Bent Ramrod
05-28-2006, 06:48 PM
I've always been enamored of that flintlock pistol Long John Silver gave Jim Hawkins in Disney's Treasure Island. Little ones like that are all originals and too expensive, but after some searching I found a normal sized modern replication at a gun show that fit my criteria, viz: it had to have a rifled bore and it had to look "neat." In other words, not the plain, unadorned look of the normal "kit" gun or its factory equivalent. This one has some reasonable carving around the ramrod, some brass furniture and a brass endcap. No fancy buttcap, but you can't have everything.
Having finally secured a specimen, I've been unaccountably reluctant to try it out for almost a year. All of my black powder experience has been with percussion systems, and this thing, on careful examination, looked plenty primitive. Except for the lock plate removal, it also looked extremely hard to take apart for cleaning, being pinned together with tiny brads or wires. But this, probably the last nice weekend before the desert heat really comes on, was the last chance to try it in comfort till fall, so off I went to the range with a few spare flints, a flask of Goex 3F, some .433" balls and ticking patches, a bottle of Ballistol/water mix and lots of rags.
I used the same charge (28 gr, thrown) as I use for my BP revolvers, and a little fine-ground powder in the priming pan. The patched ball went down the bore very easily, so I was less worried about how I'd pull it out when the gun refused to fire, which I fully expected. I lined up the sights on my bottom target, gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger. "Clack--Sssoooshh--BOOOMM!!"
As they used to say in North Beach in the '50's, "Man, I was sent!" Giggling insanely, I loaded it up again. And again. Never did get to the load development I was going to do with my .270.
I got 34 shots and three misfires before I ran out of powder. One misfire was probably caused by a gunked up touch-hole, the next one was the flint getting pretty ratty after 25 shots or so. I turned it upside down and got a half-dozen more shots with no trouble, but it was beginng to miss again near the end. Altogether, the reliability factor was, I thought, amazingly high.
There is a 300-to-500 millisecond hang-fire between hammer fall and the bullet launch, which teaches one the value of follow-through with a vengeance. By dint of ferocious concentration on sights and follow-through, and ignoring the distracting fireworks display just at the right-hand edge of my vision, I was able to get a 2-3/4" five shot group at 15 yards with a 2-hand hold, and to mostly hit the SASS silhouette target at 25 yards.
One-handed at 50 yards, I couldn't hit the silhouette at all in the 5 shots I tried. Those guys who fought duels with these things, firing one-handed on a count of three, were much, much better shots than the bare words imply. The odd way the pistol holds, the time to firing and the noise the gun makes while it is getting ready to go off make it difficult to stay focused and aimed. I guess practice will improve my technique.
Cleanup was surprisingly easy, at least so far. (I usually hold off judging the cleanup until a trouble-free week has passed.) I took off the lock, swabbed everything visible with damp patches, Ballistol/water and Ballistol, and put the lock back on. I didn't take the lock apart or remove the barrel. The gun wasn't nearly as dirty as a cap-and-ball revolver after a similar number of shots. If you've ever had a casual hankering for the flintlock experience, I would recommend getting one of these pistols. They're easy to manage and the flash and smoke are at arm's length, as opposed to the rifle experience where it's right next to you. As soon as I can find that instruction on flint-knapping I downloaded and put in one of my paper piles, the pistol and I will be off to the Spanish Main again.
Having finally secured a specimen, I've been unaccountably reluctant to try it out for almost a year. All of my black powder experience has been with percussion systems, and this thing, on careful examination, looked plenty primitive. Except for the lock plate removal, it also looked extremely hard to take apart for cleaning, being pinned together with tiny brads or wires. But this, probably the last nice weekend before the desert heat really comes on, was the last chance to try it in comfort till fall, so off I went to the range with a few spare flints, a flask of Goex 3F, some .433" balls and ticking patches, a bottle of Ballistol/water mix and lots of rags.
I used the same charge (28 gr, thrown) as I use for my BP revolvers, and a little fine-ground powder in the priming pan. The patched ball went down the bore very easily, so I was less worried about how I'd pull it out when the gun refused to fire, which I fully expected. I lined up the sights on my bottom target, gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger. "Clack--Sssoooshh--BOOOMM!!"
As they used to say in North Beach in the '50's, "Man, I was sent!" Giggling insanely, I loaded it up again. And again. Never did get to the load development I was going to do with my .270.
I got 34 shots and three misfires before I ran out of powder. One misfire was probably caused by a gunked up touch-hole, the next one was the flint getting pretty ratty after 25 shots or so. I turned it upside down and got a half-dozen more shots with no trouble, but it was beginng to miss again near the end. Altogether, the reliability factor was, I thought, amazingly high.
There is a 300-to-500 millisecond hang-fire between hammer fall and the bullet launch, which teaches one the value of follow-through with a vengeance. By dint of ferocious concentration on sights and follow-through, and ignoring the distracting fireworks display just at the right-hand edge of my vision, I was able to get a 2-3/4" five shot group at 15 yards with a 2-hand hold, and to mostly hit the SASS silhouette target at 25 yards.
One-handed at 50 yards, I couldn't hit the silhouette at all in the 5 shots I tried. Those guys who fought duels with these things, firing one-handed on a count of three, were much, much better shots than the bare words imply. The odd way the pistol holds, the time to firing and the noise the gun makes while it is getting ready to go off make it difficult to stay focused and aimed. I guess practice will improve my technique.
Cleanup was surprisingly easy, at least so far. (I usually hold off judging the cleanup until a trouble-free week has passed.) I took off the lock, swabbed everything visible with damp patches, Ballistol/water and Ballistol, and put the lock back on. I didn't take the lock apart or remove the barrel. The gun wasn't nearly as dirty as a cap-and-ball revolver after a similar number of shots. If you've ever had a casual hankering for the flintlock experience, I would recommend getting one of these pistols. They're easy to manage and the flash and smoke are at arm's length, as opposed to the rifle experience where it's right next to you. As soon as I can find that instruction on flint-knapping I downloaded and put in one of my paper piles, the pistol and I will be off to the Spanish Main again.