linen patch taking a centre hold on the bull and got this.




Looking at the fired patches they were blown, the 0.012" patches were showing some piercing at the lands so I suspect that with this being a new gun the rifling has some sharp edges that are cutting the patches when I an sending down the ball, a few passes down the barrel with a steel wool wrapped jag should fettle that.

I also suspect that the openness of that group was also due to the foresight floating in the black with the centre hold, even although the light was excellent the sight picture wasn't as sharp as the six-o-clock hold.

All in all this is one of the best shooting, value for money, acquisitions I have made in a long time and I am getting around 30 shots to a Dyson flint not bad and should do better with some better quality sparkers.

These eytie repro houses are turning out some excellent kit that definitely doesn't break the bank. Accurate, challenging, satisfying and fun shooting doesn't need to cost a lot."

[RobD]

Wonderful post and welcome to the TMA, Adam - good to see ya here, sir!

[dromia]

Thank you rfd.

I have been a reader here for a long time but to my chagrin this is my first post.

[RobD]

Your excellent posts and moderation at castboolits is as worthy as us having you onboard here at our TMA!

Now to your rifle depicted above - with double set triggers and rounded patch box, that appears to be an InvestArms model 130B.  Very nice, indeed sir!      

Wish we could readily get that model (and others!) here, but only Lyman is carrying InvestArm rifles, and just 4 models.

[dromia]

The supply of Italian repros seems to have no rhyme nor reason.

This is the only new Invetsarms I have seen in this country for a long time no one advertises them.

This one came from the UK importer of Italian repro guns and suspect that this just came in as padding in a batch from Italy.

The eyties are going full tilt, well as full tilt as they are capable of, producing stuff for the yankee market that we just get the left overs.

I had near a dozen outstanding orders for 1851 Navies for customers last year when the order from Italy arrived just before Christmas there were a total of three Uberti 1851 Navies all London models, I got one of them. I have had a customer desperate for a Pedersoli flinter Frontier model any calibre for the past few months the only Pedersoli Flinter they had in was one Brown Bess. They were expecting to get a Pedersoli deliver in March but when I was in last week I was told the shipment was put back to June. The importer has all models on order but never knows what is coming 'till the shipment arrives.

I was onto the Lyman importer about bringing in Lyman guns as it seem it would be easier to get Italian guns from the states than Italy despite that abomination of the EEC but the importer didn't want the hassle of importing firearms.

So we have to take what we get when we can get it, I would sell a lot more guns if I could just get them.

Anyway I came across a nice looking second hand Pedersoli Mortimer .54 cal target rifles flinter at a very reasonable price during my Hogmanay travels so I am hoping to give that a try out tomorrow at the range.

[RobD]

aye, there's a goodly market on this side of the pond for Good production trad ml's.  most that are here now are either cva or traditions or lyman.  the cva and traditions are of spanish origins and they're just "ok" and both have their inherent issues (a breech plug not meant to be removed, locks and triggers that too often have issues, poorly fit metal to wood, etc.  the lyman investarms are a totally different story and worth the extra dollars, but model selection is limited.  these three brands are vended all over the usa.  however, the pedersoli's, uberti's, pietta's and others are in the minority and can be difficult to obtain.  particularly the better pedersoli's.  it does become as you say - if you happen across a good one, buy it!