Preparing a percussion rifle for hunting

Here in Western Washington, i have been plauged by "hang fires" during hunting season. Im hunting with the parker hale series of Enfield rifles. Ive gotten lucky with hang fires and still hitting a deer, but the last 2 years I've missed due to a delay in ignition.

Before I leave my car, I make sure to blast a few caps to clear the nipple and again wipe the bore, but still find i have a slight delay when I chance upon a deer.

To lesson the chance of the occurrence, should I blow compressed air through the nipple to further clear the nipple?

How do you all manage this annoyance? I am debating on taking a few fouling shots before I head out but really do not want to have to unload clean my rifle after every day of hunting.

Don’t wipe after popping the caps.

I have never had that problem with my cap guns so what I have to say will only be a suggestion, and may not be a cure

1- do you have a obstruction free and and clear flash channel, double check
2- are you using excessive oils in your cleaning routine, spray brake kleen thru flash channel before loading, plus burst of air, and dry patch
3- old caps, or contaminated, right size to fit nipple CCI and Remington I never had a problem
4- powder, brand, size, substitute or real, I use 3F Triple 7 no problem
5- wet conditions try sealing cap with a water proof substance

Phil Coffins said:

Don’t wipe after popping the caps.

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That should do it? I would use some acetone to get any oil that might be in the rifle if you used oil!

I don't fire any caps before. I do this and don't have any issues.
1. Clean the bore And breech face with a dry patch and follow up with alcohol or Gun Scrubber solvent.
2. Remove the nipple and using Q-tips clean under it with the above dry and alcohol procedure.
3. Using pipe cleaners do the same with the flash channel.
4. Reinstall the nipple.

These are all good tips. Perhaps I am using too much oil

SolidLeadSlug said:

These are all good tips. Perhaps I am using too much oil

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I would look closely at this. I’ve hunted with percussion rifles in Oregon and New England. Both places can be very damp, especially Oregon as you are probably well aware.

I had none of the issues you are describing, and never did anything special other than stretching a balloon over the muzzle and keeping the lock out of direct pouring rain.

If you can get it firing consistently at the range and get it loaded up the same way for hunting you should be good to go…

SolidLeadSlug said:

These are all good tips. Perhaps I am using too much oil

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Bingo. You only need a small amount on your patch and then wipe with a clean patch to wipe off the excess. You just need a microscopic film in the bore.

SolidLeadSlug said:

Here in Western Washington, i have been plauged by "hang fires" during hunting season. Im hunting with the parker hale series of Enfield rifles. Ive gotten lucky with hang fires and still hitting a deer, but the last 2 years I've missed due to a delay in ignition.

Before I leave my car, I make sure to blast a few caps to clear the nipple and again wipe the bore, but still find i have a slight delay when I chance upon a deer.

To lesson the chance of the occurrence, should I blow compressed air through the nipple to further clear the nipple?

How do you all manage this annoyance? I am debating on taking a few fouling shots before I head out but really do not want to have to unload clean my rifle after every day of hunting.

Click to expand...

Make sure you use REAL black powder and none of the fake stuff. My brother & I were hunting in heavy snow once (had to keep wiping the snow off the barrel to see the sights). Anyway, he was using Pyrodex and had misfires (3 of them) all day long. Every time I touched off with real powder, it went bang. I ended up loaning him so black powder so his gun would go bang too.

MTMountainman said:

Make sure you use REAL black powder and none of the fake stuff. My brother & I were hunting in heavy snow once (had to keep wiping the snow off the barrel to see the sights). Anyway, he was using Pyrodex and had misfires (3 of them) all day long. Every time I touched off with real powder, it went bang. I ended up loaning him so black powder so his gun would go bang too.

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Only use swiss black powder here. Have about 5lbs of the fake stuff I'd like to git rif of!

I always pop a cap before loading. I usually hold the bore just above a leaf so I can see it move when popping the cap. Then I load.
Of course now I hunt with flintlocks.

SolidLeadSlug said:

These are all good tips. Perhaps I am using too much oil

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Store your rifle muzzle down. I found it makes a difference back in my Rem Oil, et al days. I now use a light coating of pure bear grease/oil and still store muzzle down for a day or two.

Bear grease can become oil if the temperature changes enough. Depends on the bear and what he ate. I also use nothing but the Holy Black.

SolidLeadSlug said:

These are all good tips. Perhaps I am using too much oil

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I like lots of oil, but carry a few ounces of denatured alcohol. When ready to load a cleaned, oiled and stored percussion, I plug the nipple with a cleaning patch under the hammer against the nipple. Pour teaspoon of DA down the muzzle and let set a minute or two. Tip the gun & pour the DA out the muzzle. Dry patch swab bore with pumping strokes to air out the flash channel. Pop two caps with the muzzle facing a weed to make sure flash channel is clear. Load, without anymore cleaning.
Larry

The above storage/oil suggestions are good. If you are getting a rust preventative oil into the flash channel, that may be the culprit for sure.
I use Barricade, I like it because it dries to a film. I do a light coating after cleaning and drying and then store the rifle muzzle down for a couple days just in case I used too much. After that it is no longer a liquid that I have to worry about migrating into the flash channel.
It does not have to be removed before loading and shooting, so I can load up and leave the gun loaded for several days until I get a shot and the bore still has protection. Also, I do always pop a couple caps before loading up for hunting.

When I leave it loaded, I put some tape over the muzzle to keep moisture out and when not hunting I put a foam earplug over the nipple and set the hammer down onto it. Helps to keep moisture out from that end plus it is a very visible reminder that the rifle is already loaded (have read stories of people who forgot their rifle was already loaded and then double loaded it). I keep the rifle in a non heated room in my house to prevent big temperature swings that might form condensation ("sweating") on the inside of the bore while it is left loaded for hunting as well.

Another important check to do. When you dump the powder in, do you smack the side of the stock to migrate powder to under the nipple? Have you ever checked under the nipple after loading to see if your loading process is getting powder right under the nipple?
You can also load and then simply pull the nipple and trickle a bit of powder in, just like you'd do for a mis-fire. Ensures there is powder right under the nipple in a hunting scenario.

Patch lube, if using a RB projectile, can also be a culprit if the wrong kind and left to sit on the powder for quite a while like a load for hunting does.

On models with a "patent breech" style breech I went to a musket nipple and it helped. Cleaning the fire channel with a pipe cleaner and alcohol before loading took care of the rest.
.
Other things have been covered before.
* Pay attention to conditions that cause condensation, including: shelters, vehicles, weather, even how you hold the gun. I have one that the balance point is right at the powder charge / frizzen spring. Carried bare handed for several hours - I've sat and watched condensation form on the barrel.
*Type and amount of lube.
*Powder type and granulation. Some are easier to ignite (real black), and some are more hygroscopic.
*Sealing the cap to nipple with something waterproof that won't migrate under the cap. Makes sense, but my own results have not proven this to be absolute.
.
My suspicion is oil in the breech and condensation or the culprits 95% of the time.
.
Obviously, some designs exacerbate these problems. Shorter, faster, hotter win the day for hunting in foul weather.

Renegade posted while I was typing.

There's many different reasons why some of us shoot 777 over black. Undoubtedly availability is the big one. I can't buy any of black in 250 to 300 miles of where I live. I don't like paying no exorbitant price as I don't shoot a lot and only need probably 1 LB a year at the very most. Hazmat fees and regulations make it tough to only buy 1 LB at a time, I'm pretty darn old so I don't need 5 lbs on hand. There are some common sense things that should be observed if you are going to use 777 or pyrodex. Store your rifle with the barrel down. When you clean it, take the nipple out and perhaps blow a little break clean or alcohol through there and wash it down in the barrel. Bore the nipple out to at least .030 from.026. I go to .031, but I don't load on the high side. Clean when done and do so well. If you do these things, life does get better.
Squint

My brother lived in the state of Washington and as you know it does have its damp and rainy days. He shot both flint and cap guns and never said that he had an issue with either. He did not hunt or shoot in the rain. Do you have this condition only when you are hunting or all of the time you go shooting? At home before I would go hunting I would do as some other folks have said and wipe the bore with IPA then blow dry. I would first remove the nipple before doing this. When I get to my hunting area I would snap a few caps off then use one of the CO2 discharges and blow a few blasts of compressed air through the nipple before loading. Good luck.