Midway sale on the Lyman GP's ...

[rfd]

Here's a link to an excellent article in Muzzle Blasts that you might find of interest with regards to yer ignition issues ...

http://www.muzzleblasts.com/archives.../mbo44-3.shtml

Also, I'll add - yer rifle has an ante-chamber and if it starts to build up with crud it will kill ignition pronto because it obfuscates the touch hole or mitigates the powder charge. It must get cleaned out and be left dry. I use a .32 bronze brush with a patch wrapped around it, work it in good with a moist (not wet) solution of whatever (including just plain water) and follow up with a dry patch or two.

[duckey]

rfd that's a good read! I believe I have identified that I have a soft frizzen as I have orange sparks, need to clean better both the bore and then pan, as I did notice wet black goo in it. I did notice my flint was getting gooy/black and had to be wiped off. There are a few more things I have to check on the lock to see what else might be going on.

[duckey]

So I am pondering the idea of removing the frizzen, sanding down the face and then heat the and quench in oil.....Plan B.....spend the $175 for the replacement L&R lock from TOTW. RFD....the article you mentioned said that a belt sander could be used for the frizzen face, I have an 80 grit belt, I am wondering if this is too aggressive. It's not a lot of surface area to sand I might just do it by hand with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. Any thoughts?

[rfd]

Jim Kibler (gunmaker extraordinare):
I just polish them as hardened. Sometimes I just use stones, but other times especially for a rough casting I have used a sanding disc for an air grinder to get the two big angled flats roughed out. Depending on who made it you may be able to file the pan cover. Typically with a Chambers lock only part of the pan cover is hardened to the point where it can't be filed. I believe he has mentioned before that he heats the frizzen face with a torch and doesn't attempt to heat the pan cover to a point where it will harden when quenched. Naturally some of it does get hardened, but not the whole thing.

[duckey]

Thanks, will give it a try

[duckey]

So yesterday I took the frizzen off, sanded down the face to remove the gouges, then heated the frizzen to a cherry red and oil quenched it. Cleaned face off and reassembled. I cocked her back and pulled the trigger. I got ok orange sparks and a gouge on the frizzen where the flint truck. Rather annoyed at this point but I guess I like problem solving. I tried flipping the flint over, tried a new flint etc and still getting ok orange sparks. I put some 2f in the pan and got a flash. I am new to this game...I read rfd's article for troubleshooting flintlock problems. Should I be getting white hot sparks? Should my frizzen be getting all gouged up? I am leaning twords an L&R lock. I know these are kit guns so maybe not the best quality materials or parts. I feel like the frizzen is just not hard enough, most likely accast part.

[duckey]

Anyone headed to the Dixon Gun Works fare the weeken of the 28th, Kenton PA. I'm going

[rfd]

while white hot is perhaps better than orange hot, all that matters is that the pan powder will touch off and send heat down the touch hole to set off the main charge. i have no issues with orange hot sparks of hammer steel metal. i find it best to use 'fine' english flints - thin ones with razor sharp cutting edges - that will strike the hammer steel (aka 'frizzen') at least 2/3rds up top. in the best of all worlds, when the flint is at half cock it should be near touching the frizzen or about 1/8" away. the flint should end up beak down and near the pan but away from the touch hole volcano gases that will want to erode that fine edge. keep it all clean of bp residue - frizzen, frizzen pan cover, pan, flint edge, touch hole picked.

as to that hammer steel hardness, maybe it does need rehardening or resurfacing ... however, if yer getting consistent pan ignition (and you can test this as many times as ya like without a load in the chamber, without going afield or to the range), then there really is no problem.

[duckey]

Well its sounds as though I am doing everything right that you have mentioned. Next range session I will do a better job cleaning before each shot to include the anti chamber. I do need to buy a .32 cal bronze brush to get that area of the barrel cleaner. I am using TOTW English flints of the proper size, and placing them in the jaws with leather, flint bevel down. I may try setting it a tad farther back in the jaws to allow more space from frizzen at half cock. If the range wasn't an hour away i'd be there more often. Should I be getting gouges on the frizzen where the flint strikes?

[rfd]

the GPR ante-chamber is .336" in diameter and 1.058" in length. i use a .32 bronze brush with a 2" arsenal cotton patch over its nose. in a pinch a .22 patched brush will do as well.

there shouldn't be gouges on the hammer steel face, and that'd be an indication it's too soft and needs surface hardening. i did that decades ago with 'kasenite', which is no longer available. i bought some 'cherry red' (kasenite substitute) but haven't used it yet. check out youtube for both.

[duckey]

Ive seen a video on the tube that used cherry red, rather simple. Well thanks for the help.

[T.Schenck]

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Flintlock1812]

there is more to understand about a flinter than a percussion gun, but the learning curve is not steep and the deep satisfaction of such a reliable gun makes smacking critters or paper or steel so much more Fun.

So True!

[rfd]

ignition shakedown range visit #2 for the latest GPR .50 "screwdriver kit" gun. i cast up a buncha .490 balls, lubed up some .010" cotton patch strips with gato feo, and used swiss 3f down the tube (52 grains) and in the pan. the touch hole liner needs future fiddling (no surprise) and required getting fed a bit from the pan for consistency. every other shot or so was a dry no-ball shot, just checking ignition. no fouling control, super easy loading, not bad accuracy off the bench at 25 yards with some sight adjustments. ignition with a fuller english flint was good.





dull flints suk big time! An old "common" (double edged) gun flint with many dozens of good firings finally lost its edge, After 3 failures I flipped it over to its second edge, which was also a tad worn. After 2 failures I had enuf and swapped it out for a new flint that wouldn't spark on its first flight and required a bit of knapping. Note that when I brushed the ultra tiny knapped flint shards off the bench I got a nice 1/4" cut on the pinky. Flint can be surgically sharp, beware! After that, she fired every time. Life is still good.

[duckey]

Are you serial numbers on this kit within the recall from Lyman? Just curious.

the $440 GPR .54 flintlock "kit" arrived 3 hours ago and i just got time to open the box. the lock, trigger, butt plate, toe plate and nose cap were already installed. within 15 minutes i turned in 16 screws to add the tang, barrel, under rib, trigger guard, and 4 wedge escutcheons. gee, that was hard work. it all fits quite well, no wood removal, no misalignments, no issue of any kind - as expected.

[rfd]

bought my current GPR in the spring of last year, missed the recall list by over 800 numbers, good to go.

[duckey]

That’s good! Bought mine Mar 4th 2017 so thinking it was manufactured sometime before March 1st.

[rfd]

problem is with the breech plug, not the barrel. lyman asks for barrel to be returned because very few will be able to remove its plug.

this it finished and the .50 bore reamed out to a .54 by bobby hoyt ....

[Eddie2002]

About ten years ago I built an Investa arms Hawkins .50 caliber flinter kit I got at Cabellas. First kit and first flinter for me, it came out nice but like Ducky it wouldn't give a real hot spark no matter how hot I got the frizzen before quenching. Tried different weights of oil and even a water quench on the striker face. Ended up ordering a Seiler small rifle frizzen in the raw from Muzzleloaders Supply. It didn't take a lot of work with files and a drill press to get it to fit the stock Investa Arms lock. It looks like it was made for it and gives a nice hot spark. Just a different way to skin the cat that worked for me.

[rfd]

the problem, if any, is with the investarms lock geometry, which is not at all unlike the spanish and other offshore flintlock arms. replacing with an L&R RPL05 lock cures that issue pronto.