FR0106 Lyman Great Plains Rifle - 50 ca. Flint

In terms of off the shelf rifles this one is very very good. I had a little work down at the time or purchase (hardened the frizzen and a little polishing of the lock parts). With a seasoned barrel and the small adjustments mentioned above this gun hangs right in there with much more expensive custom guns at black powder shoots. In the woods the matte finish and plain furniture are pleasing to the eye and there is no flash from brass in the sunlight. After a day in the woods you will know you carried it. It is heavy but the positive trade off is that it holds very well. I'd buy this gun again in a second.

Hi Folks... this review will be of particular interest to Canadian customers! I ordered this rifle a few weeks ago and received it in just over two weeks... looking forward to shooting it this coming weekend. No issues crossing the border and no duties charged. Shipping was about $90 Canadian. Flintlocks do not require a PAL and can be shipped direct to the purchaser!

The Lyman is a great shooter. It is quite accurate even with heavier hunting loads. My particular rifle seems to like an 80 grain charge even better than the light target loads. The flint lock could have been better although it did work. It was shipped with the flint upside-down in the jaws of the cock (with the bevel up) and when I turned it over the top jaw screw hit the frizzen before the flint did. If long flints are used performance is satisfactory or if you leave the flint upside down. But they seem to wear faster and not spark as well in that configuration. I eventually replaced the whole lock with an L&R lock and am extremely pleased with it's performance. The rifle goes off every time and the balls go where I want them.

This was my first muzzle loader and I've had it for about 7 years now. Its a very good beginners muzzleloader but it really is a low quality rifle. The stock is beautiful but the barrel the sites and the lock are all 2nd rate at best. My barrel unevenly fits into the stock and the slots for the pins that hold the barrel to the stock are missaligned. So one needs a hammer to force the pins into their slots and they don't stay put after two or three shots they need to be hammered back into place. The dog that holds the flint is terrible. It came bent and the flints often strike the edge of the barrel and only hits half of the frizzen. A slightly worn flint means that the screw of the dog also strikes the frizzen unless the flint is placed in the jaws upside down. So knapped flints don't work nearly aswell as sawed ones. The frizzen spring is fairly weak so even slightly dull flints spark very poorly. The frizzen should be a lot tighter than it is. The barrel is \"two-pieces\"" it hooks into a slot that is screwed into the stock. All other muzzle loaders I own have a single piece barrel and mearly screw into the stock and are kept down with pins. On the lyman the barrel is kept in place with a hook at the end of the breach plug that locks into a small piece of \""barrel\"" near the handle. This in itself is not a bad idea but on my particular gun the slot for the hook was not made well and the barrel sits crookedly in the stock. The rear site is very good but the front blade was made very poorly. On my rifle it was bent and missaligned. It took much hammering and filing to make the front site usable. Despite all of these things it is an extremely accurate rifle and after sufficient seasoning it is not prone to extreme fouling. Even after extreme fouling it stays accurate. I would suggest this gun be bought more as a youth model than for the serious muzzle loader. Though it is accurate it is made very poorly. I was shocked at the lack of workmanship. If one is serious about buying this gun I would suggest that you also buy a new non-lyman lock to go with it. I may have just had bad luck with the rest of my gun. I will always keep it just because it was my first muzzle loader. "