Note to Boerrancher

[DIRT Farmer]

Joe, just to let you know, one of the flints you gave me made it from Saturday the 8 to Friday the 14th. I lost track of how many shots but I know that I fired 60 plus blowouts on Saturday and Sunday from one edge. There may have been 350 shots from that one flint.

Thanks, it sure cut back on the sale of English flints.

Alan

[quilbilly]

wow!!

[Boerrancher]

Allen,

I was wondering how my flints would hold up to your endurance test. In fact I was going to give you a call later on in the week now that I have got my friend on his way back home and things are getting back to normal with out a house guest. I am still shooting on the first flint I put in the trade gun. I know I have burned over a pound of powder through it and it still keeps sparking. I have had to reset it in the cock a couple of times because it keeps getting shorter, and I like to keep the flint close to the frizzen in the half cock position. I am glad it worked so well for you. I have a rendezvous and match coming up this weekend and I am going to use the old trade gun and see how many of the rifle shooters I can out shoot.

Best wishes,

Joe

[waksupi]

It's surprising how long a flint can last with good management. I use all four sides, upside down ,and down side up. They look like a marble when I'm done!
Let us know how you do at the shoot.

[DIRT Farmer]

Joe I can tell you it went over two lb of powder, It was hard to keep track of, at times I had three guns on the bench, new M/l shooters need some coaching to get started.

The good part is new members and more people introduced to black powder shooting.

BTW, I started my second can of ffffg this year. Been a long time since I have done that.

Alan

[Boerrancher]

Wow you actually had to crack the seal on a second can of priming powder? That is a bunch of shooting my friend. A bunch of shooting. I have gone through about a half a pound this year, but I don't do the matches like you do, the majority of mine is hunting with a bit of target practice thrown in from time to time. As a side note I have gotten the shot shooting part of the trade gun down to the point that the pattern is tight enough at 40 yards that it would still break a clay bird and most likely kill a squirrel every time. There was in the 12x12 inch target on average there was at least one pellet per 2 square inches. It is amazing how wad thickness, powder charge, and shot charge variations can make a huge difference in the pattern. It also helps that I am throwing nearly an ounce and a half of shot.

Best wishes,

Joe

[DIRT Farmer]

Keep playing with it, they are strange kritters. Have you tried using over shot wads for the over powder yet. I have used from one to five with varieng results, some good some bad, depending on what you want from the pattern.

We butchered a beef and I saved the kidney fat, rendered it to tallow, will use bees wax and olive oil with it in several combos to see if it is as good as mutton tallow. Otherwise I will have to buy a sheep and have a cook out again.

[Boerrancher]

I am going to render out some deer tallow and give it a go. I have heard good things about it. In all honesty, for my type of shooting since I don't do any serious competitive shooting, just about any grease patch works for me, as I only use them for the first load when hunting, and spit patches after that. The only thing I am concerned with when it comes to a grease patch is that it keeps the fouling soft and doesn't turn to roofing tar.

Best wishes,

Joe

[KCSO]

If you can't get a hundred or more shots from a flint then you need better flnt. I am like Waksupi in that between knapping and switching sides and maybe then knapping ti down for the piistol, i have very little flint left. It soulds like Boer has the fliint businees down pat, if he ever starts selling them commercially I would sure like to try some.

[DIRT Farmer]

The main problem I have in compation is a called target is a scored target. A miss fire for whatever reason is a lost bird, most likely a tossed round. If I don't like something or some strange mojo when in a match, I change out. When I come home from the national matchs I have enough pratice flints for the year. Many never go over 20 shots while I'm there and I have put a new flint in and changed it at the first snap.
I am working to get my miss fire rate down to 1/500 shots, some years I do it.

[Hubertus]

As you know I am still learning - but that is a very good advice.
Once you start to thinking about whether the next shot will fire or not the shot is blown anyway. So that I try to stick to that recommendation from DIRT_Farmer and have changed out on the first strange thing to happen - served me well in Friendship in spring.

By the way, speaking about lube, DIRT_Farmer, - did you get around trying my homebrew?

Boerrancher, you're welcome to a little tin of that homebrew lube. I am always interested how it works for others.
It served me well in my 45-70 and does well in my cap lock .50, too.
So far I didn't play enough with the Smoothbore but the few times I shot in Friendship it worked good.

Hubertus

[Boerrancher]

Hubertus,

Give me a month or so and we can work out a trade. I will send you a few of my flints and you and send me some of your lube. I am always looking for a good lube that will work in both the ML and BPCR.

Best wishes,

Joe

[DIRT Farmer]

I still am working with the mutton tallow patches in the 32, not enough hunting to need more patches yet Michial, but the tin is in the 50 bag along with a spool of ticking. Time to start shooting for deer season.
The trade gun is usualy reserved for late deer season. I will try some there also.

[Hubertus]

OK,

good to know you get some hunting time in, Alan.
Boerrancher - sounds like a good plan! Let me know when.

Funny how those smooth guns change you - just last Saturday I was out hunting with a Levergun and did pass on a fawn in 25 yards distance - figured I could go back and try taking it with the smoothie - now call me stupid :mrgreen:


Hubertus