Ahoy the campfire from the coast of Maine! I guess I'm "new again" here, but I do recall posting about some excellent groups that I shot with Mr. Flintlock's Patch Lube in my T/C Hawken a few years ago. In fact, George lives just a little south of me and a picture of that group is posted on his website. But then I must have gotten into some other pursuits and faded away...But now I'm back -- and with a new-to-me rifle too!
A few years ago, I started messing around with an inexpensive flintlock and posed the question whether it would be Fun or Frustration? Well, over time it turned out to be both -- yes, it was "fun" to tinker with to try and improve its reliability, but it was also "frustrating" when it could only get so far, and then no more improvements were realized. Guided by my twin brother who'd been encouraging me to get a flintlock rifle for years, I had the frizzed rehardened and the frizzen spring lightened and tail of the frizzen reshaped/polished. I added a stainless steel touch hole liner, polished all the bearing surfaces of the lock and kept trying to improve it. It turns out, after talking with folks much more experienced with flintlocks than I was, including George, I found that the geometry of the lock itself was just all wrong from the start... The cock angle was bashing flints and not scraping them properly. That's why I had the erratic performance out of it, despite getting really good at mounting and knapping the flints and everything else I'd done. In the end, there was nothing else to do. But I was finally hooked on shooting a flintlock -- and having had enough of shooting an "el cheapo" version, I enlisted the help of my twin to find me something much better to use.
Oh sure, I drooled over all the $2k, $3k and $4k custom flintlock guns that are out there, but those were all too rich for my blood. And while I've heard the Pedersoli locks were the best of the imports, I really didn't want yet another foreign-made flinter to mess around with. So my twin found me a good compromise -- it's a
"JP McCoy" .45 cal flintlock as made by JP Gunstocks, formerly of Las Vegas NV. I've read that JPG made "semi custom" flinters using Orion barrels, L& R locks (mine has a Manton lock), decent double-set triggers and good hardware, usually with very fancy maple stocks too. I could have spent a lot more, I'm quite sure of that; but for less than the cost of a new import from Cabela's, I believe I got a really nice Pennsylvania-style flintlock to have some fun with at the range.
So far, I've only put about 35 balls downrange with it, but all those shots went off quickly -- and with only 36 pulls of the trigger, as compared to it taking 60 or 90 tries with the other crappy one I'd had... The one "flash in the pan" I had was when I picked the charge in the touch hole a little too much... With the L&R Manton lock and a sharp flint on board, she sparks really well. The best part is -- she's quite a good looker too! I love the stripes of the maple stock, which contrast well with the browned barrel.
Here she is...
Now I just need to practice more on my hold & follow-through and get some good groups, then possibly tweak the sights a little. And while I'm at it -- gee, I might as well
"Aim small, miss small" too!
Tight groups.
Old No7
