Great Plains Hunter flintlock

[GL49]

Anybody own a Great Plains flintlock with a "Hunter' barrel, 1 in 32 twist? I just bought my first flintlock, a Great Plains 54 caliber with the "rifle" barrel, 1 in 60 twist. I'm new to flintlocks, this is my first, but own 6 percussion muzzleloaders. Let the learning begin. Any reason I shouldn't pursue finding a 1 in 32 twist barrel for my rifle? My percussion Great Plains Hunter does pretty good, any reason why a flintlock would be any different?

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello GL49,

I tried going from .50 TC Hawken Percussion to a .32 Pedersoli Pennsylvania Flint, you talk about differences.
Wasn't long before I purchased a percussion lock, removed the flash hole bushing, and installed a drum & nipple.
Never looked back, I really enjoy shooting that little 42" Pennsylvania.

AntiqueSledMan.

[GL49]

Well, I'm gonna give it a try. Maybe I'll end up with two percussion Great Plains.
At least the price was right on the flintlock.

[trebor44]

The GPR can be converted to a flinter with a barrel and lock swap.

[pietro]

.

My $0.02: I would leave well enough alone...…..

The 1:60" twist is perfect for a PRB (patched round ball), and in .54cal will (and has) take down any N.A. big game animal.

My A&H Mountain Rifle flinter exhibits virtually instant ignition with the pan less than half full of prime - much faster than any of my capguns, and almost as fast as my metallic cartridge rifles.

Your rocklock may need some work to get a fast lock time & a good spark.

.

[Nobade]

Flintlocks and bullets don't play together very well. The extra pressure eats up percussion nipples fast, and does the same thing to vent liners. I'd keep it as a ball gun and learn the subtleties of flintlock shooting.

[charlie b]

My GPH percussion is very accurate with paper patched and greased bullets up to about 450gn. 80-100gn of powder means a lot of pressure. Even the AMPCO nipples wear out quickly. I can't imagine how few shots it would take to open up a vent liner.

[Edward]

My GPH percussion is very accurate with paper patched and greased bullets up to about 450gn. 80-100gn of powder means a lot of pressure. Even the AMPCO nipples wear out quickly. I can't imagine how few shots it would take to open up a vent liner.

Not to beat a dead horse but a Magspark 209 conversion does not get the erosion a nipple does ,one of the many reasons my guns all use them ! Enclosed there is no blow back in a closed system ,my long range TC renegade going on 4 yrs 80 gr OE 1 1/2F /2F and 3f under a BACO PP .443 Elliptical 530 gr with the same conversion and the 2nd or third upper (I loose them) . Just got another 2000 CCI primers to replace the last 2000 ,300 left but you get the point !Ed

[arcticap]

Anybody own a Great Plains flintlock with a "Hunter' barrel, 1 in 32 twist? I just bought my first flintlock, a Great Plains 54 caliber with the "rifle" barrel, 1 in 60 twist. I'm new to flintlocks, this is my first, but own 6 percussion muzzleloaders. Let the learning begin. Any reason I shouldn't pursue finding a 1 in 32 twist barrel for my rifle? My percussion Great Plains Hunter does pretty good, any reason why a flintlock would be any different?

I don't think that it would be much different.
A poster from PA wrote:

"try the 240 gr. hornady pa conical. i have four flinters, with varied barrel lengths and from a 1:28 twist to a 1:66 twist. all shoot the bullet very well." --->>> https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/whats-best-to-shoot-out-of-a-flintlock.56492/

You're not specifying which caliber barrel that you want, but the fact that he's referring to a .50 barrel shouldn't make a difference either.
A conical should deliver a little more energy down range over a round ball.
A replacement White Lightning vent liner costs $6.00. --->>> https://logcabinshop.com/oc30/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=24450
How fast will it wear out, after 200 - 400 shots or more?
In addition, some folks can load sub. powders as the main charge in their flintlocks using as small as only a 5 grain booster charge in the breech, along with BP in the pan.
Or a person can load a duplex main charge consisting of any percentage of a sub. along with BP in their flinter that they find works the best.
Some subs. such as 777 can work well enough in a flinter to deliver even more velocity than BP.
Using a flinter shouldn't prevent anyone from loading conicals if that's their preference.

[GL49]

I've got a muzzleloader elk tag, I was hoping to use the Flintlock if it's not pouring down rain. I've never owned one, never shot one, I've only used my Hawken 50cal and GP rifle on prior elk hunts, both percussion. Now I've got seven muzzleloaders, the flintlock is the latest. Not that I needed it.... but....we all know the difference between needs and wants.
Both of my GP, the new flintlock and the percussion are 54cal, the percussion has both the "Rifle" barrel and the "Hunter" barrel.
I've always thought the conical would give me a little more oomph on a large animal like an elk, but my brother has taken five with his 50cal Hawken shooting round balls. That's the only thing he shoots, won't even try my conicals. I've got a peep sight that works pretty good with my old eyes, I think I'll get another for the flintlock. As soon as we get some rain here in Southern Oregon I'm going to take it out, until then it's just too doggone dry to shoot my muzzleloaders.

[charlie b]

Since my AMPCO nipples wear out in less than 50 rounds I suspect vent liners might go in 10 or 20, if that long.

And, yes, I have considered mag spark conversions. If I shot my Lyman more I'd probably go that route.

If you have a .54 with a round ball barrel I would stick with that. They can be wicked accurate at 100yd.

[arcticap]

Since my AMPCO nipples wear out in less than 50 rounds I suspect vent liners might go in 10 or 20, if that long.

And, yes, I have considered mag spark conversions. If I shot my Lyman more I'd probably go that route.

If you have a .54 with a round ball barrel I would stick with that. They can be wicked accurate at 100yd.

I guess that it could depend on the definition of being "worn out" and the estimate of premature vent liner wear may even be an exaggerated over-generalization.
Inlines shoot up to 150 grains of powder and their breech plug flash holes and vent liners can last over 400 shots.
Folks use a pin gauge to track the amount of flash hole enlargement.
10 - 20 rounds sounds like a very speculative estimate without any regard for the potential bullet weights one might chose to fire.
Especially considering that Traditions makes the PA .50 Flintlock with a fast twist barrel which is designed to shoot conicals and bullets with sabots.
Many of the same bullet weights can be fired in the .54 as with the .50 when sabots are used.

MMP makes .54 sabots in sizes that accept bullet diameters of:
.429 - .430
.451- .452
.457 - .458
.50

This means that a .54 can shoot a 240 grain bullet instead of a round ball that weighs 230 grains.
The reality is that vent liner wear would be negligible when shooting some conicals, virtually the same as when shooting round balls, which wouldn't wear out in 10 - 20 shots.
And bullets that weigh the same or less could also be used
Yet smaller caliber bullets could have a better sectional density than the .54 round ball for better penetration downrange.
For example, 270 grain solid copper HP bullets are being used to kill elk with pass through shots using a muzzle loader.
And in some states folks can't hunt using lead projectiles, so why not choose to hunt with a no-lead conical bullet?

[mooman76]

Just an educated guess but vent liner holes are considerably larger than nipples so I would think they would not wear out quite so quick.

[Good Cheer]

Anybody own a Great Plains flintlock with a "Hunter' barrel, 1 in 32 twist? I just bought my first flintlock, a Great Plains 54 caliber with the "rifle" barrel, 1 in 60 twist. I'm new to flintlocks, this is my first, but own 6 percussion muzzleloaders. Let the learning begin. Any reason I shouldn't pursue finding a 1 in 32 twist barrel for my rifle? My percussion Great Plains Hunter does pretty good, any reason why a flintlock would be any different?

Lyman didn't market the flinter in left hand or else I probably would have. So I have a flinter Renegade reworked to .520 bore to shoot various weights of off the shelf fifty rifle molds (Lee, Lyman & RCBS) paper patched and sized to .519 diameter. That was a better mouse trap any how because there are more choices in molds (and also stumbled upon a Lyman .515 round ball mold for a tight patch).
http://i.imgur.com/Zf1X86x.jpg (https://imgur.com/Zf1X86x)

[arcticap]

I noticed someone's .58 flinter which shoots a PRB that weighs 270 grains, and said that he loads with 110 grains of powder.
Maybe the pressure isn't as high as with a smaller caliber flinter but I can't imagine the flash hole wearing out very fast.