Care and feeding of 54cal Flintlock...

[piwo]

3F in the pan for me.. even tried 2f with the small bit of that I have lying about and it worked fine at the range as well. Never failed to set the main charge off, and couldn't really tell a difference...

[northmn]

Through the years I have built, shot and sold many flintlock rifles and a few fowlers. Most of the advice given is good, but depends. You fill the pan according to the touch hole location. When I built my flinters I put the bottom of the touch hole very close to the top of the pan so I could fill it for hunting and possibly have more positive ignition and did not have to worry about positioning. I made a few dollars changing the hole location on commercial rifles, one of which had the touch hole located at the bottom fo the pan. 3f or 4f for priming depends on the lock. Larger locks such as on muckets and fowlers can and did use the powder of the main charge. The paper cartridge of the military was bitten off at one end, the pan was primed then the musket loaded, (not safe don't do this now) The finer, smaller quicker locks are best with 4f. Another way to get 4-f is to screen through a colander or whatever. The morter and pestle for small amounts works also. Rough bores usually need a fouling shot and then tend to shoot ok. Use a good heavy tough patching. Most original rifles were made with twists of 1-60 or less and used lighter charges than we use today. A common practice was to put a ball in the palm of the hand and see how much powder would juct cover it. In a 54 this is about 55-60 grains. A 70 grain charge in an original, is plenty even for deer as the ball blows a pretty good sized hole and weighs about 220 grains. I have found that flintlocks seem to function best at a certain pressure level in which the touch hole gets blown clear after the shot. Too light of a powder charge for plinking sometimes causes problems too. When I load I put the touch hole pick ( piece of wire or whatever that fits in the hole to clean it out) in the touch hole and then put in the powder, seat the ball and prime. I do not know where you get your stuff but since you can use the web try Dixie Gun Works, Log Cabin or Track of the Wolf where you can get real flints much less expensive than the prepacks TC or others sell. You will find that after a bit the flint will have to be knapped. You hit the edge of it with lightly with a very small tool and flake off pieces to resharpen the flint. Lapidary cut flints often do not knap well is why you want to get the English flints. You can buy patching at a fabric store but for starters buy the commercial ones. Patching must be pure cotton or linen, no man made materials at all as it melts on the bore. A good patch when fired should look like you could almost reload it (your barrel may cause a little tearing). Another handy tool to get is a spare ramrod with extras like a ball puller in case you forget (when you forget?) to charge with powder. Sometimes you can keep working a charge through the touch hole untill you can get enough to expel the ball. This is about all I can say without seeing the rifle, good shooting have fun.

Northmn

[twoworms]

Sunday, I got to test fire the beast.

I used FFF for the main charge and FFF in the pan that I had worked on a little to make it finer. The first two shots at 20yards cut a nice 8 shaped hole in the paper, with the next shot 1/8" from the last. The next three at 20 made a nice clover leaf of about .75" ctc. I fired two shots at about 40 yards the landed about one inch from each other. The rifle shoots low right so I didn't get to hit much of anything. It didn't seem to fire very fast, as I could feel the hammer/flint fall then the main charge go off. Maybe 4F will work a little faster.

I plan to test fire it again in better light,4F for the pan and warmer weather.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Tim

P. S. I also shot my CVA 32cal, its a hoot...

[floodgate]

two worms:

Yer on yer way!!!

Oddly, I see more general agreement on details on this thread than on most on this Board, despite the vagaries of individual flinters and their users. I guess, after a few years of tinkering and learning "on the job", we all end up in pretty much the same place!


It's a wonderful corner of our sport / hobby; gotta get back to it!

Enjoy, experiment and share your results. And...have a Happy New Year!!!

floodgate

[twoworms]

floodgate,

They kinda get in your blood, flinters that is. I have to say when I shot it off hand at 40 yards or so, I worked at it to not pull off target as the pan fired then the main charge.

I have come up with some FFFF for the pan, I'll give it a try. northmn posted that pressure was key to keeping the flash hole clean. That got me thinking I'm going to have to so some real range testing next time out.

Got to love it,

Tim

[northmn]

As long as you use a rasonable charge in your 54 say over 50 grains, the touchhhole will remain relatively clear. Some shooters I knew liked to really cut back in charges for novelty shooting to avoid bang and recoil. One person brought an inexpensive production 45 flinter to the range and loaded it with about 25 grains of powder. The charge vented out the touchhole and the ball stayed in the barrel giving that individual an interesting but harmless experience. I got paid to put in a new liner as that gun must have had a vent larger than 3/32 inch. I think that sometimes the lower pressures lead to inconsistant burn and more fouling. Also I think humidity has something to do with it as it does affect the nature of fouling in barrels. The funny thing is that 25 grains works in a pistol. You tell me?

Northmn

[twoworms]

The flash hole on my 54cal came in at 0.0625" is that about right? Its going to warm up a bit this weekend, I may hit the range.

Tim

[northmn]

Had to do a little quick math there. .0625 is 1/16 of an inch and is standard for any of the new inserts. If you look at the newer inserts, you will see that they are counter drilled inside to a diameter of 1/8inch or so. Some have counter drilled and or put countersinks at the outer part to try to focus the flash. Also it makes for a thinner area for the flash to meet the powder in amanner of speaking. As this area is a natural pressure release I have never seen any thing go wrong with it. Many of the originals have been found with larger touch holes, which may be due to burn out, a desire for reliability, or the fact that the fire has to travel the whole length of the barrel wall. As many if not most originals were swamped barrels, this section was fairly thick. Another thing is that in comparison, a 54 will not vent out like a 45 as the touch hole diameter is smaller in relation to the bore. A Brown Bess that I had had about a 3/32 touch hole that worked well. In theory, a bigger touch hole can make a difference in velocity as more pressure vents out. Chronographs have not shown significant differences that I know of as long as things are kept reasonable. See Sam Fadala's first book on muzzleloaders. If you use a removable insert such as are popular among those that want to switch back and forth between flint and percussion, get one with an Allen head. Some of the ones with screwdriver slots seemed to "jump" the flash. This is not just my opinion but that of others that used them including one gunsmith. They often kind of countersunk or sanded the slot down to get rid of it. I used to use the ones that had a wrench adapter that one filed off once it was installed. Sorry you asked a simple question that could have been answered by saying YES and I got windy. Feels good to talk about real muzzleloaders again.

Northmn

[twoworms]

northmn,

I won't complain about getting more info. The members on site have never came up short on help regarding casting, reloading or other matters I have asked about.

There should be more good web sites like this online.

I didn't get to shoot this weekend, the temp was great but it was a little windy. I took a ride on my scooter instead, a 65 mile ride with wind in my face was worth the time lost at the range.

Tim