Artificial fouling

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Weavedreamer

32 Cal
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Jul 19, 2023
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Ellensburg Wa 98926
Any thoughts on creating a so called “artificial fouling” that wouldn’t cause corrosion when using in the field like a traditional fouling shot would. I’ve done some experimenting of my own with limited results but then again I get very little time to shoot and actually test for myself.
 
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Like a more effective bore seasoning that would actually prevent rust. I know there’s just bore butter and a million lubes but they don’t really tighten the group or give consistency to a cleaned barrel from my experience. There’s always that first shot after being cleaned that’s a whizzer. It seems it’s this way even with a tight patch. Unless you wanted to go through the process of sighting your gun in on a spotless barrel. It’s just more repeatable and easy to shoot a fouled barrel which still accounts for swabbing between shots. When I’m hunting I’ve never had a problem leaving a gun loaded for a week even in the coastal rainforest of Washington state during the monsoon season and I just use a number 11 percussion cap. I have a family technique to waterproofing the load from both ends completely. The gun has always gone off when I pull the trigger and I have never had a hang fire. I’ve even fully submerged my muzzleloader while doing river crossings and still haven’t had problems with ignition afterwards. There’s a more traditional and a more modern trick for this. So the only problem I have had is corrosion in the barrel. The best way I’ve found to essentially keep your fouling shot and still mostly protect the barrel is number one flex tape, but number two is bore butter. So I’ll shoot my muzzleloader to get a fouling shot then reload. Then all I do is swab the barrel a few times with a bore butter like mixture until the inside has a liberal coat. Finally the muzzle gets topped off with a piece of flex seal tape. I think it would just be easier to use some sort of bore coating to swab the barrel on top of the load that better emulates BP fouling without having to discharge your gun first. Especially after you get back from the range and have to clean your gun to get it ready for your hunt only to have to discharge it before you can make an accurate shot. Has anyone accomplished this?
 
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Why take a fouling shot when you are hunting?
Sure, I can see it when target shooting, and multiple shots are fired for accuracy within a short time. But hunting?
When I take a percussion hunting, I may snap a cap or two to make sure the nipple is clear, but then I load a clean barrel and leave it that way until I take a shot at game. And that may be a week later regardless of the weather. I don't have a fouled barrel to worry about.
 
Interesting idea. I have a rifle that groups a little different . First shot one place, the rest in a tight group two inches right of the original shot from a clean bore. I guess your mystery goop would need to be the same consistency as black powder fouling but non corrosive and non hygroscopic. Charcoal dust and lard? Needs research!
 
I think the old guys would just swab the bore with a greasy rag and call it good. All the old wrought iron barrels I saw looked terrible but cleaned up after a lot of scrubbing. I think the caps of those days were more destructive to iron than the black powder residue. But now we have pyrodex…..
 
Well target shooting, especially hard core blood shooters need to eliminate all variables as much as possible. They weigh ball down to a grain or two or even half. Weigh powder charges, near dry patches , every little trick they can think of and threat produces the smallest possible group
I shoot any ball that doesn’t have visable defects. Pour my charge in a rough measure. Shooting for sight in and just practice I’ve not noted difreabcs between first shot and tenth, but do swab my bore between shots, I don’t know how that effects what your looking for
But I would hazard just from basic physics a fouled barrel that is cold, as in a hunting day near freezing is going to shoot different then a warm, from both the ambient temp and the warmth of ‘rapid’ shooting, barrel sighted in during 70 degree plus weather
 
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