Traditional Firearms > Flintlock Long Guns

flintlock love is tough love

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KDubs:
 I was going to put this in the hunting section but it's more of a rambling on my trials and tribulations with my smoke pole.
 
 I had written awhile back about my issues at my last club shoot and after sometime on my home range I thought I had things figured out.
 there were a lot of tips from concerned club members on how to deal with things and one thing i was told is " you don't have to clean out the flash pan after each shot, which is something I did religiously.  Okay , I'll tuck that away in my brain.
 
 Fast forward to this past Sunday,  It had been raining hard all day Saturday and by Sunday everything was soaked, out I went in the dark and i took what seemed like the proper precautions and used a cow knee, greasy knee, whatever you like to call them. Things stayed dry, the sun came out and it was nice !
 
 Later in the morning a doe presented a shot so i took it. The mistake i made was wearing thin insulated gloves and never shooting my gun with said gloves.
 When the deer was broadside i squeezed the trigger and it felt like the hammer should have fallen but nuttin! the glove must have compressed as i squeezed and felt like trigger movement but as said nuttin happened!
 That caused me to instantly jerk the trigger which caused me to raise my head which caused the muzzle to rise which caused etc etc etc.  The gun goes bang, the deer runs off.  Well , that was something !
 WTH,  now remember that advice about not wiping the flash pan and the fact it was rather moist out.  Quick reload, 4f in the dirty pan and start the tracking i hoped.
 
 After a 45 minute search i found no signs of a hit and headed home to lick my wounds. when i got home i decided to fire off the load i had in the gun and clean her up.
 I stepped up to the line and fsssst, sounded just like a slow fuse. no bang of course.  apparently the dirty pan held moisture, when i put in dry primer it absorbed moisture from that dirty pan.  my guess at least . lesson learned.
 cleaned the pan, re primed and flash, no bang, ugh.  wipe the pan again, add some 4f and bang, right on the old 8" frying pan hanging on the backstop from 35 yds  :Doh!
 
Okay, I am confused and befuddled by this contraption and i owe it to the deer and my stomach to use my TC cap gun for the remainder of the season until i can get this flinter figured out.  ;banghead;

 I take the kibler to the work bench for a final cleaning before putting her up, hmmm another broken flint, took a corner of my black English flint.
only about 7-8 shots on it.  this kibler has a very strong main spring.
 I pulled the barrel, corrosion on the 3 under flats, moisture and black powder water staining under the breech on the stock.  more ugh.
Looks like the jacks black has worn off, applied too thin me thinks .  all good now, cleaned up, bear greased everything and put her up in her not to final resting place.  :hairy

 well that's my story, more hunting still to come but in a more 19th century style.
 kevin
 

 

 

 
 

Darren Haverstick:
I have no words of wisdom to pass on other than "That sh$% happens". I've tried a lot of things over the years to minimize snafus in damp conditions with my flintlocks and I am of the opinion that your odds of a successful ignition go way down if you are out in the rain for any amount of time, no matter what you do. I have come to accept that, swaller hard, and go on.

Several years ago, I belly crawled about 100 yards in very wet conditions to try to get within range of a spring gobbler. When I got to where I needed to be, he was no longer there, but I knew he was close by. So I set up under a cedar, put out some decoys and started calling. While I was waiting for some action, I cleaned and dried my flinter as best I could and hoped for the best. I ended up calling in a different bird from a quarter mile away, across a creek and 350 yards of open field, to my range of 25 yards. Imagine my surprise when I pulled the trigger and all I got was a flash in the pan but no BOOM. I frantically searched for my priming flask and poured new powder in the pan while Ole Tom was fixin to leave the country. I pulled the trigger a second time and the gun went off, but I was so rattled by then that I didn't touch a feather on him. At first I was mad about what had happened and then I realized that nobody forced me to use that gun to hunt with. I had a perfectly good Benelli Nova in a gun cabinet back home but I chose to hunt with 18th century technology. And, up until the pan flash, that was the best turkey hunt I had ever been on. Calling a bird in from that distance, through that many obstacles, was a miracle. Killing him would have just been icing on the cake.

Darren

Bigsmoke:
Darren,
As one of our ex presidents was quoted as saying, "I feel your pain!"  Well, you didn't harvest that bird, but you were left with one heck of a story.  And as the German proverb says, "All skill is in vain if an angel pisses in the touch hole of your musket!"

Kevin,
A sad story, indeed.  As people might have gathered, I am not a great fan of flintlocks.  I have found that at the best of times, they are mostly an exercise in futility.  To me, anyway.  A couple of thoughts, if I may.  In wet conditions, it is not a bad idea to take a bit of candle wax and apply it around the rim of the flash pan, in addition to using a cow's knee.  That will help a little in keeping the priming powder dry.  And secondly, get rid of that silly Ffffg powder that you are priming with and use whatever you are loading the barrel with.  I assume it is Ffg.  You really will not notice much if any slowing of the shot.  The bigger the grain, the less surface area to get wet = less moisture absorption.  By the way, I have never noticed much difference in whether or not I wiped the pan or not.
Also, you might cut a slit in the bottom of the trigger finger part of your glove so your bare finger can slip out.  Then you can actually feel the trigger.  Or wear mittens that have a full width opening.  Or, wear half gloves.
With all the trouble you are having with flints, it makes me wonder about the geometry of the hammer (or cock).  It sounds like the flint might be battering the frizzen instead of scraping it.  And maybe you have too much mainspring tension.
When the day is over, I kinda like your thought of forgetting the Kibbler for this season and get out the old T/C cap gun.  I would head down to October Country and pick up one of the 1/4-28 Kap Kovers they make.  That provides a positive safety and it also weatherproofs the percussion ignition.  Good stuff.
John

KDubs:
Well John, I immediately cut the left index finger of the glove.
 Problem is I'm right handed .
 
 I'm surprised we as a people didn't go back to throwing flint rocks at each other after using these things.
 No wonder they invented percussion.  Sheesh.

 "Ginger" and I will get more intimate in the future but for now we're taking a break. 
Probably good cuz it rained again all day yesterday and temps are around freezing.

Kevin

PetahW:
.

Why I use a capgun ILO my rocklock in foul weather    ;banghead;  ;banghead;


( I'm long-retired, and can pick/choose when I want to hunt )

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