Flinlock timing

[alsask]

Mustanger,

Investarms touch hole liners are very often a couple of threads too long. Unscrew your touch hole liner and look down the bore as you slowly screw the liner back in. You will probably see the liner start to protrude into the breach before it is flush with the outside of the barrel.

It is easy to file a thread or two off, whatever amount is required, to make the liner the right length.

Also some of the liners are not bored deep enough and the hole you see from the outside, the small one, is quite long before it gets to the counter bore on the inside of the liner. I use a drill bit from the inside of the liner, slightly smaller than the factory counterbore and deepen the hole so the powder is much closer to the outside touch hole leaving about a 3/32" web. I never drill the touch hole itself bigger.

Hope this makes sense. I cannot detect much, if any, delay with my rifles.

 

[ChrisHarris]

Unscrew the touch hole liner and clean out the breech. I had a Pedersoli Jaeger with a patent breeh (sorta) and it would get clogged after about 50 shots. I bought a .17 caliber bronze brush and also a .22 caliber. You can run those down from the muzzle and knock a lot of crud loose, but you can REALLY get it clean by taking the liner out and using a dental pick and cleaning solvent to remove all of it.

If you're lazy, use a can of gun cleaner with the long plastic tube extension and squirt it into the touch hole. That'll work for awhile, but eventually you'll need to get in there and give it a good scrub.

From what little I know about flint locks, you need to keep them clean if you want them to go off quick. The bottom of the flint gets covered in black gunk. Just spit on your finger and wipe it off.

Spit on your finger and wipe the frizzen and then dry it with a soft cloth after every shot. Wipe UNDER the frizzen where it closes on top of the pan. That gets full of gunk and then it won't sit flat on the pan.

Wipe your pan out with some more spit and a soft cloth after every shot.

Your flint needs to be sitting all the way back against the screw shaft. If it's not, it's going to move around. Having a flint pushed out forward to almost touch the frizzen - but NOT touching the screw in the back --- is not good combination for fast firing. Find out what size flint your gun needs so the front of the flint is just a fingernail away from the frizzen at half cock -- but ALSO touching the screw on the clamp. If the flint is not set against the screw, it's going to move around. Thats no good.

 

[mykeal]

Good advice, except for the half cock position. The relationship of the flint to the frizzen face at half cock with the frizzen down is of little importance as long as they're not touching; there could be a significant gap between them with no ill effects. What's important is the relationship when the flint strikes the frizzen after the trigger has been pulled - that geometry means a great deal.

 

[Ryden]

How do you determin that relationship? I'm about to reconvert a musket back to flint with newly made castings, so I have a bit of setup and timing work to do.

In my mind I see a lot of arcs, the ark that the edge of the flint travels, the arc made by the curvature of the frizzen, the arc made by the heel of the frizzen as it opens and the arc made by the frizzen spur(?) on the frizzen spring, the angle of the frizzen etc and I bet that all these arc and angles are related and that there is best solution for them.

Is it possible to calculate them in advance or is ist just trial and error?

 

[[email protected]]

This is about as good as it gets. Note where the flint strikes the frizzen
and where the edge of the flint is in the pan. This is on my pistol.

 

[mykeal]

The best answer is to purchase a Jim Chambers Deluxe Siler.

Lacking that, my description is to ensure the flint strikes the frizzen between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of the way up from the heel, with the flint edge making a 60 degree angle with the surface of the frizzen.

As for calculating the angles and arcs in advance, I don't see that as very productive because the strength of the springs will affect that as much as anything.

 

[Ryden]

I guess it's just the engineer in me that wants to do the numbers first...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Seriously, if my 10th grade geometry teacher had been able to explain that the subject works well in firearm mechanism applications and gun lock functioning..., instead of giving me NO practical applications to justify my learning (Yeah I was a prick of a student) then I'd a done waaay better in High School Math.

LD

 

[alsask]

Mustanger,

Lyman rifles are built buy Investarms so basicaly what applies to a Lyman applies to Investarm. The best flints are the cut agate flints that are sold for the Lyman.

 

[mykeal]

Boy, I gotta disagree with that. The cut agate that came with my GPR was terrible.

 

[[email protected]]

The worst flints on this planet are the cut agates. In 50 years of shooting
Flintlocks there is nothing I have not tried.

 

[hang fire]

LOL. Could not disagree with you more.

I go to rock shows and buy the thin cut Brazilian agate scrap for cheap, for five bucks can get over a hundred sparkers made. I have a diamond wet saw, cut pieces to shape and edge them, best sparkers I have found for my rocklocks. I just use a diamond hone to resharpen, have been doing it for many years.

 

[BCRider]

I've got some black cut rocks that came in a package from the local store. I'm going to assume that since they are a translucent black colour that they are agate.

They worked well for me at first. But during the recent two day shoot the one on my Lyman GPR crumbled badly at the edge and I had to replace it with a natural knapped flint donated by one of the other shooters.

 

[winterhorse290]

been shooting flintlocks for longer than i want to think about. cut/ machined "flints" are good, for about ten shots, maybe. can,t be knapped on the line, leave really bad ridges on the freezin and just don,t look natural. you can "sharpen" a knapped flint by just taping the edge with the back of a knife. so, to me, cut flints are just a way to part you from your money. want to have some fun? find a gravel road and play around with what you find. before long, you won,t be buying any of your flints. ounce you get the hang of it, it,s easy. may not look like store bought, but the price is right and you did it yourself.