Sometime back I sighted in the the ol' gal ( ginger) my .54 woodsrunner. using a .530 ball and .018 ticking spit patch, I tried a few different lubes also but i really think spit is the way to go at least for me. anyway shooting from a bench I had her shooting minute of deer out to 50 yds and i was happy.
Using the original french amber flint that came in the lock i got off approx 45 shots without touching that flint. no tightening the jaws, knapping, nothing.
I replaced that flint with another similar french flint 3/4" and i shot the new flint maybe 4-5 shots and after a cleaning put her up .
Fast forward to today, our monthly club shoot, surely ginger would rule the day, oh how i was wrong.
Now don't ask me why but when I packed my stuff for the shoot i packed .535 balls and for whatever reason i grabbed a bag of precut .018 ticking patches soaked in bear grease. dumb dumb dumb. I had to beat on the short starter to get that combo to seat in the muzzle. It rammed OK with no swabbing in between until the last shot #20. that ball went halfway down the tube and locked up. we ( about 3 of us) rammed on the ramrod and got it down, all was well. it went bang.
MY flint troubles were another issue, 3 flints to shoot 20 targets, all french amber 3/4". one broke in the lock, the flint snapped midline across the flint, jammed the frizzen about 1/2" open and dinged up my shiny pan. I fixed that and the next flint, 1st shot took a chunk out of the center of the leading edge, too big to knap back so onto flint #3 .
That lasted the last few shots ,chipped a corner and was loose in the jaws after each shot. ugh grand total 5 outta 20. should have followed the 6 P's , proper planning prevents piss poor performance.
are 3/4" the best size for this lock ?? seems to be too far from the frizzen to me, really hammers these french flints. I can get my finger between the flint edge and the frizzen at half cock.
Oh and lets not forget those bear grease patches. I used a wool haversack style bag today, also another change from my usual small leather pouch. couldn't find anything, and those patches found their way out of the plastic bag and onto and into everything in the bag including my priming horn, short starter, etc. what a mess. everything was slicker than cat S*&$. The little plunger on my priming horn clogged up so I finished priming from the horn. (from now on I might add)
Just a fun, miserable, had a great time anyways kinda day. a lot of hard lessons learned today.
I realize this is all my fault, all of these changes for no reason etc etc.
I don't feel I can blame the gun, I need to look at these flints closer and shoot more to get settled in on my loads and such.
I let the pressure of competition and all the changes I made throw me off my game as far a routine goes.
I am going to my room now to think about what I have done and in the future try to make better decisions !
thanks for sharing in my misery.
Kevin
Topic: update on my kibler experience (Read 1352 times)