Rock lock shock.

[MBTcustom]

A buddy of mine offered to sell me a Traditions flintlock with a synthetic stock for $50. I thought about it for about 23 hours and decided I just have to try this cap/primer free way of shooting. Well, I spent a good amount of time working on getting the pan to flash consistently. No charge or projectile, just prime the pan and see if I can get it to flash every time. I learned some stuff about flint knapping and how to grind up 2F into 5F with a spoon and a marble surface, invested in a priming flask, possibles bag, extra flints, etc. etc.
I finally decided I was ready to stretch the barrel this last weekend. I loaded up with 50gr of 2F under a patched round ball, primed the pan, shouldered the rifle, and BADOOOM!!! Who'd have believed it, it actually shot! Now all I need to do is see how close it is to zero. I loaded up again and aimed at a soup can on a stick, my brother was standing by observing. I aimed and squeezed the trigger, the rifle fired and I asked him where I hit. He told me that I was about 3ft high of the can.....which was only 30 yards away. Hmmm, well I loaded up again, and fired again but this time I hit the dirt in front of the can. this went on for the next five shots and honestly I was lucky to hit the berm at 30 yards. The truth is that it had nothing to do with the rifle. That puff of spoke in my face obscures the target for a split second and I cant seem to keep the rifle pointed in one spot long enough to make a clean shot. I flinch like a horse whipped Chihuahua! I never have had so much trouble with a rifle before! I just cant seem to get control of myself. It is realy tough to get skunked by 200 year old technology.
Has anybody else had this problem? How do you fix it/train yourself out of it?

[nicholst55]

Practice, goodsteel, practice! It takes some time, concentration, and burnt powder to be able to hold steady during the time lapse between 'Poof' and 'Bang!' Seriously, a well tuned flintlock fires almost instantaneously. Some will even fire without priming powder in the pan - at least sometimes.

Do you know an experienced flintlock shooter? Consulting one would be a good way to master this thing. Most muzzleloader clubs are delighted to have newbies visit, and they are very helpful.

[Hickory]

Also, you need not use a lot of
priming powder to get good ignition.;)

[excess650]

Not all flint LOCKS are created equally. The placement of touch hole in relationship to the pan, as well as its diameter and internal shape contribute to how quickly they will fire. Too, only REAL BLACKPOWDER should be used.

Once your rifle is tuned and fires quickly, then its all about discipline. Follow through....keep aiming through the recoil.

I took a nice 8 pointer in southern Va last week. It was an easy shot, so uneventful. The next afternoon I had a chance at a longbeard and had no qualms about taking the shot. It was 75 yards offhand and the bird crumpled at the shot.

My .58 goes off quickly and I'm very comfortable shooting it. I also have .45 and .50 cal flinters, but only had the .58 with me on the hunt. All of these go off as quickly or quicker than my TC percussion rilfes. My newest, a '62 cal Jaeger, delivered last Friday, and is the quickest that I've ever fired and as quick as any I've ever seen!

I shoot with a group of guys and its gotten to the point that we all prefer flinters. Not only do we shoot paper at 50 and 100 yards, but we have swingers at various distances and shoot from various positions. PRACTICE makes a HUGE difference.

[44man]

Yes, practice but the right practice.
Put only enough powder in the pan to reach he bottom of the flash hole so fire goes right in the hole without the powder having to burn down to it. That will speed it up so you will not shake so far off. he flint hitting the frizzen can jar the rifle quite a bit.
Nothing but nothing can move all through the firing. You must hold the sights on until recoil moves you off.
I used to build my own long rifles and shot competition, brought home many, many bags of groceries. I have way over 200 deer kills with them out to over 100 yards, off hand.
I believe it is why I can shoot about any other gun because once you control a flinter, you can shoot anything.
All of mine fire faster then a percussion because when made and tuned right, the very first spark will fire the gun before the flint moves down the frizzen.
It will take nerves of steel to ignore the flash. [smilie=l:
The biggest problem will be finding good flint. REAL knapped flint not those stupid cut rocks.
I used to hunt PA in January, driving from Cleveland. Two fellas drove up needing help. They had just bought some Italian flinters and they would not fire. They never shot them at home. I could do nothing because the frizzens were dead soft, might have been lead for all I know.
Now the kicker---They drove to PA from Michigan! :bigsmyl2:

[Geraldo]

If you aren't already, wear some sort of eye protection. Your brain will feel better about your eyeball being in proximity to that small explosion if you're protected.

Next, shoot off a bench with sandbags or other rock solid rest. This makes it harder for you to move and screw up your shot. When you can fire and know where your sights were while shooting from the bench and make small groups, start offhand practice.

[Alan]

# 1 get good flints
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=270.0

# 2 Practice
Rubber eraser in the cock jaws, or 1/2 a clothespin

# 3 Practice with pan priming ONLY, in garage.

# 4 Keep the flints sharp. If you rub your thumb across the flint (CAREFULLY) and it doesn't feel sharp enough to cut you, it needs knapping.

# 5 Check out the flintlock forums over on: http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com

# 6 There are no cures for rockphilia, only ....treatments

[Hardcast416taylor]

44Man. Isn`t that a coincidence! We have the same thing happen up here with people from O-HI-O?Robert

[MBTcustom]

Well, I have real flint, real 2F holy black, and I have practiced enough to use up a whole flint in the garage. I think if I get this down it will make me a better rifleman, but its gonna take some time. It just bugs me cause this rifle is kicking my but and making me flinch and here I thought I was solid as a rock.

[Hanshi]

It's not uncommon for new shooters to flinch or even focus on the cock instead of the sights. It will take practice, sure, but even more important is focusing your concentration on the sights and ignoring the flash. I'm fortunate in that the flash never bothered me at all from day one. Eye protection is always advisable when firing any gun.

[mooman76]

If you have any bad shooting habits BP only magnifies it and flint even more. I believe it helped me become a better shooter because I found I had to concentrate more.

[KCSO]

If you have a poof and then a bang you don't have a very good lock or you need help loading it. A GOOD flinter is about as fast as a percussion gun and nearly as reliable. What you need to do is concentrate on the sights and hold steady. I watched a buddy of mine hit a 6" square steel plate at 100 yards after a 1 second hang fire. You hold n target till the shot goes off.

[nicholst55]

French amber flints (http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/TableList.aspx?catID=2&subID=29&styleID=1268) are supposed to be THE BEST.

English flints (http://www.trackofthewolf.com/categories/tablelist.aspx?catid=2&subid=29&styleid=83&as=1) are the next best.

A flintlock is all I hunt with any more; using a modern rifle is just deer shooting, IMHO.

[DIRT Farmer]

When people ask if the pan flash bothers me, I ask what pan flash. Concentrate on the target and follow through. Easy for me to say, the first game I shot with a flinter was a squrriel in 1969. Keep at it, you will get there. Then when you get ask why you hunt with a flinter, you can use thesmart adze answer, because I can.

[waksupi]

If every kid had a flinter for his first rifle, they would be much better shots. They can be a hard master when you are learning them.

[John Taylor]

The last flinter I had got turned into a mule ear. I was trying it out at about 35 yards and could not keep it on a paper plate. Just starting to pull the ram rod out after loading and a big tom walked out of the brush about 15 yards from me. I thought to myself saying "self, a head shot is impossible and a body shot with a 50 will not look good". I shot it down range somewhere and went strait to the shop to start working on a mule ear lock for it.
At that time and at that range I could put all the shots in one hole with my cap gun.

[Tatume]

French amber flints are supposed to be THE BEST.

English flints are the next best.

French amber flints are harder than black English flints. Whether that makes them "better" is a judgement to be made by the rifle owner. The French flints will often (but not always) make more sparks. They will also usually (but not always) wear out a frizzen faster.

Personally, having tried both, I like the black English flints made by Tom Fuller. They are very well shaped and very unifom. When I order 7/8" flints I can be sure they will be 7/8" wide and 1" long, with a substantial flat on top.

I also like to make my own rifle flints. Using American flint nodules, my home-knapped flints are not as nicely shaped as "store-boughten" flints, but they do work. American flint does not spark as well as either English or French flint. Nor am I capable of producing such a nicely shaped flint as the ones I buy. But, it's still fun to use my home made flints.

Take care, Tom

[mainiac]

A buddy of mine offered to sell me a Traditions flintlock with a synthetic stock for $50. I thought about it for about 23 hours and decided I just have to try this cap/primer free way of shooting. Well, I spent a good amount of time working on getting the pan to flash consistently. No charge or projectile, just prime the pan and see if I can get it to flash every time. I learned some stuff about flint knapping and how to grind up 2F into 5F with a spoon and a marble surface, invested in a priming flask, possibles bag, extra flints, etc. etc.
I finally decided I was ready to stretch the barrel this last weekend. I loaded up with 50gr of 2F under a patched round ball, primed the pan, shouldered the rifle, and BADOOOM!!! Who'd have believed it, it actually shot! Now all I need to do is see how close it is to zero. I loaded up again and aimed at a soup can on a stick, my brother was standing by observing. I aimed and squeezed the trigger, the rifle fired and I asked him where I hit. He told me that I was about 3ft high of the can.....which was only 30 yards away. Hmmm, well I loaded up again, and fired again but this time I hit the dirt in front of the can. this went on for the next five shots and honestly I was lucky to hit the berm at 30 yards. The truth is that it had nothing to do with the rifle. That puff of spoke in my face obscures the target for a split second and I cant seem to keep the rifle pointed in one spot long enough to make a clean shot. I flinch like a horse whipped Chihuahua! I never have had so much trouble with a rifle before! I just cant seem to get control of myself. It is realy tough to get skunked by 200 year old technology.
Has anybody else had this problem? How do you fix it/train yourself out of it?

Stick with it,and dont get discuraged.I started shooting flint guns a few years ago,and had the same struggles.Made me some mad,that i shot so poorly,knowing that i am a fairly good shooter.

After a while,it all came together for me,think it will for you as well.Just keep the top of the front site glued to your aiming point,and focus on that only,learn to hold it there,,youll do fine.

I ended up enjoying the flinter so much,that i had 4 of them built,in the last couple of years.

[MBTcustom]

I ended up enjoying the flinter so much,that i had 4 of them built,in the last couple of years.
Sweet! Yeah I need to get back out there. It stinks that my informal range was shut down :cry: Now I have to listen to the range-master tell me how to shoot.

[TCLouis]

I bought a flinter some years ago to teach me better follow through and after a month of shooting it, I put it back to be cared for, but not shot.

It taught me to flinch like it was a 500 whoopingbangmagnum.

[daschnoz]

I have the same problem. It's not called a flinch lock for nothing :-P

Don't even think about the small, uncontained explosion that is inches from your face. Concentrate on the sights and your target, and press the trigger slowly. You should be surprised by the recoil when it hits your shoulder. If you remember hearing the flint hit the frizzen, you're not concentrating on the sights and target - you're doing it wrong. :kidding:

Also, don't fill your priming pan. 1/2 way will usually get the job done. Before you fire, tip the gun to the lock side. The priming powder will settle to the outside of the pan. When the priming powder goes, it will flash into the touch hole rather than burn through it (like a fuse). This should shorten your lock time.

[MBTcustom]

Thanks for the tips. I need to get back in the saddle and figger it out.