GPR Lock Improvement

[Muley]

That's my thoughts too Rob. Maybe I just need to slap it around a little bit.

[Ohio Joe]

I feel better now that I have the answer. Must be doing it during one of my naps.

Yup!  

Question,.... did you ever notice any primin' powder in your lock when you removed it for cleaning?
On some flinters,.... with a low positioned liner and the liner's screwdriver slot positioned straight "up and down" the prime can possibly sneak out of the pan and into the lock and mortise.

You're absolutely right RollingB... I usually push in just a tad of beeswax on the lower part of my slotted liner even though it's at a 1:00 O'clock angle, but a lttle preventive beeswax here certainly doesn't hurt. I expect a person could even put a dab of JB Weld there as well and not affect the screwdriver in the slot.

[Muley]

Well, that didn't go well. First two shots were perfect. Well, close to perfect. Stil a slight pause, but I can live with it.

Flash in the pan on the 3rd shot even though I was very careful to do everything the same. It took 6 more tries to finally get it to fire. I just kept repeating the same routine and it fired perfectly on the 6th try. Does that make sense. I then experimented from that point on with the amount and placement of the powder in the pan. Nothing worked at that point. 4-6 times to finally get it to fire. I finally gave up when nothing was left to try.

I'm going to work on the vent liner. Taper the front hole. Drill to 5/64". Grind off two threads. I also ordered some Tom Fuller flints. I checked the breech channel and it's clear.

If that doesn't work. The gun is a wall hanger and i'll buy a caplock. Unless I can find a caplock LH .54 GPR barrel and lock. LOL..good luck with that dream.

[RobD]

worse case scenario, send it to me, i'll pay shipping both ways, and i will make it work well.  period.  

the only caveat, and it'll be a big one, is that i couldn't work on it 'til next year.

[rollingb]

Well, that didn't go well. First two shots were perfect. Well, close to perfect. Stil a slight pause, but I can live with it.

Flash in the pan on the 3rd shot even though I was very careful to do everything the same. It took 6 more tries to finally get it to fire. I just kept repeating the same routine and it fired perfectly on the 6th try. Does that make sense. I then experimented from that point on with the amount and placement of the powder in the pan. Nothing worked at that point. 4-6 times to finally get it to fire. I finally gave up when nothing was left to try.

I'm going to work on the vent liner. Taper the front hole. Drill to 5/64". Grind off two threads. I also ordered some Tom Fuller flints. I checked the breech channel and it's clear.

If that doesn't work. The gun is a wall hanger and i'll buy a caplock. Unless I can find a caplock LH .54 GPR barrel and lock. LOL..good luck with that dream.

Once you've done those things you've exhausted everything I can think of.  :rt th  

[Ohio Joe]

Hello Muley, I just want to chime in before heading off to work. Don't know if this has been discussed yet, but one thing I do with all my flintlocks is;

Before the 1st shot I make sure the flint is tight in the jaws.

After the 1st shot I check for tightness of the flint once again.

After the 2nd shot I once again check for tightness of the jaws.

Next; The flint the rifle comes with is not to bad, but it's not a Black English Flint, and BEF's are way better in my opinion and much sharper for a better shower of sparks off the frizzen.

Okay, gotta head to work. Later friends!

[Muley]

Hello Muley, I just want to chime in before heading off to work. Don't know if this has been discussed yet, but one thing I do with all my flintlocks is;

Before the 1st shot I make sure the flint is tight in the jaws.

After the 1st shot I check for tightness of the flint once again.

After the 2nd shot I once again check for tightness of the jaws.

Next; The flint the rifle comes with is not to bad, but it's not a Black English Flint, and BEF's are way better in my opinion and much sharper for a better shower of sparks off the frizzen.

Okay, gotta head to work. Later friends!

Thanks Joe. It's not my problem though. The pan powder is always fired off. My problem is getting the flame into the barrel.

One time when I was on the 3rd or 5th time trying to fire off the load I put a lot of powder in the pan. It was like a little bon fire going off in the pan, but the load didn't fire. I laughed when I saw the flame.

[Muley]

worse case scenario, send it to me, i'll pay shipping both ways, and i will make it work well.  period.  

the only caveat, and it'll be a big one, is that i couldn't work on it 'til next year.

I may have to take you up on that Rob, but i'll pay for the shipping.

Couple of things I want to try first. I'm convince the lock and flint are fine. The pan powder always fires. So, my attention is on the vent liner. Today i'm going to drill out the vent liner pretty big. Just to see if it helps. If it does i'm going to try the Chambers White Lightning vent liner.

This is depending on whether my gunsmith will install the Chambers vent liner. I'd rather not try doing it. He won't work on muzzleloaders, so I don't know if I can talk him into it. If he won't maybe you can do it for me when you have time?

I'll mention this again. When I see pictures or videos on flintlocks with no vent liner, but just a touch hole drilled in the barrel. The holes look huge compared to the hole in my vent liner. Am I seeing things?

[RobD]

i agree - everything seems to be pointing to vent liner.  it needs to be internally flush with the barrel and its hole uniformly open.  internally that hole can also be coned.  remove it, get it filed flush to the barrel wall, open the hole up to 5/64".

it's not the flame that ignites the chamber powder, it's the high temp radiant heat of the pan flash.

there are many parts to the process of loading a flintlock.  if one of these steps has issues, so does the ignition sequence, which compromises reliability, there needs to be a clear and open path in the touch hole to allow that super hot air reach in and touch the kernals of 3f in the ante-chamber.  that chamber needs to clean and DRY, and compacted with 3f powder that's been indented by the vent picking that was done prior to shooting.  the vent hole needs to be open and clear.  the frizzen and sharp edge of the flint need to be clean.  and so on ......

[Muley]

Last night I check the lock-flint in the dark. I was surprised the shower of sparks it threw. I don't see a problem there.

I've just been reading about the Chambers vent liner. I feel I have to go that way with my setup. I think it will not only help with reliable fire every time, but speed up the process too. I'd love to get it feeling like shooting a caplock. I don't think that's possible when using vent liners like I have now. I'm going to order the White Lightning now. It's cheap, but getting it installed may not be.

[RobD]

wait, don't order the white lightning just yet ...........

[RobD]

read up on its installation here ....

Print Page - Installing a White Lightning T.H. liner?

[Muley]

I had read that Rob. That's why I was going to have the gunsmith do it. I forgot the breech plug needs to be removed. I know he won't mess with that. He's a Remington 700 specialist and really won't work on mush else.

Well, I have no plan now.

[RobD]

i SHOULD be able to pull off a GPR breech, have done 3 so far.

however, before going down that road, pull out the vent liner you have, get a good look inside the ante-chamber and just by measuring the vent's length and thickness of the barrel wall at the ante-chamber, if the vent liner is a tad too long, file it down.  open the hole up to about .070" #50 drill bit, screw the liner back in with anti-seize lube.

[Muley]

I just took a closer look at the vent liner position. I think I found the problem. When I said the liner was at the sunset position I goofed. The vent liner is at the sunset position, but the hole isn't. The hole is too high. It looks to me like the frizzen in covering part of the hole when closed. With the frizzen closed I can see the top of the vent liner above the frizzen.

Not sure how to fix this?