Quality of TC Flintlock?

[Gray Fox]

Finally getting to the back corners of my shop I found a 20+ year old TC flintlock kit minus the barrel I bought from an unrecalled guy. It is minus the barrel, and if I assemble the kit I will get a finished Green Mountain flinter drop in 1:70 .50 cal.

My question is, is the TC lock any good or not? It is new, never fired. I've had excellent luck with my TC side lock percussion guns and have always wanted to put my toe into the flinter water. I have a bunch of .490 balls and a can of ffff priming powder, so I'm part way there.

[Lead Fred]

Id not go slower than 1/66, heck my 1/60 is slow enough.

You may have loading problems when it gets dirty.

You need to get that lock tuned. Ive not seen one yet that works well out of the box.

[Geraldo]

When I started shooting in the early 1980s, I recall a lot of complaints about TC's frizzen being too soft. TC redesigned the lock at some point, probably more recently than yours was built. If your frizzen is case hardened it's the old style, if it's black it's the new style. Along with the new frizzen they changed the geometry of the hammer to get a better striking angle on the frizzen, and they may have changed a few small parts as well. If you call TC and ask for parts, they will probably have you send it in for a rebuild. The results could be anything from a new lock to parts replacement. I sent one in and they replaced some parts but not the frizzen. Like yours it was barely used so perhaps they didn't think it needed replacement.

Are they as good as a tuned Chambers? Reportedly they are not. Will they work? Yes. You probably want to change to the newer style touchhole liner though.

I've got a few GM barrels and all of them shoot well. My 1:70" .58 is my favorite and is extremely accurate, so I wouldn't concern myself with the twist rate. They all prefer a very tight patch/ball combo.

If you decide not to continue with the project I'm always looking for TC stuff.

[Dale53]

Many flintlocks respond well to "half soling". An additional piece of high carbon steel is sweated to the frizzen and replaces the original "sparking surface". The ones that I have seen done locally work EXTREMELY well. We have an active bunch of muzzle loaders at our local gun club.

The TC's can work extremely well with a bit of tuning.

FWIW
Dale53