Do patches freeze to balls and affect accuracy?

[roundball]

In below freezing hunting conditions, do patches freeze to lead balls and affect their accuracy by staying stuck to the ball and following it into the target?

 

[Bountyhunter]

:rotf:

 

[rmonday2]

LOL!!!! That just ain't right Bountyhunter!
Don't-chew-no-yu-r-su-pose to respect your elders?

 

[roundball]

LOL!!!! That just ain't right Bountyhunter!
Don't-chew-no-yu-r-su-pose to respect your elders?

:grin: :grin: :grin:
(You'll be surprised who made exactly that statement...lets see what other responses come in)

 

[Slowpoke]

These thing, I believe could never happen. But I always up for some education.

 

[HistoryBuff]

I have had some dry and get pretty stuck to the ball after being in a loading block for a while. But I always find them in about the same place on the ground at range as the fresh patches after firing. So they peel away pretty quick after leaving the barrel no matter what, so it seems.

HistoryBuff

 

[Bountyhunter]

Oh, my, hope you dont take offense Roundball, for some reason that tickled me.

I have hunted in weather to five below zero. I have shot at that temperature, and other than not getting full power, I had no accuracy problems and the patch fell on the snow out a ways in front of me. I would propose that in weather cold enough to freeze your balls that perhaps a little heavier charge would be in order. The burning temperature of a load of black powder, I saw a while back somewhere, and it is something like 1500 degrees F. It doesnt last long, but it is hot while it lasts. That is the reason you cant get along using plastic shells in a black powder shotgun. It will melt the shells to the barrel. You gotta use brass or paper hulls.

That temperature and pressure, along with the friction of the ball and patch going up the barrel would liquify any lube, I would think. Seriously, I think that this scenario wouldnt be a problem.

Bill

 

[montanadan]

Hey Bountyhunter-You gave me real good laugh,about black powder melting the hulls to the chambers of shotguns.When I use to shoot CAS,I have shot thousands of rounds of plastic hulls and never had that happen,not once!Hulls slightly melt and distort,and most of the time can only be reloaded once,and the barrels(or barrel) will get so hot it will burn you,but good!But I needed the laugh..respectfully Montanadan

 

[roundball]

Oh, my, hope you dont take offense Roundball, for some reason that tickled me.

Not at all...I post the occasional question for a purpose
:grin:

 

[mikee51848]

I would think the ignition would heat the barrel pretty quick. :hmm:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Patches freezing to lead balls? Oh spit, now you have caressed the tickler and things will heat up. :winking:

 

[Halftail]

You laugh,
Once when shooting in Feburary I was patching with a spit patches.There was a slight time delay between shots.When I got chance to shoot,I fired and every thing was froze.Ball to patch and patch to bore. :youcrazy:
I ended up pulling my Muzzleloader out of the backstop.... :blah:

 

[Slowpoke]

(You'll be surprised who made exactly that statement...lets see what other responses come in)

Come on... tell us.... Without looking, my guess is Sam Fadela.

 

[musketman]

In below freezing hunting conditions, do patches freeze to lead balls and affect their accuracy by staying stuck to the ball and following it into the target?

I would say no, the heat generated from the powder exploding when the gun is fired plus the friction transferred from the rifling along with the centrifugal force of the spin should be sufficient to thaw the patch from the ball on it's way out...

Now I would have to answer yes if we were talking about the pre-patched balls in the loading block freezing in place...

 

[Dave K]

I have hunted when the prepatched balls were froze to the lube. It was not the easiest to reload. As ice kind of chunked off of the patch and ball. Now I use a different a patch lube and I have not had that problem. I would agree also, the the act of actual firing the gun would remove the patch from the ball though.

 

[Richard Hare.]

Only time I've had patch glue to the ball, was when I dipped my patches in melted deer tallow, squeesed 'em out, and whilst still warm and damp, put them and balls into loading block.
They stuck like glue, and gun shot wild.
Found some wads right at my 50 yd target.
as long as lubed patches have cooled before putting in loading block, no bothers at all, even when it's 25 below.

 

[marmot]

Hmmm... Blackpowder does burn pretty hot, but there are some of us infidels who shoot stretched out little projectiles called minies with no patches... and the lead doesn't melt; the exposure is brief and the thermal intertia of the lead prevents the exposed section from reaching the melting point... but SOME heat is transferred, and the melting point of ice is a bit lower than lead! Plus, not many of us (that I know of) use pure water as lube - even spit has a lower freezing point than pure h2o, and the greasy connoctions most of us use get stiff but don't really freeze at sane hunting temperatures. Now I suppose the lube could get stiff enough to stick to the ball, or spit could freeze, but there is a lot of torque on the barrel to patch and patch to ball connection in firing, plus friction on the barrel/patch when traveling down the bore in addition to the heat of firing, so there are a lot of forces acting to remove the patch from the ball... I don't think it's gonna stick, but I haven't stuck a loaded gun in the freezer to test this bunch of nonsense! :yakyak: Maybe go with a longer barrel in cold weather if you're worried about it sticking - more time for the heat, friction and rotation to free the patch? Could be just the justification needed for a new gun! Personally, if it's cold enough to have patches sticking to the ball, my little toes will be safely indoors propped up next to the fire, and my rifle will be safe and warm in the rack - I spent enough time freezing in the Far North to really appreciate mild Southern winters! :grin:

marmot

 

[Bountyhunter]

MD

Well, glad to hear that. I was told that a long time ago from a couple of fellers who said that they had had that experience, and read it several places on internet articles, so I never actually tried it. I had quite a few paper hulls and so used them instead. I stand corrected by your experiences.

Bill

 

[roundball]

MD

Well, glad to hear that. I was told that a long time ago from a couple of fellers who said that they had had that experience, and read it several places on internet articles, so I never actually tried it. I had quite a few paper hulls and so used them instead. I stand corrected by your experiences.

Bill

Well...let me be a third view on this...just points out how careful we all need to be making "absolute" conclusions based upon a single experience.

I've personally watched a friend reload .20ga Winchester AA hulls with BP and shoot them in his O/U skeet gun at the trap & skeet range...break open the action, and pull out the brass bases with only a 1/2" of smoldering dripping yellow plastic hull material attached...so his burned and melted.

Could be the different experiences had to do with different types and amount of powder used...

 

[Slowpoke]

(You'll be surprised who made exactly that statement...lets see what other responses come in)

Come on... tell us.... Without looking, my guess is Sam Fadela.

Tell us who made the statement...... Curiosity is killing this cat.