I have a fondness for flintlock rifles that remind me of the fur trappers and mountain men of the period 1825 to 1845. A favorite gun shop had a like- new Lyman Great Plains Rifle on the used gun rack. A closer examination revealed that the .50 had a unique brass tack arrangement on one side of the buttstock. I told the gun shop owner that i like the rifle, but not the tacks and he whacked the hang tag price. The rifle appeared to be unfired.

Some weeks later I saw another Lyman Great Plains Rifle in .54 flintlock with even a better tack design. In addition, someone made a cute leather frizzen cover that was attached to the triggerguard. Dangling below the frizzen cover on a leather thong were glass beads and a touch hole pick. Upon sighting the rifle, it was obvious that the rifle wore a Trade Rifle-style fixed rear sights. The crowning touch was a black thread tied to the front thimble and a small feather was suspended at the end of it. Same story, I told the shop owner the rifle was lovely, but the tacks were tacky. He slashed the price and I took the rifle home.

So I have two nice rifles to take on my next rendezvous. Everyone that sees these rifles is impressed with the handiwork someone put into these projects. All the best...
Gil

Good shopping technique Gil. So far I have not tried the flintlocks but I have always had an interest in buying one. Just don't see many of them on the racks down my way.
When I lived in Stone Mountain, GA there was a custom flintlock rifle maker in town but he charged 3 prices for a rifle. Just out of my price range actually because his work was beautiful. But he closed shop and moved on before I just couldn't stand it any more and buy one of his rifles.
Maybe I will find one at a gun show that catches my eye and follows me home.
Let us know how they shoot.
Chris

Before I built my own flintlock my first one was a Lyman Great Plains in .54 cal. One of the first things that I did was order some extra flash hole inserts, I then opened them up slightly for better & quicker ignition. I will tell you that if you turned around and the rifle was fired you could not tell if it was a flintlock or percussion. I was kidded by the members of the club I was in, they said that now I would always be getting first place as I was the only one shooting in flintlock class. Well I told them that I would still shoot against them with their "Modern" rifles. I did and still took first most of the time. I have to say that the Lyman is one accurate rifle. I used washed Pillow ticking that miked out at .015 lubed with Wonder Lube/TC Bore Butter or the Remington version, they all smell like Ben Gay. I used .535 RBs and 70gr by volume of 3F (Target Shooting Only). The Priming charge was only enough to half fill the pan and I kept the chagre away from the flash hole so on ignition the flash would go directly into the flash hole. I used knapped flints (English) that I was able to obtain from Dixie at the time and from the Rondys I went to. One thing, your best accuracy will come after you have fired @ 50 - 100 shots thru the bore to season it and burnish it. DO NOT USE ANY PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS IN YOUR BORE IF YOU USE THE ABOVE LUBES, THEY WILL DESTROY THE SEASONING IN THE BORE.

Wonder Lube, 1000 Plus, TC Bore Butter are all natural products, when used they season the bore just like Grandma did with her cast iron cookware. These products will also provide excellent protection from corrosion. Clean with hot water with just a few drops of dish liquid in it. The water should be very hot, you can rinse the barrel with very hot (almost boiling) water. The hot water will raise the barrel temprature to where the excess water will evaprorate away, use the lube on the hot metal and let it cool. Wipe it down after its cool and apply another patch of lube in the bore. You can check it a bit down the raod and should not find any corrosion, if you do you didn't clean it completly.
I've done this for many years and have not had any problems.