Barrel Seasoning?

Well, I dunno 'bout the deeper rifling depth making it harder to load a foul barrel.
I have read that the grooves were made deep for roundball guns so it would be easier to load a fouled barrel.
I don't know if that is a fact or not.
I think the shallow grooved barrel would be harder to load fouled.
Keep in mind a couple of historical facts. ( or was that hysterical???)
Powder made before the Civil war was greatly superior to Goex and Elephant made today.
Actually both Goex and Elephant are JUNK compared to powder in the old days.
Commonly available powder today fouls something terrible.
Try some Swiss and you will notice a GREAT difference in fouling over those others.
And, yes, I shoot Goex, Elephant AND Swiss.
The BEST powder made was by the Confederates during that conflict. It fouled much less than todays G. and E.
Who made powder for the Union? Dupont got the contract. What happened to the Confederate powder mill? Dupont bought if after the dispute was settled and blew it up!!!
Why?
So Dupont could continue making inferior powder without competition.
Todays Goex is inferior stuff. Swiss is premier powder.
Swiss imports very refined saltpeter, super pure sulphur and will only use certain wood for charcoal.
Yes I know the quanitites of the chemicals are the same, but the quality of the ingredients is another story.
Well, that orta get the stuff flying huh? :haha:

 

[steved]

My apologies to Roundball for misquoting. I know he is a T/C fan (like myself) and I made my generalization based upon my 1:48 T/C barrel, not considering the other options available. Maybe there is some magic in that natural lube 1000. Gotta pick some up.

 

[roundball]

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised if you tried this:
1) Scrub / clean your existing bore using "diswashing detergent" with the hot water as it will leach everything out of the bore that it can, then heavily lube with NL1000;
2) Get a bag of OxYoke (or TC, same thing) prelubed patches;
3) Get a bag of OxYoke wonderwads (a.k.a. bore buttons)

Then try it...every barrel I've got responds to NL1000 the same way, regardless if they're .010" x 1:66"'s that I've been shooting the past few years or .006" x 1:48"'s that I shot for the previous 10-12 years...I do nothing different from one barrel to another.
TC's own published advertisement is that they shot 1,015 consecutive shots nonstop through a side lock percussion rifle...and even if we assume they did it under tightly controlled conditions, temperature, humidity, and used the cleanest powder available, over 1000 shots of anything is still significant, so it's easy to understand why some piddley little 50 shot session at a range is just a walk in the park to NL1000.

 

[45man]

I have to agree, "seasoning" is a bunch of hooey, ain't no sech thing. The scotch brite is usefull if a round ball rifle's bore gets too smooth after a lot of shooting. They will get too polished and accuracy will fall of. Yeah, I know, this will start the responses all over again!

 

In over 30 years of BP shooting, we've never had to clean mid-stride of a day's shooting. We've always used 'brushed' denim for patching in the past, with balls .005 under bore size. Once level with the muzzle, and short-started, they go down quite easily. Yes, I have broken rods, goes with the territory, I guess. With a tight ball/patch combo, one doesn't have to 'search' for a good load. They all shoot well, with heavy loads carrying accuracy to 200yds in the larger bores.
: Nowadays, I use balls .010" under bore size merely for the ease of loading, along with heavy denim patches. Using the wide part of the calipers, it measures .026" thick. This patch holds lots of spit for range shooting, and mink oil or Bear's oil (old favourite of ours)(not shortening)for hunting.
; Long time ago, when firt stating out in BP, we tried the maxi's, THEN had to clean every 10-15 shots or so. With RB, all day shooting is easy. The large bores and very small bores are the least fussy for some reasn. .45's and .50's seem to need more attention than larger or smaller. .45 to .54 Maxi's don't penetrate in a straight line on moose from 48" twists - they go thorugh the soft areas of the body, shirking the bones as they penetrate. RB's Kill much better, even in the .50 - max 75yds. on moose. My opinion- from experience in special weapon's hunts in the north.
: The .58's on up are really nice to shoot.(forgiving) My hunting buddy up here in the bush shoots a "Purdy" style, .75 (Getz Bl) for moose, while I used my .69 generic English Sporting rifle, both rifled. Mine was a Green River bl.with .012" rifling. It would handle 10 paper ctgs. with 165gr. @F, then load the .684"RB with .020" patch no problem, comtinue shooting into the same group, 1 1/2" @ 100yds. The large bores are more forgiving of this due to the low pressures involved. Keith's .025" rifling wouldn't do for more than 5ctgs. and he'd have to clean. The deep rifling fouled badly with paper & .735balls. For some reason, the shallower rifling in the .69 didn't. Food for thought? .012" compared to .025". Patched balls, no problem in either.
: Incidently, Keith had to drop his powder charge to 100gr. to keep a ball in a moose. From 125gr. up, they always passed through. Moose go down quickly when they're hit by something 16guage or over, especially when it exits. They turn into real babies then, and IF they walk away after a hit, they walk slowly, then lay down inside 20 to 75yds, even if you're standing right there in the open. They always 'SHUDDDERRRRR' when hit by the big balls.
; 50%+ of a ML's accuracy is in the loading, how, why & consistancy thereof.
Daryl