Frying a Flintlock

[cayugad]

I wanted to shoot today. It was sunny, no wind, some bug juice handles that problem, but it was hot...



Being determined, I took out a .50 caliber Thompson Center Hawkin flintlock. This flintlock has a German agate in the jaws, and all kidding aside I bet I have over forty shots off this thing and there is very little wear and chipping yet. Never a misfire all day, but I did have one dangerous hangfire.



This rifle is a powder pig. I loaded 100 grains of 2f Graf's & Sons black powder, moosemilked a pillow tick cotton strip, and used cast roundball. The first shot on a clean dry barrel was encouraging to say the least. The target was only at 30 yards, so I expected this much. My hold is that black diamond resting on top of the front sight, buried into the buckhorn sight.



I was surprised the rifle was not fouling out. I did swab once. And for some reason got a dangerous hangfire. I actually pulled the trigger, raised my head, then heard the fizzle of the pan when it went off. Guess which one that was.

I wanted to see how the rifle acted on a hot barrel. I was loading and shooting very quickly. Like I said the rifle was not fouling out, but it was turning orange in the pan from the powder burns. And I learned that when your shooting this fast, and loading and such, that barrel can burn your hand. I mean to tell you, it was hot.

Over all for as hot as it was, as hot as I got that barrel, and I lost count of how many shots I fired.. (I had to go into the house for another strip of pillow tick and that is when I decided to swab the bore with Windex)... the gun did real well. With that kind of powder charge, I would hate to have that ball shot at me. No idea what the velocity would be in that kind of heat.

Also one thermometer said, 100 degrees but the other only read 93 degrees. But MAN!! it was hot. Thank goodness winter will be here soon.

[sabotloader]

cayugad

Yur nuts! 100 degrees!

But i do want to know more about that flint...

I am taking the TC flinter to the Rondy tomorrow hoping I can get somebody to work with me on shooting that thing. I have dry fired it but it does not seem like it is giving off enough sparks. Tom sent me some good flints but I have not put them in yet...

And good shooting.... hopefully next week for me... but Terry wants me to replace a window in this room.

[cayugad]

Well a good flint or cut agate (which is what I was using) is the key to a good spark. Besides a hard frizzen of course. If the frizzen is soft you get short hot sparks but it cuts into the frizzen as well. If the frizzen is hard, you get nice long hot sparks.

An agate is not as sharp as a flint, but these I purchased were on sale at Traditions Firearms once, so I bought six or seven of them I think it was. I had real good luck with cut agates in my Trade Rifle as well.

Today this rifle, other then the one misfire/hangfire went off perfect. Very little delay. I still get a kick out of all that smoke they throw.

[bronko22000]

Good shooting Dave - also good that you didn't swab with the 91% alcohol, it may have ignited.
Just a note, when shooting that fast... be sure to blow down the muzzle until the smoke stops coming out ofthe flash hole.You don't wantany burning embers in the breach when you dump the powder down. It could be dangerous.
(Poof - no eyebrows)

[cayugad]

bronko ... that very thought was on my mind. I dumped powder down that bore once and it was smoking all of a sudden. Needless to say I took my time doing much more then. After the smoking stopped, then I loaded the ball.

[hunting junkie]

Nice shooting,you know you done good when you can't count the holes.

[lemoyne]

I use saw cut agate in the flinters I built to; it seem like getting the position, as in the distance to the back of the hammer just right made a lot of differance in how fast they went off. Lee

[Grouse45]

Cayugad,
I see you fried the Flintlock. You did not mention how bad you got fried?

BTW- Excellant shooting. Do you do those rondy shoots?

[cayugad]

I did Rendezvous shoots for a fewyears along with hawk & knife throwing, fire starting, you name it.You want to see some good black powder shooters, some of them Rendezvous had some real good shooters. Then insurance companiesstepped in, and most of the large Rendezvous can afford the insurance to cover the shoots.Most of them gatherings got so big, they just were not fun anymore.You felt more like a monkey in a cage, with tourists walking through the camps. That and sleeping on the hard ground got to where it took me all day to get the stiffness out of my back.. So I stopped going to them a few years ago. The one I never missed for over eighteen years was held father's day weekend in Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin called Villa Louis. It started out so small and last I heard was over two thousand lodges and then a monster flee market.

I even used to tan my own deer hides and make stuff out of them. That was pretty hard core and a lot of work. BUT this is a jacket I made out of some buckskins I tanned... with wooden buttons too..



As for taking heat... I need to soak up heat and sunshine in the summer, so that when winter comes I can pull some out of reserve..

[Grouse45]

Hell, you should sale those jackets. Sabotloader will need one soon. He's getting that Flintlock ready.