Do smaller calibers foul more?

[Magungo1066]

I hear this a lot, that calibers below .40 or thereabout foul much worse than the larger calibers in a rifle. Is this true at all?

 

[rdlowe]

Curious what others will say, but in my experience the more powder you burn the greater the fouling. I don’t shoot a lot of small bore, tho.

 

[Eric Krewson]

My .40s don't, I have a Kibler .32 but can't see the sights so I have shot it very little, not enough to know.

As for monster fowling nothing can match my 12 ga and a patched round ball, it gets very hard to load after 2 shots if I don't swab between shots. It will only make it 7 or 8 shots if I do swab, then it will need a little more than a simple swab.

 

[mooman76]

This has been brought up before. You'll get replies from people that say it does and those that say it doesn't so I suspect it's something about technique. My 32 for me seems to foul more. If I don't swab it about every 3rd shot, accuracy goes south quick. I don't usually swab my bigger calibers.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Since I'm building a .32 this brings up a situation. Normally when I go hunting with my .54 or even my 20 gauge smooth, I don't worry about swabbing while afieldbecause I might only take 1cor 2 shots in a day. But squirrel hunting with a .32 caliber, I might take 6 or 7 shots in a morning. I imagine I should bring the jag and run a spit patch or two to keep the fowling down?

 

[MountainSmoke]

In my experience no. I have two 32 caliber rifles and I have noticed no more fouling than any other caliber. I usually shoot 15 grains so really how much fouling can there be. I also always swab between shots no matter what I'm shooting,even when hunting. It only takes a few seconds. Not saying you have to. I always have and I never have difficulty pushing a ball down the barrel.

 

[30coupe]

I think it depends on the particular gun, the amount of and brand of powder, as well as the type of lube. My Pedersoli Frontier .32 with a 20-25 grain load of 3f Diamondback, which I hear is no longer available, and a patch lubed with Hoppe's Black Powder lube and solvent could easily do 6 or 7 shots before loading becomes difficult or accuracy falls off.

One negative of the .32 is the difficulty in getting the jag turned down to where you can slide the patch by the fouling and then twist and pull most of it out as you would with a larger bore. The patent breech of the Frontier in .32 is obviously quite small, so it doesn't take much crud to create misfires. I think that's why it works better for me to load with a damp patch, which seems to push the crud down on top of the powder to be ejected with the next shot. That's what seems to work best for me at any rate. On my .45 and .50, I use Dutch's dry patch lube and wipe between shots.

 

[Grimord]

I think it depends on the particular gun, the amount of and brand of powder, as well as the type of lube. My Pedersoli Frontier .32 with a 20-25 grain load of 3f Diamondback, which I hear is no longer available, and a patch lubed with Hoppe's Black Powder lube and solvent could easily do 6 or 7 shots before loading becomes difficult or accuracy falls off.

One negative of the .32 is the difficulty in getting the jag turned down to where you can slide the patch by the fouling and then twist and pull most of it out as you would with a larger bore. The patent breech of the Frontier in .32 is obviously quite small, so it doesn't take much crud to create misfires. I think that's why it works better for me to load with a damp patch, which seems to push the crud down on top of the powder to be ejected with the next shot. That's what seems to work best for me at any rate. On my .45 and .50, I use Dutch's dry patch lube and wipe between shots.

In the field when swabbing the bore of my .32 I carry a .30 caliber jag so I can pull the fouling out instead of pushing it into the powder charge.

 

[Bob McBride]

I don’t find it to be so. It’s all in the lube and patched ball combo. I shoot my squirrel rifle dozens of times and the last to load is as easy as the first. Keep it soft. Push it down. Blow it out. Sort of a free cushion wad.

 

[bradly_tx]

Let me start off by saying that my patch lube is lard. The barrel is lubed with lard, heck the hole gun is lubed with lard! I only shoot .32 and I use Pyrodex RS and its a PERCUSSION. I have NEVER SWABBED between shots and I shoot almost daily. Sometimes I clean daily and sometimes I don’t and no barrel issues! My load consists of 15gr of powder a .310 prb(1 1/2 buck). I don’t need a short starter with this setup and I might shoot a half dozen balls or as many as 40 and I NEVER SWAB BETWEEN SHOTS. YMMV.
And to answer your question NO!

 

[Bob McBride]

I don’t find it to be so. It’s all in the lube and patched ball combo. I shoot my squirrel rifle dozens of times and the last to load is as easy as the first. Keep it soft. Push it down. Blow it out. Sort of a free cushion wad.

Also, as this subject is one of those that can get prickly, I will say, my entire focus has always been on finding a lube/patch/ball combo for each gun that doesn’t require swabbing between shots and that doesn’t leave hard crud and crud rings and also giving me no degradation of accuracy. I understand other lines of thinking are just as valid and work just as well as mine. My thoughts have always been anything that I don’t have to do should be cut out and anything I don’t have to carry should be left at home. I often squirrel hunt here on the farm with nothing but 5-6 balls, a strip of patching, and a priming horn of 3f in my pocket.

 

[bradly_tx]

Also, as this subject is one of those that can get prickly, I will say, my entire focus has always been on finding a lube/patch/ball combo for each gun that doesn’t require swabbing between shots and that doesn’t leave hard crud and crud rings and also giving me no degradation of accuracy. I understand other lines of thinking are just as valid and work just as well as mine. My thoughts have always been anything that I don’t have to do should be cut out and anything I don’t have to carry should be left at home. I often squirrel hunt here on the farm with nothing but 5-6 balls, a strip of patching, and a priming horn of 3f in my pocket.

Well said my friend.

 

[bradly_tx]

Also, as this subject is one of those that can get prickly, I will say, my entire focus has always been on finding a lube/patch/ball combo for each gun that doesn’t require swabbing between shots and that doesn’t leave hard crud and crud rings and also giving me no degradation of accuracy. I understand other lines of thinking are just as valid and work just as well as mine. My thoughts have always been anything that I don’t have to do should be cut out and anything I don’t have to carry should be left at home. I often squirrel hunt here on the farm with nothing but 5-6 balls, a strip of patching, and a priming horn of 3f in my pocket.

My thoughts have always been anything that I don’t have to do should be cut out and anything I don’t have to carry should be left at home.

I’m gonna save this quote for my journal. Every new shooter should practice this way. Hey Bob this would make a great title for a new video...

 

[Bassdog1]

I shoot small caliber almost exclusively and with the 4 guns that I shoot I have no problem shooting as many rounds as I want without swabbing. I load them for their intended use small game hunting and target shooting never more than 20 grains of powder. I have used Olde Eynsford, Standard Goex and Swiss powder in all four guns and only use Hoppes BP lube or and Tracks Mink Oil as lubes. I may just be lucky but fouling has never been an issue in these guns.

 

[M. De Land]

This has been brought up before. You'll get replies from people that say it does and those that say it doesn't so I suspect it's something about technique. My 32 for me seems to foul more. If I don't swab it about every 3rd shot, accuracy goes south quick. I don't usually swab my bigger calibers.

I once messed around for an afternoon with a 30 cal percussion and shot it quite a bit and even with it's rough bore I don't remember it fouling much, if any worse than my .45 cal rifle I had at the time. My guess is it has more to do with rifling pitch and depth than any thing else. I have been surprised in other guns as well that in some cases a slight to moderate rough bore didn't seem to make much if any difference in how much fouling built up.
Actually, I think pits ,if they don't tear the patch, hook and hold lube in them and are not really the primary cause of fouled barrels.

 

[olskool]

the smallest I have is a 40 I do not have to swab as long as i use goex. if I use swiss i have to swab every 5 shots or so because of the crude ring that develops an inch above the ball where it seats. for this reason alone I use nothing but goex in it,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Carbon 6]

I hear this a lot, that calibers below .40 or thereabout foul much worse than the larger calibers in a rifle. Is this true at all?

All else being equal, it's a volume issue, a .50 cal has more than twice the barrel volume of a .32 cal.
This would not only apply for fouling, but for cleaning as well and the area of the cleaning and shooting patches. A larger patch will remove more fouling and a larger barrel will have less fouling in it if all else is equal.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Carbon 6 has a handle on it, I believe. I used to have a .32 and got tired of swabbing the barrel between shots. Doesn't pay to lean on a .300" hickory ramrod to load on a fouled bore either. I heard all the conversation about "small calibers foul more" and then one day it occurred to me that even if my .32 fouled it's nest exactly the same amount as my .54 -- which it probably doesn't since the charge is less -- and if the layer of fouling on the metal was exactly the same thickness, that would still be a much bigger percentage of the bore itself. And even if all that was less because of all those reasons, it would probably still seem worse in a smaller tube. "Huh!" said I to myself. Self said, "Well, yeah!" Some time later I sold the .32, not because it fouled but because I wasn't using it much and shortly after that lucked into a really pretty little .40 caliber with a 13/16" barrel which shoots center and doesn't foul much at all.

 

[Billy Boy]

My smooth bores seem to foul faster than my pea rifles.

 

[Carbon 6]

My smooth bores seem to foul faster than my pea rifles.

Same principle, rifling increase the the surface area of the bore diameter allowing more room for fouling. This also means that rifles are typically harder to clean than a smoothbore for the same reason. There is simply more to clean.