Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders How often do you change your pan powder?

... speaking only in regards to days where there is normal humidity and no precipitation.

Do you prefer to seal the flashpan with fat of some sort or leave it alone?

I like to keep everything the way it normally is...I've hunted flintlocks for 3 years in various forms of humidity and misty damp weather, dripping woods after a rain shower, etc...everything short of actual rain.

I practice keeping the muzzle down, and the lock area up under my coat where it's warm and dry, and I refresh the prime at least every hour, or more often if the humidity is so hign I can see the prime is getting some "body" to it.

I'm reluctant to use add-on tricks like sealing a pan for fear that it will cause more problems than it's worth, and it still might not even work anyway...so for me, it's up under the coat where it's warm and dry all the time, then I KNOW it'll go off when it has to.

It really makes a fellow wonder if the early settlers who carried their flintlocks everywhere were constantly changing pan powder .... or putting powder in for the shot. With Injuns and Bar's in them woods you would think they would want the quick shot available all the time ... yet can you imagine changing powder that many times in a day ... and what about overnight????

a little but of grease around the pan doesnt hurt

Don't know if they had or even used very fine granulation powder like we know 4F today...they could have primed with the same thing they used for the main...and it seems like everything suggests ignition was very slow back then by today's standards...I like a flintlock to fire like a .30-30, and when I'm deer hunting, I check the prime often...only takes a couple seconds: tilt the lock away from you, bring it back horizontal, open the frizzen, and watch the powder while tilting the lock back towards you...if it flows/slides freely it's fine...if it hesitates before sliding, or takes a severe tilt to start moving, I know it's getting damp and I change it...
If "Daniel" missed a chance at a deer, he could try again the other 364 days of the year, but I can't <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

There is a powder you mix with the priming powder, and it becomes almost water proof, I mixed some and put a drop of water on it and it layed on the powder in a ball, the powder would not absorb it ,get it at your local black powder store,

Dan'l could try again fer a deer, but if he had a misfire in an Injun ambush, he be kilt and scalped. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

When you start hunting with flintlocks it helps you appreciate what those early hunters accomplished.

hubert-
i'd be interested in finding out that powder you mentioned to water proof the 4f.
it'd be my guess the old timers probably didn't charge their pan until they thought they would need to shoot. altho i recal years ago dixie selling something called the "barnett water proof lock". looked interesting . if memory serves me right (and that's not water proof either) the lock would fit on pedersolis.

I agree...and I'm not not a purist by any means, however, I try not to use too many 'modern improvements' over the basics that they had available back then...ie: using products like "raincoat" with priming powder to make it last longer sort of defeats the purpose of going backward in rifle technology.

Another example are the "dura-flints"...a synthetic space age flint that can be resharpened with a diamond file for lots of shots...but again, to me, what's the point...flintlocks use pieces of flint rock for ignition...that's the whole point...otherwise, why not just use a percussion rifle...or...a Marlin .30-30, etc...just my personal 2 cents...not putting any other's ideas down, just sharing how I look at it

I think we are on the same page -- the fun is the challenge.