Well, deciided to go old school and try a flinter...

[tacklebury]

.75 Cal Brown Bess musket. I've heard some mixed reviews on these, but lately been mostly positive. Cannot wait to throw that 595 gr. Roundball downrange. ;)

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/489/1/AAH-842

[Huntsman]

You will definitely have some fun with that one. I too just picked up a flintlock, a .32 and love it.
Post some pics

[waksupi]

That big bore is going to give you a spanking, but you will love ever bit of it. Start shopping for a 20 bore now! You'll thank me later.

[Beerd]

Flinters are a hoot, that's for sure.
A smoothie just makes it more fun!
..

[Eljay]

The Bess is a lot of fun. They're actually quite reliable - that's a huge flint and pan. As long as you're using real black powder it should pretty much just run. If it doesn't light the pan, the frizzen needs to be replaced/hardened. If the pan lights but not the main charge the touchhole needs to be enlarged. That's about it...

[PTS]

Nice! Love Track of the Wolf, too.

[Stonecrusher]

You will love the big bore flinter. There is nothing like hearing the hiss of the big ball going down range and a good solid thwack when it hits!

[Mike Brooks]

Never considered flint "old school."

[tacklebury]

Really excited. It should be here Friday morning, so hopefully can get the touch hole liner installed and try her out! I am using Graf and Sons (Wano) right now. All my current guns are percussion side locks or shotgun 209 inline so far. Only thing I was a little worried about is all my stock of BP is FFFg and I think 1.5 Fg to 2 Fg is recommended for this large of a bore. ;)

[waksupi]

Try 65 grains of your 3FFF under a PRB. I would bet that will shoot fairly well. Actually, for .45 caliber and up, that load will almost universally work as a target load with most any common bore size.

[Ohio Rusty]

My Wife has aflint blunderbuss of about 80 caliber. 80 grains of powder with a patched .735 round ball ...that gun is a hoot to shoot.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[tacklebury]

Well, overall I'm thrilled with it. I shot about 11 rounds today and started at 60 gr FFFg and worked up in 5 gr. increments until it was hitting at poi at 30 yards. Finally hit at 90 gr. being most accurate and hit pretty even with sights. Whole lot of smoke and fun! The hammer spring seems a bit weak and I have played with the screw tightness to make sure it isn't just that, but thinking I may need a better mainspring. Sometimes, I had to cock it and re-try like 10 times before I got a good enough spark to ignite. Still working in though, so maybe it'll loosen up some. ;) Anyway was a lot of fun and I'm thinking I want to get about a .32 or .36 cal flinter too next. ;)

[fouronesix]

Good that you got it out for some exercise! They are a blast or in the case of the large bore- woooom. Contrary to what others have said, I've never noticed much nasty recoil from any of the Bess' models, including the India Patterns types. 80-90 gr seems to be where they are happy. Maybe with the lighter, smaller shotguns, fowlers or trade guns with heavy charges but not with these big models.

10 no-spark hits... may have to do with the sluggish lock or spring- I dunno? but something is not right with the lack of spark. Those big muskets are known for how much spark they produce or should produce. You'll just have to tinker with the flint to frizzen strike angle and condition of the flint itself to get consistent spark. Try different angles of setting the flint in the cock- good and snug wrapped with thin leather. Then keep the frizzen face and leading edge of the flint cleaned off. Some denatured alcohol on a rag works to clean those surfaces. That flint edge should come into the frizzen at an angle and make contact at least half way up the frizzen face. From that contact area you should see continuous scrape marks all the way down the frizzen face. You can dry fire flinters in an unloaded, unprimed gun in a darkened room to check for spark as you tinker with getting good spark. If still no spark, you might need to harden the frizzen face or try a different type of flint. Case hardening the frizzen is easy with something like kasenit and a propane torch. I think Track has good instructions for that. Good luck.

[KCSO]

Are the sporks white hot and dancing in the pan or red and gone? You may need to harden the frizzen. Stronger springs are not always the answer especially for the frizzen spring. You are looking for a balance between the springs and a good scrape down the frizzen rather than a hit and a bounce.

[tacklebury]

The hammer moves pretty slowly and the sparks are red and I'm lucky if I get 3-4 sparks. With a cross wind, it's a pure luck thing if it hits the powder. lol I did talk to track of the wolf today and they said the same thing about the springs. I'm going to disassemble the lock and get all the grease out of the inner workings and oil it and see what happens. Failing that, I have a link for a smith that specializes in these and may pay to have him tune it up. ;) It is such a kick though and no kick at all really. It kicks about equal to my .223 high power loads. ;)