Hunting with a flintlock

mrclean89

mrclean89

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Wasnt sure if this should go here or in hunting....

I was wondering if any of you guys have hunted or do hunt with a flintlock ?

Ive always wanted to hunt with one I think it would present more of a challenge and be quite fun.

My three favorite flintlocks are:

Baker rifle
Brown bess
Penslyvannia*rifle

I have been wanting to pick one up and was wondering what you guys thought of this idea ?

Cheers, McLean
 
The last two on your list will be easier to find than the Baker.The Indian made Baker repros are smoothbore and quality can be so so.The only real Baker Rifle replicas are custom made and are pricy.I have a replica Baker rifle made from parts by the RifleShoppe,I haven t had her out hunting yet but plan on it next year.
 
Yeah I figured as much, I want a baker something terrible. With the bayonet, it is my number one favorite gun. Hopefully some day I can find a nice one.

The only place I've seen that sells them in Canada is loyalist arms and they are smoothbore.

It would be nice if pedersoli made one. Then marstar could bring them in.

McLean
 
You don't say if you have any previous experience with muzzle loaders or flintlocks.

If you haven't then I would suggest you spend some time with a caplock before jumping into a flinter. There are lots of potential pitfalls in operating a primitive style muzzle loader. And flintlocks can be especially annoying if you are not prepared to deal with their foibles and idiosyncracies.

For hunting, a rifled bore would be a better choice. Smoothbore's aren't exactly tops in the accuracy department making them that much more difficult to deal with.
 
What are you planning to hunt? My hunting with a flintlock is limited to small game, with a smoothbore, a reproduction trade gun which I made. The only smoothbore you've mentionned is a Bess. Basically 11ga, and a fairly large gun. Big lock, which doesn't particularly contribute to fast locktime.
As Suputin mentionned, flintlocks have their foibles and idiosyncracies. Whatever choice you make, you really want a quality lock. Nothing is more frustrating than a lock of questionable reliability.
 
Yes I should have been more clear, I have a couple percussion guns and shoot them quite a bit. I have never shot a flintlock, but I find them much more interesting and better looking for the most part. I do understand that there is also alot more to them. When i got the percussion a while ago I read about it and kinda taught myself how to shoot it. A few of the guys at the range here were also alot of help.

My father years ago shot a black bear with the .45 percussion cap I use now and said it dropped him great and was alot of fun.

I hunt bear, moose, deer, elk, coyotes, and other small game on a regular basis.
 
Well, for big game, a rifle might make a lot of sense. A smoothbore can certainly kill large game, but its accurate range is likely going to be less than most rifles. For game the size of moose and elk you would want something with real punch.
 
I think you need to practice with each of your chosen guns and see what sort of accuracy you are capable of. In part that will determine which you can or should use and at what range. I would consider a 45 to be a bit light for bears; not unworkable just a bit light. For moose i would go with the bess but only if you can put your shots in say a 4" circle at 50 yards.
I have seen smoothbores with no rear sights shot as accurately as rifles out to 70 or 80 yards but only by a small number of very skilled shooters. They take a lot of practice to shoot well.
You probably want a cows knee to cover the frizzen and pan if there is much rain in your area plus a well fitted frizzen to pan joint.
A final observation is that if you can't shoot a gun accurately at any given range, you should not be chosing that particular gun

cheers mooncoon
 
I absolutely love flinchlocks, so your line of reasoning sits really well with me. I think Mooncoon is right, smoothies can shoot really well, but require lots of practice, unless . . . you got yourself a smooth rifle. I just bought myself a smooth rifle, and it is the bee's knees. If you don't know, a smooth rifle is basically a gun that is built in the style and architecture of a rifle, including a rear sight, but just with a smoothbore barrel. The benefit is that you can still shoot it as a shotgun for small game, though because of the rear sight obscuring the sight picture, I think it wouldn't work well for wing-shooting.
 
Flintlocks take some getting used to but are a lot of fun and can be very reliable if you have a quality lock, decent flint and a standard loading routine. A good lock will fire even when inverted (as a test - not a standard routine of course)! With practice you can shoot as accurately with a flinter as with percussion - from a rest and with a LOT of practice even off-hand. Buy your flinter soon and practice all next summer so you will be ready for next fall. Strongly recommend a rifled barrel for accuracy and lower potential for wounding. Even my 45 balls have passed clean through the deer I've killed out to 100 yd but for bigger game I would suggest you go to 54 cal or maybe even 58.
Good luck
 
Ol' Flinter said:
A good lock will fire even when inverted (as a test - not a standard routine of course)!
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Be sure to wear a long sleeve shirt or a jacket when shooting inverted. Otherwise it will scorch your forearm :>( We had a tough shot through a loophole last year at Heffley and the only way for me to shoot it was with the gun on top of my shoulder and upside down so that I could see the sights

cheers mooncoon
 
Speaking of sparking flintlocks, one I will never forget was one of the Manton carbine locks. There were a batch of these floating around years ago. New, in the white, never installed on guns. They were for a carbine that was never adopted; percussion was replacing flint, even with the Board of Ordnance. They used a single spring for both the #### and frizzen. Frizzen was faced. The one I experimented with would produce a shower of sparks that literally hissed and overflowed the pan.
The lock on the Wilkinson fowler (finished Sept. 7, 1822) I just bought also sparks really well. It is a sophisticated "waterproof" lock.
 
Few things are as simple, natural and intuitive as shooting a --proper-- flintlock musket.

A 3/4 of a oz lead ball within 60 or so yards is more then enough whomp for nearly any game in north America.



Cheers
 
I tried it, I was not to happy, Fall on the west Coast is too wet.
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Just put one of those little desicant pouches inside your pan.:p

Here is a couple of pics of my smooth rifle I was talking about.
STP87155.jpg

STP87156.jpg
 
murat said:
I tried it, I was not to happy, Fall on the west Coast is too wet.
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I have had my bess rained on all day and shot it many times in the bush and in reenactments, no problem....The only way it could possibly get any more wet is if I tossed it in a river

Once you get in tons of practice all the little tricks of years ago come back.

Big lock and a big pan = bang in even the worst conditions."IF YOU DO YOUR PART"
 
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