Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Lyman Great Plains Rifle = Junk

I have the misfortune of a Lyman GPR also. Mine came with what can only be described as a lock with sand for a lubricant, a gap between frizzen and pan that Lyman should be ashamed of, and a barrel with the serial number smack in the center of the recall group. Well, the lock was easy, an L&R took care of that, and while reinletting for it, I shifted the flash hole liner to a more advantageous position.

The barrel is another story. The original barrel didn't settle in for a little over 200 rounds, then only marginally accurate, a 50 yard gun at best. The recall seemed like a blessing in disquise, untill I shot it. The replacement barrel blew holes clean through any patch I used, totally unhuntable. Rifling is so sharp you might cut yourself looking at it. Tried xxxx steel wool, no help. polishing compound, no help. Scotchbrite on a 50 cal jag, (GPR is a 54), no help.

Finally someone on another forum suggested valve grinding compound to fire lap the barrel. He gave instructions as to how he did it, and it at last would group! Three days running I got 1/2"-3/4" three shot 50 yard groups cold and clean. Took it on our Pa flintlock hunt. Missed a good doe at 66 yds, for no known reason. Back to the range.

The sight-in WAS 1" high @ 50 YDS, NOW 5"high @ 50 YDS. But it still grouped. The rifle still feels rough loading it, but I'm a bit apprehensive about any more firelapping, maybe more "patched ball lapping" will finish breaking it in.......MAYBE.


To anyone thinking about buying a new Lyman I would suggest finding an alternative brand, one that comes able to shoot groups out of the box.....It's a shame T/C dropped out of the side lock market.

I have a new in the box 54 caliber Deerstaker and it is pretty nice for a factory rifle. I guess it is 15 years old. I even bought factory peep sights for it. I should give it a run, but I have a handful to keep me busy.

Took my Traditions Pa Pellet over to the gun club yesterday instead of going deer hunting, (that Lyman GPR is NOT reliable), and went about working up a round ball load for it. It's a 50 Cal, 1:48 twist, so I figured even though it's allowed a 150Gr Max charge,the little round ball should be more accurate with a light charge.

Swabbing between shots with 91% alcohol, I managed an accurate load at 75grs FFG, .490 round ball, abd a .015 Ox Yoke wonder lubed patch. Sighted in at a 50 yd zero I headed home, gave it a thorough cleaning, let it cool to outside temperature then back to the bench to verify the guns sight-in cold and clean. In under a single day this $300 flintlock out performed the Lyman GPR in both accuracy and dependability! The ball went smack into the center of the group fired that morning.

Lyman has no right to be selling flintlocks for such a high price especially so when they aren't even "finished". PURE JUNK IMO!

Lyman GPR flint. .490 LRB, 0.010 patch, 90 grs. Goex FFg
Buckhorn sights. 100 yards benched. Three shots for a competition.

That is a pretty nice group! Wish my 54 GPR could consistantly do that. The Traditions Pa Pellet does about 3/4". @ 50yds. Nowhere near as impressive as your 50 GPR @ 100!

Don't ever give that shooter up!

I have a LH Lyman Deerstalker .54 cal flintlock. No complaints with fit and finish. Won't claim it meets the standards set by custom builders but it's pretty nicely put together. Purchased it in 2008. Sorry to hear yours doesn't live up to expectations. Do you think you can correct some of its ills yourself? Obviously not ideal, but if you can you will be happier when it is all said and done and may even bond with it for the work put into it.

I've been reading many posts about older Lymans getting superb accuracy without any issues getting there. The fit and finish on mine was never any problem, save having to relocate the flash hole location for caplock like ignition. The lack of repeatable accuracy is the dificulty that has forced me to place the GPR in the gunsafe until our flintlock deer season is over.My old PA Pellet is dependable enough to get me to the end of the season on 1/25/20,

At that point I'm hoping to figure something out with the headache rifle, either put another hundred rounds through it, maybe try using automotive rubbing compound as a patch lube for 15 or 20 rounds to try to polish that ever coarse rifling, or use it a a tomatoe stake if all else fails......which is really looking like the answer at the moment.

I'm glad for you that your Lyman is obviously an acceptably accurate shooter, and wish you many, many more years of it being that way. Thank you for the support! I realize I am very new to Campfire, but I truely do believe it's a great forum with wonderful members!

Back in the early ‘80’s we sold beaucoup Lyman GPR’s. They were a quality rifle and a good shooter/hunter. The only thing I found wrong with them is apparently the adjustment screw for the set triggers was more ornamental that functional. A longer screw cured that situation.

Another thing was many customers wanted a traditional fixed rear sight. The sight that I found the most adaptable and accurate was this one sold by the Kindig’s of Log Cabin shop. Lodi Ohio



I cut the base down to proper dimensions and fitted to existing dovetail. It made for a good sturdy sight. I have lost all touch in the past 35 years of just what is available anymore in the way of a factory gun. I just pay little attention to them.

I keep hearing about the older Lymans being of such quality, from fit and finish to outstanding accuracy that guys sometimes bought one rather than spaend the extra money on a custom gun. I don't dispute that notion at all, I only wish I had gotten one when they were truley worth the money, time, and effort myself!

As I mentioned in earlier posts, mine wears an L&R lock, (I love it), and a replacement barrel from the recall thing. As for sights, I have the Lyman peep set up,and from the few times this GPR shot accurately, the peep set up was worth the cost.

My muzzleloaders were mostly caplock untill about 7 years ago when the bug bit me to try flints, and I like them alot, just not this GPR. I had all T/C's, refitted with Green Mountain barrels, and they shot right out of the box no problems. T/C decided to get away from sidelocks before I got my first flinter, hence the Traditions Pa Pellet, which also was a good shooter right off, no real break-in, just find the perferred load, go out and harvest deer.

The fire lapping I did on the GPR helped quite a lot, but the rifle accuracy still has some consistantcy issues to work out, and just before getting on the forum I used some Turtlewax rubbing compound, lapping by hand, hot water bath, then Turtlewax polishing compound followed by another solid cleaning. As of now, I'm allowing the Birchwood Casey Barricade to thoroughly dry before seeing how it did.....once Barricade dries, there isn't any need to do any more than load, run a single dry patch down to remove excess lube from the patch, and fire. That manages first shot accuracy matching the following group.

If this works out, I might just have a dependable flintlock.......if not, I'm VERY open to suggestions, or using it as a tomatoe stake next spring!

I have an older GPR .50 flint that I bought while in high school that I think I paid around 350 for! The fit and finish were very good and it worked and shot well. Sadly, I ruined the original barrel with one of those "unbreakable" ram rods because I didnt know any better. It now wears a green mountain barrel and an LR lock, but it shot better with the original barrel when it was new..

Just this past October I ordered a .54 flint GPR and it was junk! Wood was proud of the metal work by A LOT!! I returned it for a full refund. I bought it on the reputation of my original GPR, but sadly, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments of this thread stating the newer ones have serious issues, and invest arms should be ashamed of putting out a product of such poor fit and finish!

I hope I don’t come across as an elitist or snob. Certainly not the intent. But when it comes to flintlocks, I shy away from ALL production rifles. Every one! I would save a few more bucks and get one from a reputable maker. Or build my own from scratch. The lock is the heart of a flinter, IMHO. No cutting corners if you want a good one.

Juse my opinion. 😉

Back in the day the Lyman Great Plains Rifle was a Cadillac in my neck of the woods, but like other manufacturers probably got sold to an investment company and they put together a team to see how cheap they could make something and layed off the quality control department.

Had a Lyman GPR about 20 years ago. It was actually very accurate. But the quality sucked, IMO.

Sold it and bought a TC .54 Cal Hawken. Much better quality and every bit as accurate.

I would really be interested in where you located a Green Mountain barrel for your GPR. I've been looking around the internet but haven't had any success finding one. If this final attempt at smoothing the rifling fails, I'll have to accept the barrel is just too poor to straighten it out, and since Lyman hasn't answered my emails, they obviously have no intention of doing anything at all about it.

Not really anything pertaining to just GPR’s but,,,,

I would add to my above statement that probably the best thing to come along for production flint lock rifles have been the L&R replacement locks. With one caveat. As long as the touch hole lines up in it’s appropriate spot in relation to the flashpan. This seems to be the issue with many production rifles.

I have a Cabelas marked Investarms and its a beautifully made gun. I love my T/C's but this one has them beat

You will likely find them from Track Of The Wolf. I got mine there. It's for my TC Hawken. It is a 50 cal. 1/66" twist. It is more accurate than the TC barrel , however, the original was 1/48" . The Gren Mountain was $286 wit shipping. Not bad at all and fit perfect.

Thanks ihookem, I bought my L&R locks through Track, and they're my source for flints as well. I don't do quite as well on the internet as these younger guys do, (I'm a dinosaur!), so I guess I missed seeing them on the website.

I'm heading to the club this morning to check out the Tomatoe Stake for the last time. If the polish job did any good I'll have a really interesting nickname for the GPR, (My Renegade is called "Mabel"), if not, Track will be geting another call about a Green Mountain replacement.

On the hopeful side, all that I have done to the GPR is mostly from those ideas from 24Hour Campfire posts, and I would be pleased to outline it here for anyone on the forum with the same misfortune to at least have a chance to get the "junk" usable! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!

Well, this is likely my last post on the Lyman GPR. Lyman made no response, nothing tried has managed to smooth the rifling, there is no hunting accuracy with the replacement barrel, and, finally, there is no replacement barrels available for the GPR rifle other thand the Lyman.

$650 for the rifle, $200 for the lock (which is great incidently), and April>January trying to shoot it in. You know what they say, you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear, or a decent flintlock from a Lyman.

Thanks all for tring to help

Sorry, mine are a great shooters, fit and finish is very good! Got two, I bought one with a bad barrel and had a Green Mountain barrel fitted to Lyman breech plug. It is a .54 with 1:66 twist. I stripped the blue from all the metal and browned it myself, left the nose cap and the wedge plates in the white. One of my favorites. I don't shoot muzzle loaders much so don't want to spent a couple grand on a full custom, so this will do!