The Hatfield Makes Smoke
 

Do you remember the .45 caliber Hatfield flintlock I acquired back in October? ("http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/401972-oops-i-did-again.html) Though manufactured in 1989 the poor thing was yet unfired. Well, it's a virgin no more.

Having no idea where it would hit with the factory sights, I set a target up at fifteen yards and took a half dozen quick shots. Here's the result.



Well that was neat! I was using a 6 o'clock hold on the bull and the group hit 1.5" above the POA. I could tell right off the gun likes that 65 grain load. It makes a nice crack when you pull the trigger. With the .016 patch the ball entered the bore with just a light slap of the short starter and was easily pushed home with the rod. Recovered patches looked fine. Just a delightful load to shoot.

So I drifted the front sight a bit to the left to bring POI closer to POA and set a target out at 50 yards. I took a shot at the 50 yard target using the same 6 o'clock hold on the bull.

Surely a load that hits 1.5" high at 15 yards will hit fairly close to the bull at 50 yards.....right? Well that's what I figured. But I was wrong. There was not a mark on the 8.5" x 11" target. Nor were there any holes in the backer board to the left, right, or below the target. Clearly the shot had gone above the target.

I then mounted the unscathed target on the backer board "upside down" so to have more paper between the top of the target and the 6 o'clock spot on the bull, and took five shots.

This is what I got (the five shots circled in black).



"Oh Poo" you say? :p Well, I say OK, it could have been worse. :)

The vertical dispersion of 1.5" is perfectly acceptable to me at 50 yards with these tiny little sights. The horizontal dispersion of 5" is clearly not acceptable. But that is the fault of the shooter, not the gun. I had a truly horrible time using the buckhorn/blade sights at 50 yards.

Wanting to see how high a front sight would be needed to bring the group down to the POA, I added and extra 1/8" to the height of the sight using the masking tape method (see picture below) and took three more shots. Those are the three circled in red on the above target.



I was hoping to do quite a bit of shooting at 50 and 75 yards in this range session. Clearly, that is not going to happen until I do something about the sights - possibly replace both front and rear with something I can see.

At this point I figured I may as well try a five shot group at 25 yards - a distance at which the sights might work for me. Here's that target.



All right, now I'm feeling better. Sure, it's only 25 yards, and it's not a "one hole" group. But it still made me feel better.

So with both time and powder on my hands and not being set up to do the kind of distance shooting I wanted, I figured I may as well break out the chronograph and do a velocity study.

I did that - shooting three shots each with loads ranging from 50 grains to 80 grains. Here's the result.



Now a word about the gun's function. I fired 40 shots in this session.

- The set trigger functioned perfectly throughout the session.

- I had a "klatch" with no fire to the pan somewhere around shot fifteen. The flint had loosened slightly. A quarter turn of the cock screw and things were fine until another klatch somewhere around shot twenty-five. I wiped the face of the frizzen and flint with a clean patch and had no other klatches.

- I had one flash in the pan about halfway through the session. I re-primed the pan and it flashed again. Inspection proved the touch hole was blocked by a piece of carbon. After that was cleared with a paper clip I had no other flashes in the pan. Except for that one time, I did not pick or clean the touch hole between shots during the session.

- I started the session with a new black English flint, secured with lead. It was a bit narrow and short for the lock, so I placed a small twig behind it to move it forward in the cock jaws. Ignition was good, but it did not seem to be as fast as with my Lyman flintlocks. That may have been a factor of the narrow flint not getting as much spark as a well fitting flint would. I did knap it a tiny bit near the end of the session after a "poof-bang" ignition. Here's what the flint looked like after the 40-shot session.



So that's my report of the Hatfield's virgin outing. I hope you enjoyed the report as much as I enjoyed the session.

Good report. I believe it will do you well. I would say the change of the sights will make a big difference. As I get older I seem to favor the fiber optic sights especially since I lost my vision in my left eye. I really like the looks of that Hatfield.

Sounds like a great day. ;)

Nice report Semi. Let me let you in on a little secret. My .45 was shooting horribly high also with a 70 gr charge. I had the rear sight down as far as it would go. I boosted the charge up to 80 gr and it shot right on and also shot a tighter group.
Now just one more thing....Don't go putting any glass on that Hatfield! :rolleye0011:

Semi,

Nice job... what did you use for patch lube?

BPS

I used Liquid Wrench BPS. It's been my standard patch lube for the last few years.

What size flint is that? That sure held up good for 40 shots. And once you had it down you did real well. Maybe I missed it ... what powder charge shot the best for you?

That looks like a fun rifle. A nice little deer rifle there. It would be fun to score a deer with that.

Looks like the Hatfield needs 7/8" flints.

Yeah. The flint was 1/2" x 1/2". It really wants a flint 7/8" wide x 1" long.

Regarding my perception of ignition speed with the Pedersoli lock vs. my Lyman locks. The Lyman's seem to be instantaneous - like a caplock. My impression was the Pedersoli was not quite as fast as either of my Great Plains rifles.

Well, I got to thinking about that last night and realized that I have RMC touch hole liners in my GPs. Those liners are coned on the inside and have a hex socket on the outside for an Allen wrench, both of which act to place the main charge very close to the pan flame. The Pedersoli has the factory flat faced liner with a screwdriver slot. That may be the difference. If I end up keeping this gun it will get an RMC liner.

I would bet the factory liner also has a smaller flash hole too. You can always drill out the backside of the vent liner to give it a cone shape and get the powder closer to the pan. I never liked those screwdriver slotted liners. Before I learned of RMCs many years ago I would take a hacksaw to the slot to deepen it and I would also run a 1/16" bit through the flash hole to enlarge it. I never did think of coning the backside deeper.

You didn't mention that in your OP Semi, but I thought I smelled Liquid Wrench while I was reading it. :biggrin:

BPS

OK, here's another thought I had last night.

Those five shots at 50 yards kept nagging at me. Remember, this is what the group looked like.



Even though I was having a tough time with the sights, why was I able to keep the vertical spread to 1-1/8", while letting the horizontal spread get so big?

Then I realized - It had to be the wind. (Hey, when you need an excuse any excuse will do. :s2: )

So here's the deal. The rifle range at our hunting club has always been a fifteen-foot wide by 300 yard long lane through mature pine forest.



Wind has never been an issue on the range. But that section of our lease has just been clear cut. The trees are gone and the rifle range is bare butt naked.

There was a breeze blowing during my shoot on Saturday. So much so that I had to clip a clothes pin to the bottom of the target sheets to provide weight and keep them from flapping in the breeze.

So let's assume there was a variable breeze ranging from 5 to 9 mph during the shoot, and look at what the wind drift would be for the load I was shooting with a 7 mph cross wind. Here's the chart.



Well BY GOLLY, that little 7 mph breeze could move the ball 2.5" to the side at the 50 yard mark, and a 9 mph gust could move it over 3". Now there - I sure do feel better about that lateral dispersion. :D

Nice bit of sleuthin' there Semi, bet it made ya wanna strut like a Banty rooster!!

BPS

Yep ... if the touch hole liner comes out, I would see if a RMC could be found for it. I think that might speed things up. Also I have some 3/4 - 1" flints that might work for you. Let me double check their width. But I like the wider ones so the entire frizzen gets hit. If I have some and you want ... I would sure send you a couple to try. Otherwise in the other case of them, I have some 5/8th by 1 inch I am almost positive. I purchased a huge number of them many years ago. I have most of the humps ground off them. They are Thomas Fuller Black English Flints.

RMC still has touch hole (vent) liners... 1/4 x 28 if it's US made barrel, M8 x 1.25 if it's a Pedersoli made barrel

http://www.rmcsports.com/ML020.jpg

BPS

You've got to be kidding BPS - Semi's days of struttin have long since flew the coop! But at least he may have figured out his poor excuse for shooting. That was a good catch and would account for about 1/2 his group size. Especially if the wind was fluctuating.

I've seldom had to consider wind in my shooting or hunting. That little bit of exposure makes me wonder how you guys in the Wide Open And Windy ever hit anything.


I be struttin Bronko.......I be struttin something fierce.

Now don't you two get to feudin', there's plenty of Geritol to go around for both of ya!

:lolabove: :lolabove:

BPS

I won a bet with my wife on the game yesterday. When Denver scored their 2nd TD I went in and took a Viagra but the darn thing got stuck in my throat. My darn neck was stiff all night. I had a HARD time sleeping....lol

Nothing new there Bronko. Just another stiff neck Yankee.

If you're open to a swap, I can send you about ten pounds of pure soft lead in 1.5 lb. ingots in exchange for a half dozen of those flints.

Semi...

Have you ever tried those Missouri white flints that Rich Pierce hand knaps? I like them. They don't quite have the longevity of Tom Fuller's black English flints, but his price is very reasonable.

BPS

Yes BPS. I've used them in the GP's. The ones I got were a bit more irregular in shape than were the black English flints I got from Track of the Wolf. But spark very well. You're right about both longevity and price. All in all, they're a good value and I'd recommend them to anyone needing flints.

One thing I forgot to mention in the report guys. After I finished shooting all of those round balls, and just for grins, I tried Ed Mehlig's 350 grain .451 conicals in the gun. They were loaded over 65 grains GOEX FFFg with 1/8" felt wad. The bullets fit the bore well and I was wondering how they would behave in that 1:48" twist.

Well, I only took two shots. They both keyholed the target at 25 yards and even with only 65 grains of powder recoil was brutal in the little gun. No more of that. :D

Semi...

Did you try any of those nasty plastic wrapped projectiles in it like you mentioned you might?

BPS

I did not BPS. Ran out of time. It's still on the to do list.