Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I picked up a "unknown" Spanish .44 flintlock at an auction. From full cock it would "sometimes" hang up on half cock. Then that changed to "sometimes" it would function properly.



Flintlock half cock.jpg [ 36 KiB | Viewed 3236 times ]



The half cock notch is maybe 1/16" - 1/8" deep. I have had the lock out of the stock but not disassembled, so I don't know if there is a fly that isn't working correctly, or missing, or if there never was supposed to be a fly in the first place.

But I'm guessing I need to hone a tiny bit off the end of the sear or off the edge of the notch. Since the trigger is quite light I suspect I should leave the sear alone. Maybe just three strokes with the stone, reassemble and try . . . repeat as necessary.

Opinions? Or is it something else entirely I should be looking at?

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Well it took 5 or 6 rounds of 10 strokes on the underside of the 1/2 cock notch to 'almost' fix it. But more problems to deal with before I go on with that.

Now my flints aren't sparking . . . most . . . of the time. I changed them around and found one that seems to only miss occasionally. It is actually a hard-rock-that-isn't-a-flint that seems to spark nearly as well as the farm raised ones you can get at the store. But it is a to chip a flint sized piece off! With that in the jaws I got 10 sparks out of 10 tries (and 10 tries in a row that cleared the 1/2 cock notch.)

This gun must be a Spanish reproduction of a 350m sniper rifle. It shoots 8-10" high at 25m AND 18" OR MORE high at 50m! I know some Davys and Dan'ls were able to make some pretty amazing shots, but I suspect most sporting/hunting flintlocks were sighted for 50m to75m.

Maybe next Sunday I'll get my son (who can see the target at 100m) to try it on that range to see if it settles down at all.

_________________
Them that know, know that they know. Them that don't know don't know they don't know.