Gettin' the hang of it finally.

[WadePatton]

The care and feeding of a genuine rock-locked longrifle that is.

I've been shooting and loading cartridges all my life, dabbling in BP here and there.  All my BP stuff prior to my current rifle was percussin (NTTAWWT*   )

43 shots now down the bbl.  44 if you include the proof.  

I "rattled off" the last nine yesterday and have gotten much more efficient in the loading process, but there are plenty of tweaks left.  Am happy to report that with current ball/patch and lube (saliva) there appears to be no increase in loading difficulty.  I re-shot 2 patches yesterday - boy they get flavorful don't they? (no he didn't).  I'm shooting in the woods at brand new spot so finding patches ain't easy.  

Getting better holding through, flashed the pan once and still had perfect sight picture after the little puff cleared.  "HOLD THRU" is my still squeeze thought, and will be for some time.  Klatches and Flashes are great hold and flinch testers.

7 inches low at 30, 10 at 50. gotta do a little bit of sight filing, but will leave it some low until loads developed, then can determine actual trajectories by fire, not paper and adjust accordingly.  I haven't "benched proper" yet-just been leaning on a tree or post or pickup.  

Lots more to do to it and some more accoutrementizing for me, but also CAN'T WAIT to start on the 40, with it's 100 balls to the pound and not the current 30 where 44 shots is a pound and a half.  

and (pecks on wood) powder first every time so far! (including one case of serious overcharge)

Pretty sure PRB is all I'll do for a while now (limited exceptions of course, but not for hunting or target).

whoo hoo!

hoo hoo hoo!



*Seinfeld ref.

[moleeyes36]

Wade,

Sounds like you've come over to the "Spark Side of the Force", welcome.

Darth Boone

[WadePatton]

Also thanks to all who have shared their wisdom and knowledge here.  I have one local guru but he's an hour and 20 bucks of fuel away.  I developed my understanding of the making of a traditional gun and care and feeding thereof between him and yous guys.  

The second one shouldn't take quite as long, but it will be challenging as it's going to be stocked in Ash.

I never not _wanted_ to have a flinter to shoot, was just hung up in whizbangpow stuff for way too long.  Absolutely LOVE making things, so have accumulated a few bbls/locks for future use.  

Bob Roller made the lock and trigger for the next build, 44"x40xA which i expect to be a rootin' tootin' all-kind-of-shootin' smokestick with maybe half errors and corrections and "just gotta live with its" of the first.

The "Elk Rifle" did put 5 of 6 into 1 1/4 group at 50 while i was doing a 14 hour bbq cook for the 4th.  Standing, braced to tree with reduced load.  That was the first, "dang it might shoot" moment.

Gotta remove some more wood and fix the toeplate too... there's no end to this is there?

[Daryl]

Well done, Wade - I did the same thing for years, after developing "the Flinch that won't quit" with a 5 1/2 pound 12 bore NW Trade gun.  I've pretty much gotten over that and shooting the flintlocks is now fun. Gotta stay with them though as too much instant (feels like) ignition with a cap-gun will spoil you for proper follow through with the flinter.

[Kopfjaeger]

Flintlocks are addictive, in a good way. 

[hanshi]

Percussion?  I will take one to the range from time to time but flint always into the bush.  If one can shoot well with a flinter, then one should consider himself a truly "good" shot at least.

[WadePatton]

I'll get some decent pics of the gun up after i get it tuned and "finalized".

Never had a flinch, had read all too much about it before i even got to actually shooting.  But that my brains had learned that it could relax all those fine motor controls immediately after the sear/trigger disengaged.

Re-training to the little bitty bit of extra time is going to take a some more shooting for sure.

Which will be great.

[WadePatton]

Hacked out a new shootin' lane in the wilds of me personal outback over the last week or so.

Started shooting 50 this morning until the sun forced me to find the shade at 40. 

Developing loads and filing sights.  Pretty sure i want to be about 3 inches high at 50. BUT my patches started blowing at 80g.

Going to run out of balls soon, mould is stateside-so I'm trying to shoot up my 530's. The 535's have proven too fat, and there's no room to go down in patch thickness so they may join all these 490's I keep finding (gave most of them away) in the melting pot.

And I got hungry, so I'm back at the house rooting around for tighter/fresher/thicker denim and wolfing down some bbq i made last weekend. 

After about 3 shots, a doe wandered up and started blowing her whistle at me, that's always a good sign.   

Gotta make some bigger aiming spots.  What size blacks and what shapes do y'all prefer to shoot?  I'm going to do some solid black circles of larger diameter.  5 inches to start.  Of course it'd help if my target butt wasn't in full shade, but that's the way it's going to be until the leaves drop.  It's a dead sassafras snag and is safely collecting my lead for me.

targets made, patch materials collected, back to the "range"!

[Candle Snuffer]

High Wade.  Congrats on the flintlock.  If I may suggest, I'd shoot 25 yards at a 3 to 4 inch black circle or square until you can keep five inside the black, then move out to - say 35/40 yards and again try and keep 5 in the black, then move to 50 yards and use a 4 to 5 inch black circle or square and try to keep 5 in the black.

Pound the $#*! out of that 25 yard line if you have to - to keep 5 in the black.  It'll build real confidence and it's much easier to access your mechanics.

Good luck.

 

[SCLoyalist]

Since most of my shooting is done at club shoots, I use NMLRA standard targets for practice - a 2.75" diameter black bull for 25 yards and 6" diameter bull for 50 and 100 yards.    For my .54,  I get about 1550 fps muzzle velocity out of 80 gr of 3F, and according to the ballistics calculator I use,  hitting 3" above aiming point at 50 yds with 80 grains charge would put you dead on at 100 yards.

[WadePatton]

Whoohoo!  FINALLY GOT THAT


DRYBALL!


it's been years (and i used to cram powder under the nipple to get 'em out).


Now got that out of the way.  


Yeah, I'm shooting 40 because the 50 position catches too much sunlight.  I made a circle from a CD, cut that out and used it for a template to make whatever sized blacks that is.  Works great.

I was already all black at 30 with the target load.  Also i didn't want to make sight adjustments at short range.  I've done a lot of bench shooting and load development, just not with this particular sort of stick/open sights, and not in some while.  Thanks for them pointers just the same.  

Also WRT bulls, I was trying to see the 25-yard bull at 50... okay maybe i'm not so blind.  6 inches will be gigantic. (CD measures right at 4.60")

Now back to the DB.

Found some very slightly thicker and also not "stone washed" denim and had started loading it at 80 to see if it would hold up AND to see if i could get it down the pipe.

Lost the first patch.  So i closed the range and weedwhacked the patch zone again.  Found the second one and it looked good.  Getting that first one down wasn't easy, but as i had hoped the thicker patch wasn't quite as difficult to get down the second time.  It's still a bit much, but is the best option presently-with what is on hand.

I'm pretty sure that I'd be best served with a stouter patch of the previous thickness, it loads firm enough and is a "wipeless" combo.  But then I'll be casting soon enough so I really won't know what i'll need until i see what sized balls my lead and mould conspire to produce.

Was all focused on working that thicker patched ball into the bore, with maximum safety and efficiency (translates: without breaking the packing stick) when, just before I reached for the starter to put atop the stick and give a final tamp...at that precise moment

I REALIZED that the BALL had sunk just a little TOO FAR!  so i (quite naturally) flung the starter about nearly to the patch zone and made all the woodpeckers blush.  (stomp, spit, and cuss)

And then got over it and tallied up my shots 59 (on the works).

60th load is a ball dry.  About time, now we can don't worry 'bout that no more (and start taking the range rod to the range.)

I may shoot it tomorrow after i measure it (show it who's boss), already took pics.

May try some again tomorrow.  The first two of the second session landed close enough and the patch held up to that load, wasn't a total loss.  

But the heat has gone to my head, didn't carry enough water (any).  I better has now a cerveza fria for recovery and recuperation.  

pronto.amigo!

[WadePatton]

On the sight filing.  I've got my blade down to about .200 and impact is about an inch high at 40.  I won't be filing again until i decide on my hunting load for FF.  That is what I'm going for: zero at 100 and about  3 high at 50 (which automagically gives one a 6 oclock hold at short range and a dead on 100.)

I better get the coal out of the tube eh. 

[PPatch]

Great report Wade, you're having one problem as I see it - too much dang fun!

I use paper plates for targets lots of times, you can get them in various sizes. Ones I use are white which is fine shooting at a shaded target.

dave

[moleeyes36]

Great report Wade, you're having one problem as I see it - too much dang fun!

I use paper plates for targets lots of times, you can get them in various sizes. Ones I use are white which is fine shooting at a shaded target.

dave

Wade, Dave mentions using white paper plates when shooting at a shaded target.  That's good advice because a shaded target with a black bulls eye at over about 50 yards or so can make it darn hard to find your front site.  I do the same as Dave and find that really helps when sighting in a rifle.

Mole Eyes

[WadePatton]

All too much fun, yes of course.

You know i just happen to have a stack of those little paper plates leftover from a previous life.  Try that tomorrow.

Just want to get my loads developed, then I'll "finalize" the gun (have some more wood to remove of course).

Then and then do you know what then huh?

I'll start on the 40.

Two pounds of lead out of @ .395 will be about 150 shots instead of 60.  It's getting a Bob Roller lock and trigger.  Should go a lot  faster being nummer 2 and all. 

[Daryl]

Wade - I find a 4" bull is a good target for 30 to 50yards.  Targetz.com has a good one. http://www.targetz.com/targets07.htm   - 8th one down, 7th page.
There are a lot of targets here - 25 to 28 pound paper makes for pretty good targets for an inkjet printer.

[WadePatton]

Mould is here and i didn't know it.  Will have to fit up some handles and get to casting!