Got my Lyman Great Plains Hunter finally. Really looks nice. I tried to polish the flash pan with my dremmel tool and a polish/buffing wheel and it didn't seem to want to become "mirror" looking. In fact it remains the case coloring look that it came with. Is the reason for polishing it in the first place so the sparks scoot around better in the pan and insures better ignition? I also took some gun scrubber and cleaned the frissen and pan to get any oil or gunk out of them. Is there anything that I need to do to either one of these to aid in producing good sparks? I'm not going to get to play with it for a couple of days since I've got to go out of town for awhile. I posted on the CASTING site tonite about having a major problem casting bullets so will have to work that out also. Thanks, Mike

Four tails good to hear you got the rifle. As for polishing out the pan I know that it makes it easier to clean but I don't think it will have an effect on the speed of the ignition. I say this as I've always been told that the powder in the pan burns across the top of the pan charge at a higher rate than it burns down so the ignition comes from the top of the charge rather than from the bottom of the pan. Always fill the pan as close as you can to the center of the touch hole. You can check the sparking ability of the frizzen by trying it out in a dark room as during the day there are lots of sparks that you cannot see due to the light. Remember to try your flints out with both the bevel up and with the bevel down. Casting bullets for your muzzleloader should take place only after you have found out which ball size will work best in your rifle. For example what I do when I first get to the range with a new rifle is to swab out the bore with a clean piece of material like from an old t shirt. Next I pour down the barrel a charge of about 30-50 grains of powder. I then tap the butt of the rifle on the top of my foot to settle the charge. Prime and fire the "fouling" charge down range. You've now cleaned out any residual oil and insured that you have a clean pathway for the ignition of the main charge. I then take a cleaning patch of the same material as before and either put it in my mouth and get a little spit on it or I dip it into window cleaner to get it slightly damp and swab the bore out with two to three passes. I'm now ready to load.
On the ball size. If you're shooting say a 50 I'd get a box of both 490's and 495's. I'd also get some ox yoke patches sized for the caliber you're shooting. Get 2 different thicknesses,.10 and .15 and even .20 just to be safe. Try your rifle out for group to see which one produces the best groups. Now this can take several hours. Any left over balls can now be melted down for casting. As you go along and have a problem just post here. Oh by the way at some point you are going to "dry ball" the rifle. That means putting a patched ball down with no powder. If you are patient you can work enough 4f powder down behing the ball if you put a few grains at a time through the touch hole. If this doesn't work you'll have to use a ball puller or better yet one of the co2 discharges will work. Good luck on your project.

Polishing the pan makes it easier to clean and some think it reduces the places moisture can hide to affect your prime. While the color case probably isn't too deep you will only polish off some .0001" anyway so the color should remain. That depends on the grit you're using.

You want to thoroughly degrease everything in the firing chain, particularly the FRIZZEN and the pan.

As alluded to by muzzle, you will want to have all the necessaries on hand BEFORE you begin, if you don't already. Given that Murphy was a flintlock shooter, his law applies.

Ross Seyfried has a good article on flintlocks, Learning to Flint (parts 1 & 2) in Blackpowder Hunting, Summer 1997 which is available at Blackpowder Hunting.

Good shooting.

Hobie, thanks for the lead of the article by Ross Seyried. I enjoyed it. He is not only very knowledgable but is a great writer. Good shooting! Mike

Mike,

You're most welcome. Keep us up to date on your experiences!