Dech Flintlock Range Report

In my last post I descibed the GL Dech-restocked flintlock Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle which I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I got to shoot it yesterday up at Wicen's Range.

Since this was the first time out with a new rifle, I initially setup my target at 25 yards, to see where it was shooting. My starting load was a Hornady swaged .490" round ball, pillow ticking patch lubricated with Ox Yoke Wonder Lube, and 70 grains of FFg Goex black powder.

Point of impact with this load at 25 yards was just to the right of my point of aim. Elevation was right on. Since I hope to go deer hunting with this rifle I increased the powder charge to 80 grains, which didn't seem to affect of the POI. At this point my group was one ragged hole.

Having established that the rifle was on paper, I moved my target back to 50 yards. POI didn't change much. I'd expect to see more drop starting around 75 yards. I tapped the rear sight over in its dovetail but still need to do a little more tuning. I'm thinking about choosing 75 yards for the final zero but I'll have to see what difference is between 50 and 75.

The rifle is reliable. I intentionally did not clean the flash hole between shots (I did run a pipe cleaner through it before I loaded it the first time). I had no ignition problems until about the 15th shot, when I got a flash in the pan. After running a pick through the hole and repriming, the rifle fired as expected.

Overall, I am very pleased with my acquisition. I need to fine tune the zero. I also want to see if it will shoot .485" balls well, because they will be easier to load without cleaning between shots.