Dealing with lead buildup?

[Josephg]

Over the years have had original muzzle loaders with heavy leading in the barrel. Always wondered how they could get leaded so bad. Never suspected they could have been shot without a patch. Always thought shooters were using greased lead bullets in them.

Got the lead out of one rifle but have two others with much worse leading. This thread has got me interested in working on those old rifles.

 

[Jay Templin]

I live in Canada and I don't know anywhere here that sells it. Might have to talk to some farmers, loL

Go to your local grocery and buy some raw flaxseed. Planting it is simple, and a patch of flax just 5 feet square will provide all the tow you need for a year or two. Once it starts flowering but before it sets seed, pull it all up by the roots, lay it out for a week or two where the dew will wet it at night. Then grab a handful and "break" it between your hands, like you're trying to snap a handful of spaghetti, moving along the stalks and doing it in multiple places. Then just work it over the edge of a board like you're shining a shoe and you'll have a handful of excellent fibre. If you comb it, you'll get tow for your gun as well as line, which can be spun into linen thread.
Or find your local spinning guild and ask around for tow.
Jay

 

[McClura]

On my smooth bore fowler and shotguns I just put a little bit of 4/0 steel wool around a cleaning jag with a little Break Free Lube and polish the bore. I also do the same on rifled barrels if my friends let them rust a little. It cleans them right up. I made a punch and cut some heavy leather and soaked them in Break Free and use them over roundball in a few things. I cut one size to put over the bullets in my Ruger Old Army to prevent chain fires. Saves on purchasing the felt wads. Pulse, keeps the bore pretty clean.
Mike

 

[Carbon 6]

Copper "Chore Boy". Pull strands off and wrap around a bore brush or bronze wool would do it. Strips the lead right out.

Yup, and it's safe to use too.

 

[Grenadier1758]

...
I made a punch and cut some heavy leather and soaked them in Break Free and use them over roundball in a few things. I cut one size to put over the bullets in my Ruger Old Army to prevent chain fires. Saves on purchasing the felt wads. Pulse, keeps the bore pretty clean.
Mike

I would use the leather wads between the powder and the round ball. Let the Break Free dry a bit to prevent the oil from contaminating the powder.

 

[Flintandsteel]

The best way to eliminate leading in your barrel, is to not let it get started in the first place.
Dont want to be a party pooper, just put a patch on the damn thing.

 

[Runewolf1973]

The best way to eliminate leading in your barrel, is to not let it get started in the first place.
Dont want to be a party pooper, just put a patch on the damn thing.

I want to try doing things the traditional way first...bare ball with wads. Then I will try patched round balls and see what method I like best. I have some .600's for bare balls and some .570's to try with thick patching material. Maybe I'll try the .600's with some thinner patching too. I love the fact that with this .62 smoothbore I can try so many interesting things with it.

 

[Flintandsteel]

I’m not sure how we established that shooters in Our early days, shot round balls in smoothies with no patching.
Muskets, maybe. Hunters, colonists, who knows. I do believe (not know) that if it fouled up a barrel where it became useless, they wouldn’t keep doing it.
Shirts, pants, underwear all wear out. Unless in battle for their lives, they didn’t shoot like us either. We shoot 20 to 50 rounds for fun. They shot one or two for food, hopefully not involved in a fire fight.
i just think sometimes we WAAAAAY overthink this stuff.

 

[Runewolf1973]

I would use the leather wads between the powder and the round ball. Let the Break Free dry a bit to prevent the oil from contaminating the powder.

So powder, leather wad, round ball and another leather wad on top of the ball?

I found a 5/8" hole punch and leather wads seem like they'd be a whole lot less bulky to carry around than anything else.

 

[Grenadier1758]

So powder, leather wad, round ball and another leather wad on top of the ball?

If you have the leather wad between the powder and the ball, you don't need the wad over the ball in a revolver.
Note: If you have a properly oversize ball that shaves off that ring of lead when you load your revolver, the wad is optional. A bit of lube in the wad (whether it is leather or compressed felt or cardboard) certainly does no harm.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I found a 5/8" hole punch and leather wads seem like they'd be a whole lot less bulky to carry around than anything else.

Now, you're on to something. A 5/8" (0.625") arch punch makes perfect wads for a 20 gauge. It's a good way to use up scraps of leather, too. I've used them, after reading about leather wads in Muzzle Blasts many years ago. This was in the February, 1955 issue, in an article entitled "M.L Shooting in the Seventies," meaning the 1870's, so you could argue that the practice of shooting leather wads is traditional.

The NMLRA has digitized all of their back issues of Muzzle Blasts, and there is a wealth of information in them. If you're an NMLRA member, you can log on to their website to access the back issues.

I don't recall which issue, but Muzzleloader magazine had an article by Mike Nesbitt a few years ago, in which he described using a 5/8" punch to cut wads out of wool blanket scraps. You don't want to use synthetic material. I don't recall what he used for lube, but he melted it in a pot and dropped in his blanket wads. They apparently soaked up the melted lube like sponges. He spread them out to let them cool, and used them in his 20 gauge smoothbore. I would like to try that, but I don't have any wool blanket scraps and don't want to punch holes in a good blanket.

You are right, there are almost endless possibilities in loading a smoothbore.

Notchy Bob

 

[Runewolf1973]

If you have the leather wad between the powder and the ball, you don't need the wad over the ball in a revolver.
Note: If you have a properly oversize ball that shaves off that ring of lead when you load your revolver, the wad is optional. A bit of lube in the wad (whether it is leather or compressed felt or cardboard) certainly does no harm.

I have a North West Trade gun. So I thought I would need something to keep the ball in place?

 

[Grenadier1758]

My response about the leather wad was to @McClura and his ROA revolver.

@Runewolf1973, yes, you need an over shot card or wad to keep a bare ball loaded on top of a leather wad in place. Could be another leather wad or thin card stock or a ball of tow or jute or hemp fibers.

 

[jbwilliams3]

I’m not sure how we established that shooters in Our early days, shot round balls in smoothies with no patching.
Muskets, maybe. Hunters, colonists, who knows. I do believe (not know) that if it fouled up a barrel where it became useless, they wouldn’t keep doing it.
Shirts, pants, underwear all wear out. Unless in battle for their lives, they didn’t shoot like us either. We shoot 20 to 50 rounds for fun. They shot one or two for food, hopefully not involved in a fire fight.
i just think sometimes we WAAAAAY overthink this stuff.

Since we have no references to individuals in the 18th/early 19th century patching balls in smoothbores, and since round balls shoot just fine without patches in smooth bore barrels (for me they shoot about the same, if fact), one would be overthinking to try and jam a tight-fitting patched ball down a barrel with no grooves to fill. Much simpler, and I daresay, effective, to load without a patch. Further, I can attest - as others have already done in this discussion - that leading just doesn't seem to be a problem. Ask cap and ball revolver shooters.

 

[tenngun]

Coconut fiber did come to US and Canada, but I doubt any got off the coast.
I have found lots of stuff works as wadding. Picked some lichen this year, drying in my garage will try soon.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I get lead out of my muzzleloaders by just tipping boiling water in and tipping it out repeatedly untill I see the lead in the sink/basin.
The heat and expansion properties of the dissimilar metals separate them.

 

[jbwilliams3]

Call me crazy but green leaves/grass make fine wads in my experience. Appropriate for a trade gun too. I often make sort of a nest which holds the ball snug (though not tight like a patch) as I ram the load down.

 

[AZbpBurner]

Call me crazy but green leaves/grass make fine wads in my experience. Appropriate for a trade gun too. I often make sort of a nest which holds the ball snug (though not tight like a patch) as I ram the load down.

I've read extensively over the years of loading smoothbores, whether ball or shot. Smoothbore loading predates patched balls, and there were a myriad of loading techniques.
I have loaded shot with an overpowder wad + a vegetable fiber wad (Circle Fly)+ shot + overpowder wad as was done later with shotguns. While it worked OK for shot, so did powder + tow wad + paper strips forming a shot cup + a wad of TOW to hold it all in place.
You'd think that a patched ball would give the best accuracy, but I've found that powder + TOW wad + Ball + TOW overwad was better, despite the undersized ball rattling down the bore, not centered by a patch.
Wad material was where you could find it; grass or leaves, pieces of old Indian trade blankets, leather wads, or even Spanish Moss.

 

[AZbpBurner]

While you're waiting for your crop of flax seeds to sprout & grow check here for some to hold you over:
https://www.townsends.us/collections/fire-making/products/linen-tw195-p-1389Cotton and Flax-Yarn Barn Of Kansas

 

[Griz44Mag]

Hmmmmm - I think someone said that about 30 posts back.....

I bought a couple of bags of hemp tow from townsends to use for wadding.
That couple of bags will probably last a very long time. Unless I decide to start making rope or string......