By Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
Flintlock pistols, like all handguns, are simply more cantankerous than their longer brothers and cousins.
The best and main reason is because they are naturally harder to hold steady and shoot than rifles, as all pistols are, and when you add that fact that this is a flintlock, they seem to become even more finicky. Flintlock pistols really do have stricter preferences to powder charges, patch and ball sizes, and all of the basic ingredients for good ignition than the longer rifles, muskets, or fowlers.
The first big hurdle to cross when shooting a flintlock pistol is to not become interested in the flash from the priming when the gun discharges. To do so simply means that you are no longer paying any attention to your hold or to your sight picture. And the fascination of the flintlock’s priming can be tremendous, something that really seems to be worth watching. But that is something for you to watch only when someone else is doing the shooting.
Also, let me add this bit of a warning: when any flintlock fires there is a real blast of hot gases that come from the gun’s flash-hole. That’s an obvious thing; the flash-hole leads directly to the main powder charge in the barrel. Even so, we sometimes don’t think about that while watching another shooter. Try to be a good 15 feet away from the lock side of a flintlock when it’s being fired.
Yes, most other folks refer to the hole that leads from the flintlock’s pan to the main powder charge as the “touch-hole.” It’s still the same thing but I like to call it a “flash-hole.” After all, cannons have touch-holes, where you fill the hole with powder and then ‘touch’ it with a fiery punk. That’s where the touch-hole got its name.
Now, with a flintlock if you fill the flash-hole with powder you quickly create a fuse. It takes a very short time for that fuse to burn, so the main powder charge will be ignited, but still you must wait that precious moment and you’ve created a delayed ignition. Let the hole remain open so the flash from the priming powder can go through the hole and ignite the main charge almost instantly. Calling the hole in the side of the flintlock’s barrel the “flash-hole” is just a good way to remind ourselves about keeping the hole open for the priming powder’s flash.
While we’re speaking about the speed of ignition, remember that if the flintlock is properly primed and the flint is good and sharp, along with having a good lock that has the proper geometry, our flintlocks perform with ignition that is just as fast as a percussion gun, if not even faster. Please don’t believe that all flintlocks operate with a “flash—boom,” because if it does, something is simply wrong.
For starters, let’s get a pistol with a good lock. There have been good and bad locks throughout the history of the flintlock. If you get a gun with a bad or poor lock, there really is nothing you can do that will make it work very well. That’s why many of us say there’s no such thing as a good, cheap flintlock. So, go for some quality and get a pistol with a good lock.
Next, get some good flints. My favorites are the natural English flints that come from Tom Fuller. Over the years I’ve tried other flints, even the artificial or ceramic flints that are offered by some of the traders. None have worked as well or as long as the English flints for me. A good source for these flints as well as all muzzleloading parts and supplies is Track of The Wolf in Minnesota.
Now, with that nice pistol equipped with a good lock and the English flint tightly held in the jaws of the “cock,” let’s get ready for some good shooting. Notice that I said, “tightly held” and that must be very tight. A piece of leather is usually used to wrap the flint in so the jaws of the cock can grip the flint well. The edge of the flint must also be sharp enough that you’ll likely get cut if you touch it the wrong way. The flint strikes the frizzen’s face in a way that it shaves tiny red-hot and white-hot bits of steel from the frizzen as it pushes the frizzen and the pan cover out of the way. We see those tiny bits of steel as sparks. If the flint is not tightly held in the jaws of the cock, the sparks will either not happen, or they won’t be as good. Having a loose or dull flint can cause slow ignition by not having hot enough sparks.
By the way, when early flintlocks (or earlier styled locks) were first made, their makers thought what we now want to call the hammer looked like a rooster’s head. They referred to the lock’s hammer as the “cock” and that is where we got the terms for half-cock, full-cock, going off half-cocked and such.
The flint should also be positioned properly. It should almost touch the frizzen when the lock is on half-cock and the frizzen is closed. Getting it close like that gives the flint the longest travel while in contact with the frizzen’s face. More travel, or scrape, on the frizzen’s face equals more and better chances for getting good sparks.
Then, when the cock is all the way forward, the flint should be pointed almost directly into the priming pan. The sparks scraped from the frizzen don’t just fall into the pan, they are actually quite directional, and the alignment of the flint helps to “shoot” those sparks into the pan. The fact that the sparks are “shot” into the pan by the frizzen, and the flint becomes obvious when you see how well a flintlock works if it is shot upside down; it is just as fast as when used right side up.
Flash-hole size; let me be the first to admit that I favor flash-holes somewhat larger than what others often like. My reason is simply that they deliver more positive ignition. On some of my guns, the flash-hole is 5/64-inch in diameter and that is actually on the large side of things. Frankly, I see no advantage in using a smaller flash-hole.
Up to now I’ve mentioned only how to get good ignition with a flintlock. That is mainly where the real secrets are when we talk about shooting flintlock pistols. After all, the only difference between a flintlock pistol and a percussion pistol is the difference in how the ignition is handled. Now that we have those tips about ignition under our belts, let’s talk about getting the gun loaded.
Speaking very generally, I most often use a starting load of one-half of the gun’s caliber for a setting on my powder measure. What I mean is this; if we’re looking for a starting load for a .50-caliber pistol, let’s use 25 grains of powder. That powder can be 3Fg or 2Fg, and it mostly depends upon what you have or what you use in the rifle that might accompany the pistol. Personally, for .50-caliber muzzleloading rifles and pistols, I favor the 3Fg powder by GOEX. That goes for the smaller bores as well. Then for .54-caliber and larger rifles and pistols, I tend to go with the 2Fg GOEX powder.
For those first shots, let’s say our gun is a .50-caliber flintlock pistol, so we’ll load the barrel with 25 grains of powder. Then finish or top-off the load with a patched round ball of the correct size. That “correct size” is dependent on the pistol’s barrel, of course, and the most common .50-caliber ball is actually .490 diameter. Usually, the .50-caliber muzzleloading barrels will accept the .490 ball easily when wrapped in a .015-inch thick patch. And don’t forget to lubricate the patch either with some commercial patch lube or just with spit. (I most often use spit on the patch but if that is used, the load should be shot fairly quickly so the spit on the patch doesn’t remain in the gun’s barrel too long. If I’m loading the gun while on a hunt, where the rifle or pistol might remain loaded all day, I’ll use a natural grease on the patch.) With the ball rammed down to rest on the powder, the gun is ready to be primed and fired.
One more little trick can be used. Make sure the flash-hole is opened by using a flash-hole pick. The pick needs to be small enough to be pushed all the way through the flash-hole so you can feel the powder slightly crumbling inside the barrel. For the best ignition, you don’t want anything inside the flash-hole, not even powder. In practice, I don’t use a flash-hole pick with every shot, but I do use it anytime I think it might be advantageous to do so.
With all of that done, prime the pan with just a little 4Fg priming powder. Yes, 3Fg will work but I believe 4Fg is just a bit faster and, therefore, better. Do not cover the flash-hole, which should be located near the top of the priming pan, with powder. Make sure the flash-hole is above the priming powder where it will receive the majority of the priming flash. Then close the frizzen, aim and shoot.
We can hope that was a good shot! And, of course, it’s time to start all over with the reloading of the pistol. Shoot again to see if the bullets are heading in the right direction. If those bullets are not hitting where they should be, then the gun will need to be sighted-in, and that’s another story.
