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Thread: African Trade Flintlock Range Report

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub
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    African Trade Flintlock Range Report

    So, now I get to range report a century old gun. Why? Because I had no luck finding this info before, so now it'll be here for anyone who's looking. Plus its a beasty gun and fun.

    So starting off. This is an African trade flintlock. Belgium proofed and made. Probably about 100 years old, so fairly recent as far as flintlocks go. The round balls I used were cast from a Do-It fishing sinkers mould and besides the "2.5" molded into the side are actually quite good. They cast at 0.900" and weigh 1050 grs on average. I used 150grs of Goex FF and a t-shirt for a patch. This was a tight fit and I needed to swab after each shot. Recoil wasn't too bad. 3" slugs like, but more pushy than snappy. I think I can safely up the load to 200grs. I tried to recover the balls, but they went over a foot into the sand bank and vanished.




    Recoil was "mild". As in mildy pushy




    Accuracy at 25yds was good. Honestly it was all my fault. The gun CAN do better. The big hole is a 1600gr conical I tried. it flew through sideways...



    Here is a link to the video of it firing... https://youtu.be/NTrJ6HyXZ8Y

    Also, big shout out to Benchmade... I beat the living daylights out of that knife today. I knapped flint with the handle, cut leather and patches, and used it as a shovel trying to recover shot balls. Still feels like new

    Last edited by floridaheat; 09-27-2015 at 04:32 PM.

  2. #2
    Boolit Bub
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    Thanks. I would never try this myself. I cant stand that kind of recoil anymore.!!! My neck hurts from the backlash..

  3. #3
    Boolit Bub
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    Nice photos! Good story!

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    idahoron's Avatar
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    Cool gun!

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    Thumbs up

    Thanks for sharing and for the excellent report! Yes, I'd say plenty accurate as a bonus. I knew it'd be fun to shoot!

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Floridaheat after watching the video several times I have a question. About the 40 sec. area of the video I saw you ram the ball down then raise the arm up and check the frizzen to make sure it was all the way down and then fire. You didn't prime? Or are you loading after priming? Or is the touch hole large enough to allow the gun to self-prime? Or did the gun fire without prime? Audie...the curious Oldfart..

  7. #7
    Boolit Master


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    Cool family tor of 100, that's is a great old gal and good for you getting her back in fighting trim

  8. #8
    Boolit Bub
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    Oldfart....

    I think I just saw some crud residue left on the frizzen and flint. I prime before I load.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master



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    Noticed that too. Not a safe practice. Any range officer worth his salt would hot be happy.
    Being human is not for sissies.

  10. #10
    Boolit Bub
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    Old habit, but thanks for the advice. Some things you don't notice until they are pointed out
    Last edited by floridaheat; 09-27-2015 at 10:14 PM.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy heelerau's Avatar
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    Mate, I wonder if it was one of those guns advertised in the Stoeger, and Shooters Bible way back in the 1950's and 60's? You can get good accuracy out of a smooth bore with a tight fitting patched ball. I used to shoot rabbits out to 40 yards with an old Pat 1842 percussion smooth bore when I was a kid. Have fun, looks like a well made gun.

    Cheers

    Heelerau
    Keep yor hoss well shod an' yo powda dry !

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by floridaheat View Post


    Accuracy at 25yds was good. Honestly it was all my fault. The gun CAN do better. The big hole is a 1600gr conical I tried. it flew through sideways...



    I thought it would, when you suggested its use in another thread. But the performance with round ball doesn't surprise me. Whatever the manufacturers say, they haven't done a lot better with slugs than a round ball will deliver at fairly close ranges.

    You might extend that range a bit with a slug closely matching the bore diameter, and closer in form to the common Forster shotgun slug. I would have one sized to a little under bore diameter, to be paper patched, or covered with electrical heat-shrink tubing, to avoid leading the bore. The latter isn't consistent enough in thickness for a rifled gun, but a smoothbore can tolerate the bullet's centre of mass being a bit off the centre-line.


    You won't be able to buy a mould like that off the peg, and it would probably be expensive if you could. But if you could get someone to ream a smooth hole in a steel block, and make a concave and convex punch, you could swage that ball into a slug in a large engineer's vice.

    The gun looks better quality than many African trade guns, and far better preserved than most. They were made as flintlocks right up to 1939, and while we can only guess at its history, I can't imagine the German occupying forces doing much besides locking the storeroom door for five years.

  13. #13
    Boolit Bub
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    I thought it might be a stoeger too, but I am not sure.

  14. #14
    Moderator Emeritus / Trusted loob groove dealer

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    Priming before loading can lead to meetings with Mr. Darwin.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    Dangerous practices on a public range should result in the perpetrator going somewhere Mr. Darwin isn't. I always reckoned he and the Apostles are getting on just fine up there, and marveling at the way their groupies go for each other's jugulars.

    The only reason that loading after priming isn't among the most murderous of practices is that anything really likely to cause a negligent discharge that way is fairly likely to cause one anyway. Most flash-holes can emit a few grains into the pan, and it used to be the practice of French skirmishers to deliberately provoke this for speed of fire, by striking the butt on the ground before ramming. What keeps you really safe is to load at half cock and with the frizzen open, and if you plan on a lot of shooting from the same place, avoid letting any sizeable quantity of powder grains build up around your feet or other people's.

  16. #16
    Boolit Bub
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    Yes it is a practice I need to fix (I was not taught well) and yes I loaded at half cock.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    floridaheat,
    Just like digging around for the pic of the target I posted, I had to dig around in a few reference books for some info you asked about reference your big smoothbore. You can do the dram and gram conversions- they are easy.

    Standard British service load for 6 gauge blackpowder- 179 gr (6 17/32 drams), 1025 gr ball or 2 11/32 oz shot.

    I don't know if the Belgium proof charge for your smoothbore was using shotgun protocol or something different…. but here it is anyway FYI. Belgium blackpowder proof load for 6 1/4 gauge (23mm) blackpowder shotgun- 43 grams blackpowder, 64 gram ball.

    I also found an ad by the Stoeger Arms Co (importer) from the late 1960s to mid 70s. "Elephant Flintlock Gun Model 6494, 4 gauge, walnut stock, 2 bands, 9 3/4 lbs, 34" bbl." The drawing shows an armpit support extension on the lower part of the butt plate. The only sight shown on the diagram is a small front sight as part of the front band. The bore diameter of a 4 gauge (4 bore) @ 1.05" is a bit larger than your 6 1/4 bore (23 mm) gun. So I don't know if yours is a Stoeger import or not. There is some possibility that it is the 4 bore Stoeger because it states in the ad to expect some variations to the specs as listed. The only other large smoothbore the Stoeger ad shows is a 3 band 14 gauge flintlock with a 36" bbl.
    Last edited by fouronesix; 09-29-2015 at 01:14 PM.

  18. #18
    Boolit Bub
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    Fouronesix, thanks for the great info! 43 grams is a bit over 600 grs, so scale back by a factor of 3, puts me at about 200. It thumps hard as is though

  19. #19
    Boolit Master

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    Kewl!

    Those round balls didn't vanish in the sand bank.
    Did you try looking for an exit hole?
    ..

  20. #20
    Boolit Bub
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    No exit holes, but the entry holes looked like snake burrows they were so large. Over an inch wide!

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
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GC Gas Check