Hi guys. I was wondering, in my pendersol frontier at the bottom of the barrel is that small chamber that the powder sits in beside the touch hole. ( sorry my mind can’t think of the correct words) anyway. I usually use a spit patch between shots then a couple of dry ones. I use 3F powder for both the load and the pan. Sometimes I cannot feel the powder with my nipple pic. That’s when it doesn’t go boom. So having just gotten a right size jag to fit how often should I clean it out and would a brush do better than a jag with cloth? Thanks
That's what is known as a "Patent Breech". There are a bunch of variations of it from about the 1840's on, but they all basically do the same thing and offer the same cleaning challenges. The patent breech does not go into the side of the barrel like a "normal" flash hole does. Rather it goes behind the back of the bore and comes into the barrel from the center of the back. This is supposed to give a better and more evenly exploding load because the flash comes into the bore from the middle of the back instead of into the bore from the side of the barrel. My Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle that I bought in the early 2000's has one of those. In My Humble Opinion, it's more trouble than it's worth. Here's an illustration of a patent breech, similar to what you've encountered. Again, there are variations on the patent breech but this demonstrates the basic function they all have.
That smaller pre-ignition antechamber that comes into the back is tough to clean. You need to find a brass brush of the right caliber to fit into the antechamber to clean it well. And then, there is no real way to get anything in the flue channel if it needs scrubbing out. So if/when you get a flash in the pan, picking out the flash hole may not help at all. In fact, it might just push some fouling up against an area at the bottom of or entrance to the Antechamber that is already constricted with previous fouling and really plug it up. But fear not, there is a method that was shown to my by the gun-builder in our reenactment group that cleans all that stuff out and as long as you use it every day that you shoot your rifle, you don't need to go out and by any extra brushes or tools to clean the breech nor a really long brass-wire rod to try to clear the flash channel.
Once I started doing the following cleaning regimen, I never had a problem with that patent breech again.
• Remove the lock and put a round toothpick or carved twig in the flash hole. Be sure it is a snug fit.
(***oops*** Since this is under Flintlock rifles, I presumed we were talking about a flintlock, but since we're talking about nipples, it's obviously a caplock. You should be able to just plug the nipple and proceed as below.)
• Pour in enough water or cleaning solution to put a couple of inches of liquid in the Bore. I use MAP, but if I'm out of that just regular water works fine.
• Stand the rifle up leaning against a tree or other resting place so that liquid can soak into the internal fouling.
• Clean, dry, and oil the lock while the barrel is soaking. Do NOT reinstall the lock yet.
• Now...back to the barrel...Run a WET patch down the barrel until you feel some decent hydraulic pressure from trying to compact the liquid inside. Don't get crazy about it but you don't want to just rest it there. You do want to put some pressure on it.
• Maintaining that pressure on your ramrod, be sure to point the toothpick or twig in the flash hole well away from anything within about 15-feet that you don't want to stain black with the dissolved black powder fouling.
• Now, while maintaining the pressure on the ramrod, reach down and remove the toothpick or twig, while forcefully driving your ramrod all the way down.
• This will spurt out a really black stream of liquid a good 6-feet or more away from the flash hole, so BE SURE that it's not going to hit anything you don't want stained. I stained the side of a friends tent the first time I did this.
• The bottom of the bore, the patent breech, and the flash hole will now be really clean. Go ahead and run some wet patches down the barrel to remove residual fouling above the bottom of the bore until they come back clean
• Follow that up with 1 or 2 dry patches as needed and, when they come back clean and dry, you can LIGHTLY oil a patch and running down.
• BEWARE!!! DO NOT run a heavily oiled patch down barrel. The last thing you want is for there to actually be enough oil in that breech to soak the bottom of your next load of Black Powder, because it will not ignite if you do. Ask me how I know this!! If that happens then you'll have to go through the whole hydraulic cleaning exercise again. It's a Goldilock's operation - Not too much, Not too little, just right.
• Now you can go ahead and re-install your lock.
Even though I've probably over-explained this, it really takes very little time to do this and as long as you hydraulically clean it every day you shoot it, you won't have any trouble keeping that patent breech clean and operating reliably.
The next longrifle that I bought in about 2006 was my Early Lancaster that has a standard breech coming into the bore from the side, and I still use that same method to clean it. I much prefer the standard breech on a flintlock compared to a patent breech.
Hope this helps!
Dan
