Everything I need to shoot a Flintlock Rifle

[drae]

Hi this past Xmas I bought my father a Flintlock rifle, I have never seen my father so happy in my life(score for the good son).The problem I am having is i cant find any powder, lead ball,lubed patch's or flint. I would also like to purchase a cleaning kit with supplies for the rifle. Does anyone know were i can get this stuff. By the way Whole Sale sports has nothing in stock,but the tell me they can order it in, yea right I'm still waiting on bulk 9mm i ordered 8 mths ago.
So any help would be appreciated so my father can actually use his flinter instead of just looking at it
Thank you in advance
Drae

 

[savage112]

The problem I am having is i cant find any powder, lead ball,lubed patch's or flint. I would also like to purchase a cleaning kit with supplies for the rifle. Does anyone know were i can get this stuff.

Look up Track of The Wolf's website. Anything you could possibly need for a flintlock you can order from them, with the exception of the black powder. They also have no problem shipping to Canada. I expect the shipping would kill you on the powder.It's probably best to buy it locally, if possible.

 

[Musketfire]

Since your on the east coast you may want to send Loyalist arms a message

www.loyalistarms.freeservers.com

they will have much of the basic kit "except powder" to get your dad shooting, and they may have some connection for a b/p club or historical reenactment group that can get him really going.....

Get yourself a flintlock musket and go shooting with your dad...

 

[sunray]

Start with a copy of Lyman's Black Powder Handbook and Loading Manual. BP isn't like smokeless. It's loaded by volumn, not by weight, for one.
Epp's carries all the bits and pieces for BP shooting, including Goex powders. Shipping BP might, I say again might be an issue though.
Shooting patches come from your local discount fabric shop in the form of pillow ticking.
"...a cleaning kit..." Plain hot water will do.

 

[Ol' Flinter]

Go to the website of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association: there is lots of info on shooting muzzle loading guns and black powder safety - better yet join them and learn.... Davide Pedersoli also has a good website for this info. Start with round balls both .005" and .010" smaller than bore size; buy 8 oz. and 10 oz denim at a fabric shop for patch material. Patch lube can be anything from saliva to fancy concoctions but the various formulas of "Moose Milk" are well proven to provide good accuracy. A simple lube formula is 1:15 mix of Murphy's Oil Soap in water. Add methanol or windshield washer fluid for shooting in sub-freezing temperatures. Test various combinations of powder charge, ball size and patch thickness for best accuracy. Wash the denim before using it. Clean the gun using a cleaning patch on a jag with hot water and a bit of dish wash liquid soap. Dry the gun and prevent rust with light oil or even WD-40 if putting it away for only a short time. Track of the Wolf has everything you can't get in the Maritimes except for the powder. One last suggestion: use real English flints - avoid the synthetic sawed flints as they wear out quicker and cannot be knapped back to a sharp edge. PM me if you want to discuss more specifics. Good luck.

 

[joelvca]

volumemetric charges

... BP isn't like smokeless. It's loaded by volumn, not by weight, for one. ...

Just like I load my smokeless by volume, from a Lyman 55 powder measure. Black Powder charges actually specify a weight, but not many of us check the calibration of our volumetric measures, partly because B.P is much less sensitive to small weight differences.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Wendell]

Ulrich Bretscher's Black Powder Page
http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/bp_menu.html

 

[BCRider]

Just like I load my smokeless by volume, from a Lyman 55 powder measure. Black Powder charges actually specify a weight, but not many of us check the calibration of our volumetric measures, partly because B.P is much less sensitive to small weight differences.

Regards,
Joel

You load your smokeless by volume charges that you check the weight of to ensure that the volume is the right weight. With black powder you load the volume using a BP grain volume measure without any need to check the weight. So it's not really the same thing.

 

[joelvca]

You load your smokeless by volume charges that you check the weight of to ensure that the volume is the right weight. With black powder you load the volume using a BP grain volume measure without any need to check the weight. So it's not really the same thing.

It all comes down to what is precise enough for safety and the required precision. We just usually accept that our BP measures are actually calibrated for some combination of powder and measurement technique to throw the specified weights (not necessarily true with modern "measures", and often the greatest source of differences), that most BPs are close enough to the same density, and that our measurement techniques are close enough to that used to calibrate the measure. Compared to black powders, smokeless powders vary much more in density from one to another, and generally are much more sensitive to differences in loads.

And some of us DO check our powder measures against a scale, especially where greater precision and/or greater accuracy are required.

Except for critical combinations, I do not verify the weights of my smokeless powder charges once I have set the measure up. I trust that they will continue to throw consistently and at the specified weight. This is no different from my loading procedure with black powder. If I were shooting competitively, especially long range, I WOULD be weighing my charges of black, checking density differences between lots, etc., just as I would under similar circumstances with smokeless.

Actually, I suspect we have mostly a difference of semantics.

Regards,
Joel