GPR Lock Improvement

[RobD]

pictures, please.

[Muley]

Go look at Stanley's picture. Mine is centered in the pan but a little higher than his. With mine you can see some barrel under the vent liner. Now imagine the frizzen closed and it's covering the hole.

When the sunset position is talked about. It doesn't mean the bottom of the vent liner, but it means the hole right? Mine isn't even close to that.

[Muley]

Good article and warning on buying the White Lightning from TOW.

LUXURY LINER | FLOYD FILES

[RobD]

we're still gonna need pix of YOUR pan and touch hole.

[Muley]

That's not going to happen soon. I tried to put the picture you left on the camera on my computer. I get an error, so I have to figure it out. I haven't had time. My system has given me problems since it decided to install Win 10 on it's own.

Just imagine mine is higher than Stanley's. His looks too high to me and mine is higher. From what i'm reading the hole should be down to the pan.

[RobD]

all is not lost.

open the vent hole to 5/4" (.078), and chamfer the outside of the touch hole (that faces the pan) just a little, with a drill bit, by hand.  see what that does for ya.  the last thing to do with that liner is to cone the insides of it a LOT.



re mortising the lock up is invasive and might be done.  dittos for adding a pan liner, to bring its height up.

[Muley]

We think alike Rob. I was just reading that article and was going to cone it.

Slow flintlock ignition Part 1 - Georgia Outdoor News Forum

[rollingb]

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 ......

Great post.  :shock:).
The reason I think the "pick" might be busting up a few kernels of powder, is due to the sound or feel you get from the "crunch" when picking a vent hole,... is the pick busting up a few kernels of the compacted powder instead of simply "pushing them aside" as in a loose load, I don't know?

A simple experiment could be done,... by removing the gun's lock and "picking" a tightly compacted loaded barrel while holding it (with the vent hole pointed DOWN over a sheet of typing paper) and tapping the barrel to see if a small amount of DUST comes out on the paper.
As said above, I've always thought about doing this but I've just never taken the time to actually do it.

Sorry for my rambling.  

[RobD]

right on the money, rondo!  the picking into compacted/compressed powder will, in my experiments, "dust" it.  this is also why i like to use a piece of wound guitar string (phosphor bronze acoustic string) to pick at the chamber powder because i've found that the "ribs" (windings) on the string will pull a kernal or two closer to the touch hole's outer opening, particularly if the liner doesn't have any, or just a very slight, inner coning.

[Muley]

I started to use Rob's method of bouncing the ramrod. That's a much tighter than I was using before. I definitely get the crunching when picking it.

[RobD]

I started to use Rob's method of bouncing the ramrod. That's a much tighter than I was using before. I definitely get the crunching when picking it.

that's the reason for rod bouncing - a uniform compaction (compression) of the powder, each and every time.  no guessing.  the rod tells ya when it's reached optimum compression.  the by-product is that if there was a LOT of fouling down at the chamber area, sometimes pushing the rod will make ya think the patched ball is seated when in reality it ain't and there's a bit of an air space happening that you really can't tell by checking the ramrod's full load mark (if you made one).

[Muley]

Look at this video Rob. He's installing a White Lightning vent liner. That's not what I want you to look at. After it's all installed look at where the hole is. It's above the top of the pan. Mine is too. A bit more than his. How is the frizzen not covering the hole?




I'm a dummy. I just realized when typing that out that the frizzen is shoved out of the way before the pan is ignited.  

Ok, that changes everything. Back to the Chambers vent liner. I just read someone putting the Chambers VL in his GPR and it's as fast now as his custom guns with Siler locks. Not sure that's true but it's encouraging.

[RobD]

make the mods to your existing liner.  that should do it for ya.

[JStanley]

Good article and warning on buying the White Lightning from TOW.

LUXURY LINER | FLOYD FILES

After viewing this article, I had a thought that took me back to my OP.  If I installed an authentic Chambers 5/16-32 liner and offset the new hole like shown below, the result will be a vent nearly dead on center with the pan. It would move around .076" toward the muzzle.  Instead of plugging the 6mm hole, just cutting the new hole will solve the problem. Any holes in my thought process?  

[Muley]

I didn't realize the hole would be that much bigger. I'll be well past the top of the flat.

Instead of drilling the hole more sideways like you, I wonder if mine could be drill lower?