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Making your flintlock ignition faster in 15 easy steps

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8 Comments
(5)
Posted on: 01/11/2014
 
IMG_9369 A fast lock - and a good shooter - is essential to shoot straight with a flintlock rifle.  Now here is a short collection about fine tuning your lock to make it as fast as possible. 1. Check the ergonomy of the lock: the sparks should fall directly into the center of the pan. You can play with the lenght of the flint adjust this position, but it's better choose a lock with good ergonomy. 2. Check your flint size: put the hammer in halfcock, close the frizzen. The edge of the flint should be cca. 1 mm from the steel. Check the width of the flint: it should not be bigger than the width of the steel. 3. Check the flint placement: wrap your flint into a piece of leather or lead sheet, and tighten the hammer screw. It should be tight in the jaws, without moving. 4. Bevel up or bevel down? Both can work. The longer way the flint travels on the steel the better your ignition will be. If the height is not good, place a piece of leather under or over the stone, to adjust height. 5. Check the spring tensions: the force of the main spring should be 3 times more than the force of the frizzen spring. If the frizzen spring is too strong the stone will break often and the frizzen will wear quickly. If you need some adjustment on the springs, take your lock to a qualified gunsmith. 6. Check the frizzen. Firzzens die. Each time you fire your flintlock the stone cuts off small metal particles from the surface. These small particles are the sparks. The frizzen surface is hardened with adding coal. If this surface vanishes, your frizzen will stop working. 7. Clean your frizzen. After each shot wipe off the residue of the priming powder. You can do it a wit a spit patch, but its better to do it with alcohol (but don't drink that while shooting please :) ). 8. Clean your stone. After each shot wipe off the residue from the stone as well. Preferably with the same cloth saturated with alcohol. 9. Place the priming powder well in your pan. Never fill the touch hole with powder. It will make your ignition secure, but the lock time will be slow. Experiment with how much space you need between the touch hole and the powder. It is different with every lock. 10. Take care for the right amount of priming powder. Too small amount will fail to ignite the main charge too much will make your ignition slow. 11. Use only the finest powder available for priming. I use OB for target shooting and 4Fg for hunting. I use 4Fg for hunting because the particles of the OB are so small, that they can pour out from the closed frizzen while stalking. The finer the powder the faster the ignition will be. 12. Sharpen your flint time to time. That's one very important task. If the flint is not sharp it will not be able to cut metal particles from the frizzen, therefore it will not spark. I'll write another post about flint sharpening later, so stay tuned! 13. Clean your touch hole after each shot. After you fired, put a pin in the touch hole and remove it only when you are to prime the lock for the next shot. 14. Change your flint often. Flints are not eternal. They die as well. If you had 70-100 good shots from a stone, you are fine. Start each competition with a new stone. I also use a new stone when I go hunting. But be careful: test the lock several time with the new stone. (without load of course). 15. When you clean the lock, never put oil on the frizzen or on the stone.
 
Tags : Blackpowder, Flintlock, Muzzleloading
Posted in: Blackpowder hunting, Blackpowder shooting, Muzzleloaders

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Comments

  • Vet63
    By: Vet63 On 23/01/2020
    Rating:
    5.0

    I have made a couple with a percussion nipple drum to replace the flint touch hole liner. Problem is, the drum must be fitted up very tightly and after it has been removed and replace it will not be tight enough to keep the nipple aligned. A better solution is a side slapper lock with a percussion nipple threading directly into the touch hole. No one currently is making a side slapper to replace common flintlocks.

  • entomologist
    By: Entomologist On 19/07/2018
    Rating:
    5.0

    What I want is a smoke pole that I can convert back and forth from cap to flint when I want. Each has its advantages in certain situations. Guess I've seen too much while serving overseas to not want every possible advantage.

  • Cut_to_the_chase
    By: Cut_to_the_chase On 31/07/2016
    Rating:
    5.0

    Rehardening a frizzen that is "eating" flints and not producing good sparks is very easy. First grind smooth all the nicks and gouges in the frizzen and then harden it using easily available hardening compound and a large and hot propane torch according to very simple directions. If you belong to a shooting club or group, there will probably be somebody there who knows how to do this if you don't want to try it yourself.
    If you have a well made frizzen that was deeply hardened to begin with, it will last many years unless you are a competitive shooter who shoots a lot. I have written an essay on flintlock shooting from an amateur's point of view at geojohn dot org that you might find entertaining if not useful.

  • richard
    By: Richard On 24/07/2016
    Rating:
    5.0

    You wrote that a good flint should last 70 to 100 shots, but how about a good frizzen? About how many shots should be expected from a good frizzen before it dies? Is replacing a frizzen something that the average shooter can do, or should it be done by a gunsmith?

  • Vet63
    By: Vet63 On 23/01/2020
    Rating:
    5.0

    I have made a couple with a percussion nipple drum to replace the flint touch hole liner. Problem is, the drum must be fitted up very tightly and after it has been removed and replace it will not be tight enough to keep the nipple aligned. A better solution is a side slapper lock with a percussion nipple threading directly into the touch hole. No one currently is making a side slapper to replace common flintlocks.

  • entomologist
    By: Entomologist On 19/07/2018
    Rating:
    5.0

    What I want is a smoke pole that I can convert back and forth from cap to flint when I want. Each has its advantages in certain situations. Guess I've seen too much while serving overseas to not want every possible advantage.

  • Cut_to_the_chase
    By: Cut_to_the_chase On 31/07/2016
    Rating:
    5.0

    Rehardening a frizzen that is "eating" flints and not producing good sparks is very easy. First grind smooth all the nicks and gouges in the frizzen and then harden it using easily available hardening compound and a large and hot propane torch according to very simple directions. If you belong to a shooting club or group, there will probably be somebody there who knows how to do this if you don't want to try it yourself.
    If you have a well made frizzen that was deeply hardened to begin with, it will last many years unless you are a competitive shooter who shoots a lot. I have written an essay on flintlock shooting from an amateur's point of view at geojohn dot org that you might find entertaining if not useful.

  • richard
    By: Richard On 24/07/2016
    Rating:
    5.0

    You wrote that a good flint should last 70 to 100 shots, but how about a good frizzen? About how many shots should be expected from a good frizzen before it dies? Is replacing a frizzen something that the average shooter can do, or should it be done by a gunsmith?

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