Flintlock Vent Info

[Frizzen]

I know a lot of you favor the Chambers White Lightning and for good reason. It is a very good one . I happen
to have a couple of these and was wondering what you all thought of them?

[roundball]

Have used them on every Flintlock I've owned since they came out in the late 90's.
Big cone on the inside and the hex well also serves as a cone, I thought they were extremely fast and worked so well on a lot of T/C and GM Flint barrels, that when I transitioned to my current set of long-guns, I had them all built to use those same 1/4"x28 liners as well.

Example: .50cal Dickert

[blackbruin]

Looks like an uncle mikes, or rmc if I'm not mistaken. Used them on lymans, instant improvement, easy to get out, with factory tuned locks and carburized frizzen still not as fast as a chambers with a white lightning IMO.

[roundball]

I understood from T/C that they were originally made under contract for Thompson Center...then several years after that they began appearing in BP supply houses under other names like RMC, etc.

With their large .070" hole and double cone design, they were extremely fast even on T/C locks, to say nothing of the Chambers deluxe silers I now use...a sharp flint, Goex 4F or null-B prime, and it "seems" like ignition is instantaneous...

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I built my double 12 bore flint shotgun before I knew about Chambers' vents, and used two of those allen socket head vents in 3/8" dia.,  they have functioned flawlessly for about twenty years, and do not need replacing.

My only criticism, is the ugly and non HC Allen socket.

[David R. Pennington]

I really like Tom Snyder's little burr to cone the vent from the inside. I never did like the looks of the bright stainless liners on a long rifle. I suppose someday when it gets burned out I'll have to line it, but for now it looks good. I used Tom's device on my .62 rifle and was surprised how well it works. Getting ready to use it on the .45 I'm working on. I've got a couple white lightning liners but I probably won't use them till one of my vents burn out.

[Daryl]

I know a lot of you favor the Chambers White Lightning and for good reason. It is a very good one . I happen
to have a couple of these and was wondering what you all thought of them?

"We" hates 'em.

[jamesthomas]

 I'm with David R. I don't have a liner in my rifle also, nor will I have one in my .40cal.Southern rifle I'm building now. I've been through 25lbs. of powder in my .50 cal. and she is still working fine. When she starts "self priming" I'll install a liner, so far so good. Btw, it will be a White lighting liner when its time.

[ken]

I never thought much of them . The ones I have seen at shoots and woods walks always gave the folks a fit  with hang fires. Just telling it as I have seen.       ken

[Don Steele]

I've had a Jim Chambers White Lightnin' vent liner in a rifle, and liked it a lot. When I got my current project T/C flintlock, the first call I made was to Jim Chambers to get one for this rifle...only to find that it is not offered in 1/4x28 thread.
I literally stumbled upon these "new design" replacement liners at a Sporting Goods store. Had no idea they were out there. Upon examination the design seems to incorporate many of the advantageous features of Jim's excellent product. I picked up a pack of 2, took out the T/C original, and seated one of these. When I properly prime the pan, I'm very satisfied with the results. 

[roundball]

I never thought much of them . The ones I have seen at shoots and woods walks always gave the folks a fit  with hang fires. Just telling it as I have seen.       ken

LOL...preposterous for them to be claiming that.
After 15,000-20,000 shots through them in a variety of Flintlocks with T/C and Chambers locks, I can say with 100% certainty from personal experience that they do not cause hang fires.
If they did, rest assured I never would have had them built into the 5 long guns I now enjoy.
Whatever those individuals were experiencing was obviously being caused by something else.

 

[bob in the woods]

I tried those, and found that they work very well for the first few shots. The main problem I had was that they collected fouling , especially in humid conditions, and gunked up.  A match or trail walk was a problem . I used Q-Tips to swab the cavity and that helped.    Sorry, but I can't recommend them.

[Hungry Horse]

 I've used them both, and have to say, I've had better results with the White lightning. I love the concept of the socket head removal system. But, when I was doing a lot of shooting at Northern California coastal shoots, I had a lot of unexplainable misfires with them, that went away, when I switched to the Chambers liners.

                         Hungry Horse

[LH]

One of our club members tried making some out of allen socket set screws and he had problems with the socket fouling up and hanging or just stopping up a lot. I make my own and I don't like any kind of recess to the touch hole. Keeping the main charge as close to the pan as possible seems to work best to me.   Whatever floats yer boat tho. A lot of this kind of thing depends to a large degree on what your flintlock experiences are and what you want it to do.  Big difference between a hunter who only zero's and hunts and a target shooter who might shoot one several thousand times a year.   

[moleeyes36]

My experience with using them is mixed.  As previously stated, they do work well for the first few shots but collect fouling in damp or very humid conditions (like here in Florida) and indeed slower ignition is often the case.  For the lower number of shots taken during most hunting (wing shooting being an exception) this isn't a problem.  But during a match, especially at clay birds, this is exasperating. 

Another problem is sometimes experienced by new flintlock shooters who have a tendency to over prime the pan.  Priming powder that fills the hex recess can also cause slower ignition (fuse effect).  If the vent is installed too low, common on mass produced guns, this condition also frequently occurs. 

I've changed out all these vents on guns I have with White Lightning vents and only install White Lightning vents on guns I build.  But if using them works for you, there is no reason to change them out.  "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".