coned or polished?

[bowjock]

When reading up some on the breech plugs, some suggest that the "flat" face be polished to a mirror finish, and some suggest coneing the end. Does anyone have a perferred method? I understand that when coneing, you would need to make a scraper to clean that area out where as a flat scraper would do on the flat face. But is there any advantage or disadvantage to either as far as accuracy? I think that I read that the coned breech gives higher valocity?

 

[MSW]

i've never heard of coneing the breech end of a barrel- this is an interesting idea. the only problem i could see is the possibility (however slight) of having a patch get away from a jag when you enter the wider portion of the coned section of the breech end of the barrel.

as regards the polishing of the breechplug, i do this 'cause Alexander mentioned it in his book (Gunsmith of Grenville County) and he said that it makes cleaning easier. I've always done so, although i must confess i haven't seen a substantial difference one way or the other. WTH, it couldn't hurt, and it makes for a better view when you shine a light down there anyway.

Alexander also mentioned hollowing out the breech end of the breechplug, thus forming a shaped charge whcih is said to increase muzzle velocity. intuition tells me that this is probably not worth the extra effort, but i try to remain flexible without being limp, so if anyone has any hard data, i'll change my opinion, but till then, i'll just polish the powder end of the breeechplug and leave it square to the barrel.

 

[bowjock]

MSW. For a lack of knowledge and better words, that is what I ment about "coneing" the end of the breech plug, not the breech end of the barrell. That is where I read about the two methods and was wondering who has tried both methods and what the results were!!!!!

 

[Trapper]

Fer what it's worth. I coned my 45 cal GM breech plug per Peter Alexander. This setup gives a real fast ignition. I've had guys come over to me at the range cause they thought I was using a caplock.I do believe it also gives higher pressures due to the fact that you are igniting the powder column in the middle and it is burning in both directions at once. For targets I use 55 gr of fffg where as before(coning) I was using 65 gr fffg. I still have the same POI with the 55 gr fffg.Just my opinions and observations, not very scientific!