32 or 36 flintlock rifle

[peep sight]

Thanks for all the input fellow smoke pole shooters. I think i am going to go with the 36 cal. I have recently put a 36 cal. Rice barrel in a rifle for my son. I originally built this rifle in 1974 for my brother using an original old 40 cal. barrel that wasn't in good shape that he wanted me to use. I built it on a Bedford percussion design and it was the first muzzle loader I built. He gave it back to me a couple of years before he passed and I gave it to my son. My son wanted me to convert it to a flintlock and 36 cal. which i did and liked how it shot and thought of making or buying a small caliber for myself. Looks like with the availability on the market i will probably have to make one. Thanks to all you that are keeping the muzzleloader hobby alive.

[Shawlerbrook]

Beautiful work Pietro

[Hanshi]

I have both a .32 and a .36 and they are the SMR style flintlock longrifles. I first had a .32 percussion many years ago and loved it. I hunted squirrels and shot the little rifle a lot. I eventually sold it and bought a .36 flint longrifle. After that I did replace my .32 with a flintlock .32. So while I've hunted more with the .32 I find the .36 more useful. Both shoot very well with 30 grains of 3F but going down to 15 or 20 grains of powder is still very accurate, economical and makes better squirrel rifles as the lower velocities won't tear small game up.

I never wipe the bore between shots and rarely wipe the bore at all until I'm finished shooting and get ready to go home and clean the rifles. Liquid patch lubes make seating prb much easier than paste or grease type lubes. I load tight loads when I shoot. Though quite snug I rarely have a problem seating a prb. This is because it takes around 50 to 100 shots (+ or -) to "smooth" the bore just a bit. The main thing I do is when I get a new rifle I get some sandpaper and using my fingers/thumb I polish the sharp crown at the muzzle so the prb have a smooth, gradual surface to ease their entry into the muzzle. The job is easy and shouldn't take over 30 to 45 minutes. Currently I shoot a .350" ball in the .36 and a .311" ball in the .32. because those are the size of the ball molds I own.

As for patches, starting with pillow (.015") or mattress (.017") ticking (all cotton) is common. Get a caliper, take it with you to the cloth shop and measure the ticking yourself. Another good patch material is the various types of cotton/pocket drill. It's a little thicker and is strong. My favorite is heavy canvas (.024") which I use in all but a couple of rifles. It loads fairly tight but again I can seat it with the wood under barrel rod. Any load that won't seat with the wood rod is useless IMO. My favorite hunting lube was TOW mink oil but they no longer carry it. So I do all my shooting with Hoppes #9 BP Lube & Bore cleaner. You probably shouldn't leave a gun loaded with Hoppes lube like you could do with mink oil. If I didn't get a shot I'd always just leave the rifle loaded until next time, knowing rust won't form with mink oil in the bore. But Hoppes is a liquid and it's best to play it safe. Of course any gun that's been fired regardless of the lube used should be thoroughly cleaned the same day.
.36 SMR

.32 SMR