Flintlocks

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alco posted this 20 September 2017

Any body out there shooting their smoke poles.  I've been shooting my TC FL Renegade some.  It seems to shoot a little better each time I shoot it

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RicinYakima posted this 21 September 2017

I finished building my flinter in 2010 after a five year build. I shoot it maybe twice a year for 4 or 5 shots. Only had it miss-fire once when I forgot to wipe the grease of the frizzen. Other than that it has been very reliable, but living in the desert there aren't the moisture issues. But we get hard fouling really quick.

 

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Ross Smith posted this 28 September 2017

Just my 2 cents. Flinters do require practice. I named one of mine flinch lock. By shooting flinters I have learned Follow Through! This has helped all of my shooting, even those suppository guns.   Ross

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onondaga posted this 02 October 2017

alco, you asked,

"Is there a way to resharpen the ends on a cut flint ???"

Gunflints sawed or knapped are both sharpen able. Developing the skill isn't so easy. I generally resharpen flints in the jaw of the hammer with pressure flaking and shearing. The principles and mechanics of that need understanding and experience to do well   First efforts generally fail badly.

I use a whitetail antler tine about 6" long. Not a sun bleacked pickup antler but a hard fresh one not a weathered one. Sharpen the tip to a rounded point with sandpaper to a 1/4" radius. You will use this like a push knife tool so it should fit your hand easily to use as  tool. I push the point directly on the part of the edge I want to start, Push in toward the middle of the flint  with the tine held in that line. Then simultaneously increase pushing into and pushing down 90 degrees.  About of half of your maximum arm strength should be needed to take flakes at all. A flake will tear off. With experience you will control the size of the flakes but that is the basics of resharpening a flint by "pressure flaking". A well executed flake when sharpening a gun flint looks teardrop shaped and about 1/4" long and pointed where your pressure flake tool push started the tear.

The edge can also be sharpened by shearing on the edge of the frizzen or with a simple shearing tool. A 1" wide steel paint scraper makes a good simple shear. Hold the scraper by the blade with only 1/2"  extended past your thumb tip and forefinger pinching the blade like a big key you are going to turn. A shear is used by holding the flat edge against the flint edge, pushing straight into the rock and rotating one end of the blade down  a little like a scissor does to shear off bits of flint. With practice, you can sharpen and straighten the flint edge. I learned shearing on the frizzen well for hunting necessity. It can be learned and there are YouTube videos on the subject.  Both using the frizzen or the paint scraper method are just a matter of practice figuring how much arm power to use to get the stone to shear gradually into a new edge. Using the frizzen as a shearing tool right on the rifle to touch up a flint is total AMERICANA and invented by Americans. ...find a video, it is hard to understand from just words, But I hope I have helped. I don't even think about it when I am doing it as I have been doing it for 60 years.

Important to remember is that after you flake or shear a nice new straight edge, loosen your jaw and reset the flint position to your new edge.

Watch whole thing, there is a short part on using the frizzen as I do for a field touch up in this video.  The flaking method he shows is poor, this guy is not a flint knapper, but he makes it work:

 

Gary

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nosee posted this 01 April 2018

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Pigslayer posted this 04 April 2018

Been busy this afternoon cutting in dovetails for the barrel lugs. Yep, with a hacksaw, small (very small) cold chisel & various files Years ago I bought a book called "The Art Of Building The Pennsylvania Longrifle" by Chuck Dixon. It has been an indispensible tool for me in building these rifles. A rather arrogant fellow at the range looked at my .45 caliber flinter & exclaimed that I had made a mistake in that I left the stock "blonde". He said that it was the wrong color for the time period. I told him exactly what an experienced gun builder told me. It's my rifle, I built it, & I'll build it any way I want. He walked off in a huff. As I researched the history on these rifles I found (as Chuck Dixon said) that people built these rifles with what they had or could scrounge up. Brass was scarce so "furniture" was made or iron/steel or . . . no furniture at all. The "Poor Boy" didn't even have a buttplate. Some simply had a hole in the stock where they would put patch grease. So if someone tells you rifle builders out there that you did it wrong . . . you know what to tell them!

If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.

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SouthDakota4440 posted this 06 April 2018

Hey Pigslayer,

That's a neat long rifle flintlock...and you're correct, not all maple stocks were stained.  In fact, I've contemplated a similar stock on a Model 70 Win...just to be different.  By the way, from what I can see in your pictures, the wood to metal fit and your quality of browning appears excellent!  One has to admire the amount of workmanship and time that goes into that.  By the way, if one wants to see historical arms of different areas of our country's history, the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum in Cody, WY will do it.  In fact it is overwhelming.  And you're correct...those blonde long rifles are in there from the Colonial area thru the Revolutionary War and a bit beyond.

 

 

 

 

mm

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JeffinNZ posted this 06 April 2018

I built an Isaac Haines in .40cal back in 2003.  Using to practise dry firing it (with a wooden flint) down the hall way aiming at a 1 inch black dot. 

Cheers from New Zealand

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Ross Smith posted this 21 September 2017

oh yes, a whole lot!  In fact I'm building a .58 right now.   Ross

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alco posted this 21 September 2017

 Is this from a kit or are you building from scratch?

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Ross Smith posted this 21 September 2017

I was given a barrel and half stock blank that some body else made some very weird mistakes on. The barrel is shortened to 31" to remove the buggered section and I've inlet the barrel to the stock but have to move the inlet straight back to remove the booger in the stock. Sent for some other components to build a 1/2 stock flinter with no ramrod. Strictly a range gun. Next step is to install the tang and touch hole,inlet that, then inlet the siler lock. The the scary part, carve the stock.  Ross

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rhbrink posted this 21 September 2017

Yep! I shoot mine a lot practice, practice, practice!

RB

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longhunter posted this 21 September 2017

I love flinters

Dont  shot mine near enough.  All my deer hunting is with my .52 cal.

Jon

Jon Welda CW5 USA Ret.

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Maven posted this 21 September 2017

I too have a FL and shoot it in various postal matches and [local] woods walks.  As rhbrink wrote, they do indeed require a lot of practice!

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Trade Gun Shooter posted this 23 September 2017

Saw the thread, thought I would join in. Not shooting as much as I did but still play around some. Took my 40 flinter out today but the squirrels did not cooperate.

Will be hosting a table shoot and an over the log shoot the first weekend of November here on the farm. 

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Dirtybore posted this 23 September 2017

Haven't been shooting as much as I used to but hunting season is just around the corner.  I'm also giving a presentation on the mountain men and fur trade tomorrow.  Flintlocks, I have 5.  Two 45 cal Southern Mountain rifles, a 62 cal Northwest trade gun, a 54 cal Pedersoli Blue ridge Rifle, and a 45 cal pistol.  Yup, all rocklocks.

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D.E.powell posted this 23 September 2017

New CBA member first post. Good to see flintlock interest on the forum; shooting and hunting with muzzle loaders, started in the 70's. Put meat on the table with a .45 caliber flinter ,about 90% of my deer hunting. Love this forum. muzzle loaders are the first reloader's and cast bullet shooters.

 

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RicinYakima posted this 28 September 2017

"suppository guns" Nice phrase, I like that thought.  

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delmarskid posted this 29 September 2017

I have to get mine out. It's a Pedersoli 54 Mortimer. What I have often wondered, me being the frugal type, could I use bits of a hand held grinders wheel instead of flints? Those things throw gobs of spark. There is nothing like the quick Phht-Boom of a well tuned flinter.

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Ross Smith posted this 29 September 2017

Yo Kid: No!  I used to sort of kinda nearly almost make my own flints. The good english and french flints are just that---Good. I think the grinder wheel pieces would crumble, and besides, the effort you put into making grinder pieces of the right shape could be put into learning knapping.  Ross

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onondaga posted this 29 September 2017

I am an experienced flintknapper and flintlock shooter since 1957 at age 7. My local Onondaga Flint makes terrific gunflints. I have also found a very inexpensive source of sawed Agate gunflints @ $1 ea. and some other excellent varieties here:

http://www.thegunworks.com/custprodgun.cfm?Cat2Name=Sawed&SubCat2ID=113&do=list&Cat1Name=Flints

The Agates spark very big and must be wiped clean each shot as the extremely fine grain translucent agate will slip on steel if it has fouling on it.

Gary

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