.451 cal flintlock

[ciphery]

So my father recently picked up a 45 cal flintlock with a 36" barrel and about a 1:35 twist barrel.
I'm trying to figure out weather its a round ball gun or a conical bullet gun.
Any ideas? Also what loads should we try in it?

[HARRYMPOPE]

conical gun.Lyman 457121 Whitworth bullet.

George

[Good Cheer]

Be fun to see how long of a bullet it will use.

[Boerrancher]

It is definitely a conical gun, but on the rare occasion with light to medium loads, some of them would shoot a PRB. I would at least try it, but I think the Whitworth boolit by Lyman that George recommended will be a good one. All of my MLs but one are 1/48 twist for the PRB but one and that is my inline. I got rid of my conical shooter years ago, because I was way to young and impatient to appreciate the virtue of working up a method and a load to make it shoot.

Best wishes,

Joe

[ciphery]

Isn't that a bit heavy? 475gr .457 seems a bit big for a 451 bore flintlock to me?!
The Greenhill formula tells me optimum length of bullet for this bore to be in the. 7/8 length bullet......whatever grain weight that happens to equate to.
Any ideas on how this length matches up to something?

[ciphery]

Okay I have some new information. It is a Kentuckian by Euro arms.......now I see that others have been using either a .429 or .433 patched round ball with about 70gr. FFFg BP. But I'm wondering if she will toss a .451 200ish gr. Colt 45 bullet that's been properly sized and lubbed and forgo the patch.

[mooman76]

You can load soft RBs without the patch. I read an article on it and have yet to try it for giggles. I hear tell they used to load BP guns that way before someone got the idea of a patch. Not the best accuracy was obtained. They just used a mallet to get it in. A Lee REAL might just work.

[looseprojectile]

made in Italy,model 5012, 45 caliber. A flinter just makes a man feel closer to the earth.
Just recently I bought this rifle from an ex brother in law. I traded it to him several decades [about forty years] ago for his dads octagon barrel Winchester 94. That was a good trade for me. Gave $160.00 for it and the powder horn and possibles bag and accouterments. Another good deal for me.
This is a really beautiful, slender friendly handling rifle rifle and I always regretted trading it off. I can see that the twist is relatively fast.
It sparks really well also. One of my friends told me of the day when with this rifle I outshot another guy that was shooting a model 70, 30 06, both offhand at a hundred yards.
I have a hollow base conical boolit [looks like a soup can] that is about eight tenths of an inch long and I will start with fifty grains of three F. I really prefer the patched round ball in flinters as it feels more traditional. If your gun is as pretty as mine you are going to cherish it. Why do grown men love guns so much?
Now if we could just get some decent weather. I have several new to me muzzel stuffers to shoot when it lightens up a little on the rain.


Life is good

[ciphery]

Mine came from a friend of my dads that recently passed. He used it as a decoration in his house! Only thing wrong with it is a coating of dust.
I have some questions for you about your Kentuckian.
What size and type of flint do you use?
Is the flash hole just a hole or does it have a removable liner?

I'd surely like to hear about your loads when you get them worked up.

This will be my first true muzzle loader. I've shot my fathers old dual ignition guns a few times but they are more like a break action inline percussion gun than a true muzzle loader.

I know what you mean about men and guns, my ex used to complain that I rubbed more oil into my gun stocks than her . LoL
Notice I said "my ex" LoL

[looseprojectile]

that I built this gun from a kit in the mid seventies. She remembers!!!!!!
I must have oiled her more than you did your ex, LOL.
Was around seventy or eighty dollars then. Memory fades.
The touch hole is .064" just a drilled hole. It is a little low and I will chamfer the top a little for better ignition reliability.
For a flint I am using a piece of a broken arrow head that I picked up from a creek bank and shaped it to work. It is a light gray flint. I have lots of agate to chip on. None came with the kit.
This gun seems to be of the quality of some of the better custom made guns that can be had today for big bucks. Oval patch box, all brass furniture. The lock is really good in all respects. Frizzen is good and hard.
The barrel has eight groove rifling and is a little dark in the grooves from neglect and poor cleaning in the past. It is thirteen sixteenths across the flats and
thirtyfive inches inside. Near as I can tell it has one turn in fortyfour inches.
You are going to like shooting your new gun. If you haven't already, you need a book on loading a flint gun. Some things are really important when loading them. Never shoot a load that the boolit is not firmly against the powder. For any reason.
Good luck and have fun. Few things are more joyfull than a really accurate muzzel stuffer.

Life is good

[DIRT Farmer]

Most of the suppliers such as track of the wolf, log cabin shop and stone wall outfitters amoung others sell flints if that is the only way you can go. for a rough idea of the size of flint you need, with the lock on half cock and the frizzen closed, mesure from the front of the cock screw to the frizzen in the angle the flint would appear to set. Subtract 1/8 th inch and the width will be basicly the width of the face of the frizzen.