Received my Traditions Pennsylvania flintlock rifle a week ago from Bass Pro. It is a pretty rifle if I do say so. With a 44" barrel it is a bit muzzle heavy and I wish the comb dropped a little more for comforts sake but seemed to be a good quality starter rifle out of the box.
Weather and work prevented me from shooting the thing until today and I suppose that was a good thing. For several reasons I tabled plans to do some action pistol shooting and went right to one of the 50 yard ranges at my local shooting club. As it happened there was another gentleman who was shooting a flintlock which is the reason I state that it was a good thing I was delayed and happened to shoot my new flintlock for the first time at that particular time and place.
As I was setting up he came over and complimented my rifle's looks and gave a once over of my equipment. Right away he said I would probably have trouble with the Pyrodex powder I had brought. I answered that I had not seen any true black powder on the shelves for purchase. He told my I needed to ask the clerk as they kept it in the back. He went back to shooting his rifle and I prepared to shoot mine.
Loaded up the shot with 55 gr of 2F and then primed the pan with 3F as there seemed to be no 4F available when I bought the rest of the stuff. Misfire. Waited a minute. Reprimed. Misfire. Other guy comes back and looks things over. He offers to prime my pan with some of his 4F. Of course I agree. This time it touches off but with a noticable delay in between the primer charge firing and the main charge firing. I reload and try to use the 3F again in the primer pan. This time it works but the delay between the primer charge and the main charge is even longer. The guy says that I should try using as little powder as possible in the pan since the more powder you shove in, the longer you are making the fuse. He generously gives me a supply of 4F and 2F in real black powder, enough for several shots and I manage to crank off 10 more rounds with no misfires and with the last five the delay between the primer charge and main charge was extremely short. It was really fun at that point. Thank God for that gentleman or else I would probably still be there trying to get the thing to fire the first time and uttering all manner of profanity. I cannot really comment on accuracy as this was more of a familiarity run. Next time I'll try to shoot for "score".
It is a pain to clean though but thems the breaks. I'll shoot this thing a lot more and just maybe I'll start saving for that Baker.
Weather and work prevented me from shooting the thing until today and I suppose that was a good thing. For several reasons I tabled plans to do some action pistol shooting and went right to one of the 50 yard ranges at my local shooting club. As it happened there was another gentleman who was shooting a flintlock which is the reason I state that it was a good thing I was delayed and happened to shoot my new flintlock for the first time at that particular time and place.
As I was setting up he came over and complimented my rifle's looks and gave a once over of my equipment. Right away he said I would probably have trouble with the Pyrodex powder I had brought. I answered that I had not seen any true black powder on the shelves for purchase. He told my I needed to ask the clerk as they kept it in the back. He went back to shooting his rifle and I prepared to shoot mine.
Loaded up the shot with 55 gr of 2F and then primed the pan with 3F as there seemed to be no 4F available when I bought the rest of the stuff. Misfire. Waited a minute. Reprimed. Misfire. Other guy comes back and looks things over. He offers to prime my pan with some of his 4F. Of course I agree. This time it touches off but with a noticable delay in between the primer charge firing and the main charge firing. I reload and try to use the 3F again in the primer pan. This time it works but the delay between the primer charge and the main charge is even longer. The guy says that I should try using as little powder as possible in the pan since the more powder you shove in, the longer you are making the fuse. He generously gives me a supply of 4F and 2F in real black powder, enough for several shots and I manage to crank off 10 more rounds with no misfires and with the last five the delay between the primer charge and main charge was extremely short. It was really fun at that point. Thank God for that gentleman or else I would probably still be there trying to get the thing to fire the first time and uttering all manner of profanity. I cannot really comment on accuracy as this was more of a familiarity run. Next time I'll try to shoot for "score".
It is a pain to clean though but thems the breaks. I'll shoot this thing a lot more and just maybe I'll start saving for that Baker.