I have a late Ketland and a Roller lock that are very fast, I have a Deluxe Siler and and English round face that are not fast all the time.
Flint can be very fast but all the stars have to align, freshly sharpened flint, humidity and how long the prime has been in the pan, fowling from previous shots and most of all how well your lock is tuned. For instance; I have never balanced the spring tension between my main and frizzen spring, something that is supposed to make a huge difference in lock timing. I do polish all the surfaces of my lock internals to a mirror finish.
I have killed a lot of deer with my flintlocks, bottom line, deer (at least Alabama deer) "jump the string" on flintlocks because of slow lock times so you better aim low. Hang fires do happen in spite of all your caution to prevent them, I have never had a percussion gun hang fire on a deer.
My point is; I don't feel like a flintlock is an entry level gun, especially if you have never dabbled in black powder before. I shot percussion for 40 years before I transitioned to flint, my flintlocks were very frustrating to me at first. I missed the biggest buck I have ever seen in the woods at 30 yards because of a flash in the pan, re-primed then had a hang fire and a flinch. It was snowing huge wet snow flakes that evening, had I been shooting percussion my gun would have simply gone "bang".
The last deer I shot at with my flintlock was what appeared to be a 10 point at 12 yards. I had my lock-on set between too huge trees, I had my stand on one and could rest my rifle on the other, I had my smooth bore 12 with the English round face lock. The buck never saw me as he eased by, I put my sights on him (I have a rear sight on this smoothie),rested on the tree in front of me and touched it off, the lock hang fired. It appeared the buck dropped and crouched backward before the gun went off. I thought I missed, so I got down and looked for blood, I didn't find any and headed back to the truck. Back at the truck I got that feeling that I should go back and look one more time so I did. About 100 yards from where I shot the buck I found a bed with about a thimble full of blood in it and a few pinhead sized flecks of blood leaving the bed that were very hard to follow in the dark. I decided to back off and come back the next morning.
The next morning I went off in the hollow in the direction where the deer was headed but didn't find any blood, I walked up the whole hollow and back to where I took the shot and started over. This time I could follow the tiny flecks of blood right back to where I had been in the hollow and up the other side, we are talking a pinhead size fleck of blood every 10 to 15 yards. I followed the trail to a depression on the hillside up the ridge that had 3 beds in it, the newest had fresh blood in it but only about a teaspoon. The buck had been watching his back trail and obviously had run over the ridge when I made my first foray up the hollow.
I looked all morning on the ridge and later in the day I found 3 drops of blood where the buck had gone off the ridge down an almost vertical drop into a deep creek bottom I didn't have permission to go on and could have never recovered a deer from if I did, I lost the deer, a real bummer.
And folks, that is the reality of a flintlock, when they work right they are great, but they don't always work just right. Try to kill an alert squirrel with one and you will see what I mean, the little rascal won't be where he was when your gun goes off. Don't even think about shooting at a deer that is looking at you, I guarantee he will move faster than the lock of your gun.
