Why the "Traditions Kentucky" rifel can be unreliable.

 I've found that once you put a sharp stone in the lock, the frizen will ignite a powder. It does not seem to be a poorly made frizen is my point. But the flashes in the pan have been my biggest issue with these models (2024, I think). So an investigation into the barrel was warranted to find the odd manufacturing practice. The removable touchhole is drilled into the non-removable breech plug itself. The breech plug has a narrow hole only the diameter of the narrow end of the stick shown, leading to the main barrel, which holds part of the charge.

The reason for the odd touchhole is to reduce manufacturing costs. High-end flintlock barrels are somewhat conical, appropriately increasing the barrel material as they reach the area where the main charge will occur. The drilling of the touchhole weakens the barrel, and yet this is exactly where the barrel needs to be the strongest. The result is that cheaper European factory guns are slower, as the charge must travel from the pan, through the breach plug hole, then into the main charge.

So you need to tap the gun well and hope your powder falls into the narrow hole of the breech plug inside the barrel. This small bit of powder must then be lit by the prime charge through the especially narrow touchhole. Your powder must be fast and clean if you hope to come near to repeating shooting  rifle. The rifle is never reliable, and the touchhole tube in the breech plug needs a special cleaning procedure at the end of every shooting day at best and at worst cant be expected to fire more than a few rounds with well-burning bp.

I will experiment with a white lightnin touch hole and see if this improves the reliability of the rifle by opening up the passage of the touchhole to alow powder to rest there.

The same barel drilled and tapped for the white lightnn touch hole. 

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