Good morning fellas .
Personally I have never subscribed to the idea of swabbing the bore between shots .
Now I can see the want for this if your working on accuracy and the given rifle is found to like a clean bore vs. a fouled bore . But this has little to do with consistency of ignition . In fact it can hurt consistency if the shooter is pushing a slobbering wet patch into a bore and thus wetting areas where a dry patch cannot get ..
In the case of the original posters problem . I would agree that we need just a tad more info.
But here is what I have found concerning” some “ GPR .
A) the flash hole is to small . In these cases opening it up alittle can help . I wouldn’t recommend going over 5/64 . So start by opening up alittle at a time
B) for what ever reason some vent picks don’t work on some of the GPR flash hole liners. After pulling the liner I have found restrictions within the liner itself . In two cases this restriction looked like a piece of welding slag or casting that was stuck in there.
. Dilling the flash hole bigger , did not salve the issue because the bead would create a fouling trap .
So before you try and pull the liner . Make sure that you can freely push you vent pick all the way through and well into the bore . The flash hole needs to be clear
C) is the lock itself .
Lyman is an importer just like CVA . IE they don’t make their guns .
Unlike CVA though , the Lyman and investment arms guns are Italian made by a sub of Pedersoli . As such their locks can be inconsistent in quality .
Biggest issues I have found is with the frizzen and tumbler bridles . A few I have worked on had tempering issues with tumblers and sears . But those issues are far less then what I have witnessed with the lower end Pedersoli pieces .
But is sounds like the lock is working
So without knowing if your consistently getting flash in the pan or not , from what your saying you actually could be experiencing a frizzen issue.
For what ever reason some of the Lyman frizzen are overly hard. They will work with an English flint but the need the flint to be sharp .
This could be why it works for 3-5 shots then you have to fight it to get her to go off .
While myself I hate cut agate flints , in the above cases , I have found them to work better .
To check this , you need to read the color and amount of your sparks .
With you gun empty and with a sharp flint ., fire the lock 4 or 5 times . Do you see a reduction in the amount of sparks falling to the pan as the flint wears ?.
What color are those sparks , white , yellow /orange or red
While this reduction will naturally happen , it should not happen in 4 or 5 shots . If it is and your sparks are white , then IMO the frizzen is to hard .
Red colored and its to soft ..
Now I will also state this . IF you are currently using a Cut Agate and experiencing the above problems . Try changing to an actual flint . Oddly enough I did have one case where a shooter came to me with ignition problems with his GPR . He was using cut agates and I could find nothing wrong with his gun . Because I didn’t have and DON’T carry agates , I replaced his agate with an English flint and it solved most of the issue he was having .
In closing I will say this .
Assuming the lock is in proper working order then “ If “ the flash channel is clear and you have good spark , then your gun will go off .
But you have to do your part to insure you maintain both . The guns not going to do it for you . As such a big part of learning to keep a flintlock consistent is in learning to recognize the point when you need to sharpen your flint and clear the flash hole .after a while this will become second nature
Topic: I need your help! (Read 1120 times)