Traditions Side Lock Percussion - Flintlock - Manual (Page 14)

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26. Be sure that all bystanders are safely positioned behind you and that
they are aware when you are about to shoot. Anyone near you should
also be wearing eye and ear protection.
27. Verify the nipple size on percussion models and be certain that the
percussion cap is of the same size.
28. Keep your fingers out of the trigger guard and off the trigger until you
are sure of your target and ready to fire.
OBSERVATIONS AND ADJUSTMENTS
For reasons of safety and maximum performance, these loading instructions
must be closely followed. They will, with practice, become second nature
and will make for safe, dependable and accurate shooting. We recommend
you have an experienced black powder shooter with you the first few times
you load and shoot.
A. Preliminaries:
1. Wear quality eye and ear protection when loading, shooting and
cleaning any gun.
2. Check the nipple on a percussion gun or the flint, jaws and frizzen
of flintlock gun, to be sure they are secure. Tighten, if necessary.
Take care not to overtighten. Always lubricate threads when
installing a nipple. Most Traditions™ percussion rifles and pistols
utilize a nipple with M6 x 1 threads. Others may require a different
size nipple, if not sure contact us at (800)-526-9556.
B. Determining that the gun is unloaded:
1. Insert the ramrod down the bore of the barrel and mark it at the
point where it exits the muzzle. In the event that the ramrod com-
pletely enters the barrel, take note of the distance between the end
of the ramrod and the muzzle.
Note: Each time this test is done, make certain that he same attachments, if any, are
screwed onto the loading end of the ramrod.
2. Remove the ramrod and lay it alongside the barrel.
3. Align the reference mark on the ramrod even with the end of the
muzzle. If the gun is unloaded, the other end of the ramrod should
be even with the nipple of a percussion gun or touch hole area of a
flintlock. If it is significantly higher (2’’) than that, the barrel is prob-
ably either obstructed or loaded. In either case, this situation must be
resolved before continuing with the loading and shooting proce-
dures. (See Removing the projectile and Charge.)