I spent five great years building this French and Indian War flintlock in my spare time. The lock alone took a year. Only used hand tools, no power or modern stuff. Shoots 54 (.530") WW balls with thin patches. It will stay inside a deer target at 50 yards all day long. Someday I will cast up some pure lead balls and try traditional patching.
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Great! 54 is the magical RB caliber with the best RB hunting ballistics.I hope you get a chance to try Alliant Black MZ in it. My rocklock loves it with a pan level 4FBP prime and Onondaga flints or cut Agates.
You will find that pure soft lead is well worth the money for round balls. Loading is much easier and patch thickness is much less critical because the pure lead gives even if patches are too thick or the ball is too big. Just start them with a ball starter then they go down.
My best tip for consistency is to use an analog bathroom scale at the range with the rifle butt on it when you load. seat the ball to 80 pounds every time and you will develop a good feel for field loading consistency.
Also Range lead reclaimed from jacketed bullets is softer than WW and nearly the same as pure. Jacketed lead cores are pure lead with 2% Antimony.
Gary
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Nice rifle do you happen to have a full picture of it? Bet that you will find that soft lead shoots much better and to use anything but Holy Black the Mother of all powders would be sacrilege in my humble opinion. All the rest of that fluffy fertilizer stuff is just a passing fancy.
Richard
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Richard, As you requested, attached is a picture. I shoot and load this just like they did in 1748, except I use scrap WW's rather than pure lead. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. Shoot 3F in the pan and barrel and only had one fail to fire when I forgot to wipe the storage lard off the frizzen for the first shot.
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Fine looking rifle you do good work bet that lard would retard the spark all right probably make it non existent.
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Ric,
Very nice, even more so knowing that you did it all with hand tools. Give me a photo taken outside that I can post in the gallery.
David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
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