Pennslyvania flintlock fun today

R

Road_Clam

New member
The air is cool, the humidity is low, and got the itch to break out the Penn flinter. My first flintlock so i'm in a learning curve but today was my best and most consistent outing. fired about 25 shots and had 2 misfires. Seems if I rush the loading process and skip "thumping" the rifle at the buttstock with my hand to help get some powder kernels into the patent breech this is when I run the risk of a misfire. Been shooting at 50 yds off a bag as the 33" bbl Penn is quite muzzle heavy and I first need to learn consistent ignitions, then i'll attempt traditional offhand shooting. Getting better and really starting to fully enjoy flintlock muzzleloading.
 
You will probably get faster ignition if you don't leave powder strung out between the pan and flash hole. The flash of the powder in the pan will be much more efficient than letting the powder fuse it's way to the hole. You are probably doing this already....just a thought.
 
We had a lot of trouble with a borrowed flintlock in the muzzle loading class with. It fired for the first student and then refused to fire again. I cleaned the pan, the frizzen and wiped down the agate. Then I adjusted the agate and tightened down the jaws so it wouldn't slip. It took some effort before it fired. The agate just won't spark like real flint.
 
4V50 Gary said:
We had a lot of trouble with a borrowed flintlock in the muzzle loading class with. It fired for the first student and then refused to fire again. I cleaned the pan, the frizzen and wiped down the agate. Then I adjusted the agate and tightened down the jaws so it wouldn't slip. It took some effort before it fired. The agate just won't spark like real flint.
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The Traditions Pennslyvania flintlock is a very fussy rifle to get to ignite consistiantly. It's uses an odd "patent breech" (or also known as a Chambered breech) Which means the touch hole does not feed directly into the barrel breech like most designs. My touch hole feeds a small undersized passageway to the main barrel breech. It's very critical to make sure some powder feeds down into the small passageway to ensure a good ignition. I too had a ton of misfires when I first got my Traditions flinter. I was schooled over at Traditional Muzzleloaders to first add your main charge, then thump the buttstock off the ground a few times to shake some powder down into the passageway. Next I add a very small amount of priming powder in the pan, roll the rifle to the left and again thump the stock to allow some charging powder to enter the vent hole. This method has proved to be 100% reliable and about guarantees me a perfect ignition. Skip any of these steps and I have problems. Here's a pic of the various breech designs :

 
Thanks Road_Claim. I was unaware that the Traditions Pennsylvania rifle used Henry Nock's patent breech.

My classmate and I found out the Browning Mountain gun uses something like it or the Chambered Breech. His gun stopped worked and he couldn't scrub it out (duh). We were both unaware of its smaller chamber.
 
Almost all Italian repops use a patent’s breech or chambered’s breech, and for good reason. It allows for a more consistent gas expansion and ignition rate for ideal pressures and accuracy.
 
Road_Clam said:
It's very critical to make sure some powder feeds down into the small passageway to ensure a good ignition. I too had a ton of misfires when I first got my Traditions flinter. I was schooled over at Traditional Muzzleloaders to first add your main charge, then thump the buttstock off the ground a few times to shake some powder down into the passageway.
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I also follow similar procedure with [Traditions] percussion sidelocks to prevent misfires and a good reason to use 3F or P powder.
Mostly just by turning the gun with the drum facing downward and knock on the stock a few times.
To knock on wood really works! :)
 
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