Ball Creep

[Dphar1950]

To answer ugly old guy, What is "Ball Creep"? Lets return to the original post.


In the original post, @Smokey Plainsman was talking about a fouling crust ring building up where the ball would rest on the powder. As the crust ring built up, the ball would not seat as deep as observed on previous loads. He too was concerned about moving off the powder charge and creating a barrel obstruction.

After 60 posts we have determined that it is important to deal with the fouling crust ring to allow us to load with the ball seated firmly on the powder. Most of us solve it by wiping with a damp patch which keeps the fouling soft and the crust wiped out of the bore. How to eliminate the crust ring is a balancing act of jag size, wiping patch thickness and cleaning material The fluff up is that we have different means to achieve the same result.

Use what works for you while avoiding pushing fouling into the breech and causing failures to fire.

A hard fouling ring is symptomatic of improper management of the rifle, wrong patch lube, not blowing through the bore, etc. Or even the wrong charge weight or maybe granulation.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Switched to a very wet spit's patch, larger balls, and cleaner powder (OE).

Problem solved!

 

[Dphar1950]

To answer ugly old guy, What is "Ball Creep"? Lets return to the original post.


In the original post, @Smokey Plainsman was talking about a fouling crust ring building up where the ball would rest on the powder. As the crust ring built up, the ball would not seat as deep as observed on previous loads. He too was concerned about moving off the powder charge and creating a barrel obstruction.

After 60 posts we have determined that it is important to deal with the fouling crust ring to allow us to load with the ball seated firmly on the powder. Most of us solve it by wiping with a damp patch which keeps the fouling soft and the crust wiped out of the bore. How to eliminate the crust ring is a balancing act of jag size, wiping patch thickness and cleaning material The fluff up is that we have different means to achieve the same result.

Use what works for you while avoiding pushing fouling into the breech and causing failures to fire.

OK. First, I don't get a fouling rings that prevent the ball from going down as far. What I DO get is a certain build up of fouling in the powder bed since unless the entire bore is wiped. BP does not even get close to combusting completely. Even more so with graphite coatings since it will not burn at all at the combustion temps involved. Much of this is ejected but some, a percentage remains in the bore. BPCR shooter gets to see it in the empty case. If you shoot 10 shots at 70 grains with no wiping you have what ever percentage of 700 grains of powder in the breech. There will some from the rest of the bore pushed down which adds to this volume which reduces the volume of the powder bed. If it totals 5 grains or 10 the ball will stand 5-10 grains closer to the muzzle with the same compression. Now I have, when not managing the rifle properly, run into harder fouling near the breech. Invariably from blowing through the bore properly. It makes putting the ball down the last inches harder and sometimes it takes some pushing. This can be dangerous if you have a slim stock since it can put a lot of pressure on the wrist. If you are getting a ring its possible that the patch lube may be causing fouling pushed down by the ball to cook hard in the area where the ball normally sets.

 

[ugly old guy]

Use what works for you while avoiding pushing fouling into the breech and causing failures to fire.

The only thing that caused me a failure to fire (and/or hang fires) was a cleaning(?) patch in the breech left by a former owner of that rifle.
A "good" worm would not grab that patch and remove it.
I discovered the problem after removing the drum and breech plug. (it was an old CVA "Kentucky" rifle in .45 caliber. Made long before CVA "Became" Traditions

for the sidelock guns, and increased the caliber to .50 for the "Kentucky" rifle.​

(yeah ... yeah ... I know they really didn't, even though the guns are identical, and all parts are interchangeable)

 

[Dphar1950]

The problem with spit is rings in the bore where ball sits. BTDT when I was a kid. Tallow, Neatsfoot, or Neatsfoot/beeswax mix and a blow tube will cure the problem and no risk of corrosion rings.