Great, Sawbones! Now you can really get down to business! And if you could grind up all this jabbery advice and feed it in to your pan, it would be way overloaded again!

Dick

Good going sawbones, could you post the pics?

White finger mentioned picking the touch hole.I always try to do this, if I don't forget. It reassures me that I have the ball on the powder. You can feel the compressed powder with the pick. On at least two occasions I was talking at the range and only short started the ball. When I picked the touch hole, I felt the loose powder. Ever so slyly I took the ramrod and seated the ball. Thanked the good lord for watching over this windy fool.
This is my final safety check before priming.

Shadow Lurker

I would like to post them, but they say they are to large.
I try to pick the vent every time too. It sure is a good thing that you do that, someone was looking out for you!
if I can figure out how to get the pictures on here I will do that. Thanks, Chuck

As most of you know, when you pick the vent, you can feel the powder, and it feels like sand. All is well.

Last year while hunting, it was foggy and then rained part of the day. I was keeping track of my prime and during the afternoon, picked the vent for the ??? time. Anyway, it felt like cooked cream of wheat, not good.

I removed the prime and reprimed the rifle, aimed at a tree, and pulled the trigger; clack, pooff, sssssssssssssss, boom. Wow! I missed the tree too. Load fast and aim slow.

OK pardner, now you know the lock will work as you want it, the time has come to figure out if your lock will do that under less than "range conditions". In the woods, with a blank load in the rifle, fill your pan, close the frizzen, and walk around a bit. Open the frizzen and see if the prime has moved up against the touch hole. If unsure, test fire the blank and see if the detonation is correct. If the prime has drifted against the hole, the hole may be too low, or perhaps the pan itself could use some deepening. You can't be checking the pan, tapping the stock to get the pile of prime centered when hunting deer - they will hear and not keep still for it.

LD

Loyalist Dave; If you were refering to me, I know the lock works fine. The powder had gotten damp, felt like cooked cream of wheat, and took so long to sssssssssssss sizzle and cook off.

The following weekend I carried the rifle all day and met up with a friend on the way out of the woods. I let my friend shoot the rifle since he hadn't seen it and I wanted it unloaded that night anyway. I primed the pan and handed him the rifle. He took aim and boom, all was well. Dry too. Load fast and aim slow.

Now you guys got me scared i was going to get a rock shooter a bess that i have my eye on.now i'm not sure i want one if there is that much trouble to get one to go off when you want it to.Iwill admit i do not any thing about these gorgus looking guns but i want one just the same been saveing for two years for one.but all this kind a talk makes me wounder if its right for me or not.Dick sure wish you still here in GraniteFalls ta help a feller out so far every one i talk to shoots a cap lock or a in-line so there no help.mybe you might know someone around hear that shoots arocklock, any help would be great.???

Coonhatter,
Puuleeeeze, don't let these guys talk you out of getting a flinter. They are talking the finest points of priming. The basics for a good fast flinter is to get one with a quality lock and then put a quality sharp as a knife flint in it, and then use real 4fg Goex in the pan. It will work. Then you, too, can play with it to get it to light as fast as possible and hold your own with any of the pundits here.
Okay? Ya' hear now? Go Get one!
volatpluvia

Coonhatter,
Buy your flintlock,I bought my first one 7 years ago and never looked back.After I bought my fowler I quit hunting with anything but flintlocks and longbows.There are lots of very experienced shooters here at the fire to help you with any problem.Mike Nesbitt's articles in Muzzleloader are great for good shooting advice.
peavine

Coonhatter,
I agree with Volat and peavine. In my opinion, you see more mis-fires at a rendezvous or shoot with a percussion shooter who didn't take care of his gun than you do with flinters. That's probably not scientifically valid, of course, and I've had my share of flashes in the pan or no flash at all. All that being said, if I step to the line having done what I need to do, there is a more direct line between the flash in the pan to the charge in the barrel than there is between barrel, patent breech, and percussion cap.
You check once in a while to make sure the cock is holding the flint tightly, you make sure your flint has spark, you pick the flash hole, you don't overload the pan (but you've got lots of leeway on that).
Of course, out hunting you don't have to stop and check these things right before taking a shot--but you do it all when you're loading for the hunt, and if you've been wandering around for a while, you check once in a while. If you have done your job, it all works great!
One reason we probably all like flints is that historically they cover a much longer period. There were a few flintlocks being used initially by Confederate forces in the Civil War, and Canadian natives were still requesting parts at least for their NW flinters into the 1880s, but percussion systems were not in common use until the 1830s or even later in some parts. By the 1870s they were obsolete. Flints go from the 1600s up through the Civil War in some parts of the continent (given that gun styles did of course change).
Just my 2 cents.

Dick

Dick & all: Keep in mind that NW trade guns weren't available as cap guns till 1860.

There is a flintlock NW trade gun dated 1878 in the Wrangell Museum, Wrangell, Alaska. It has a brideled frizzon too. Load fast and aim slow

coonhatter, don't be scared one bit. A flintlock is well worth a little bit more learning. If your new to blackpowder, that learning curve will be greater than the flint learning curve. Had a flinter for 25 years before I bought my first and only percussion rifle. Shot it a few times, took it out for deer three or four times. Mostly sits now, just not as much fun as a flinter. I got tired of putting caps on and sometimes having to pry them off to reload. Also if you get a percussed gun's charge wet while hunting, you will have a devil of a time getting the gun to fire. Flintlocks are a lot easier in this case.
Go flintlock and never look back.

Shadow Lurker

Coonhatter If you can make it to Rush City that,s 60 mil. strate up I35 hedding North from The Twin Citys.we can shoot flinters all day long.Send me a email and I'll get you phone# and better directions,hans13@youbetnet.com :Roaddog

NOPE I was replying to Shadow Lurker's report he got the gun to shoot right, with a small amount in the bottom of the pan, and I suggested he shoot it some more to see how it worked under woods conditions.

LD

Hey Coonhatter, GO FLINT! I'm new to this also and have only been shooting flintlocks less than a year. They are the funnest guns to shoot, and like Volatpluvia said, use a sharp flint and good 4f, and it will work. I'm still in awe every time I shoot mine. I can't explain it, except that I am hooked for life.

Sawbones; it does that to you. I've put all my cappers away and only use flint at mountain doings. This includes rifle, pistol, & trade gun, all flinters.

I can shoot better scores with the cap pistol because it has a better trigger pull, longer barrel, and fatter sights for my aging eyes but I stil put them aside. I accept lower scores knowing I'm using flitlocks though I'm just as deadly with my flint rifle as I am any cape rifle I oun. the pistol is the real challenge. I just won't ever measure up to the challenge unless I use the flint pistol over and over till those scores change.
Load fast and aim slow.

Coonhatter; just over a year ago these guys around the fire talked me into getting a flinter, even people in our club warned me against it, but just like sawbones I got bit by the bug and now I'm thinking of every excuse in the world to tell my wife why I need to go to the store or anywhere else for several hours...with Marylou, an always comeback smellin like sulfer! You'll get hooked just like the rest of us.

Track sells a flinter priming valve that throws ONE grain. Much better.

Less priming, keep it away from the touch hole. And all those other tricks these guys said.

Kinda like when I was first learning to build wooden boats. One of the geezers said that boat building is just a million simple tricks that it takes a lifetime to learn.

Same applies to this hobby. That's why we do it, innit.

Kermit,
Thanks for the lead on the one-grain primer.
Sparks

So, Sparks, how'd it go today?

Dick