Does 3FG work better than 2FG in patent breech ?

[mmb617]

Shooting my Traditions Kentucky rifle (50 caliber) in humid conditions, I have to clean out the small hole in the patent breech about every 5 or 6 shots or else the powder will bridge over the hole and not reach the touch hole thus, not get ignited resulting in a pan flash. I'm using Goex 2FG and wondered if I used finer 3FG if it would reduce or eliminate the issue. My last powder purchase was five pounds of 2FG and I'm having second thought whether I should have gone with 3FG.

I've had my Traditions Kentucky rifle in .50 caliber for about a year now. I also have 3 other Traditions rifles (Mountain, Hawken and Deerhunter) with patent breeches, yet the Kentucky was the only one that had a persistent pan flash problem. I'd been using 3f powder in all of them and never swab between shots with a typical session being 20-30 shots with any one rifle.

I'm kind of a compulsive record keeper so I can look back at my range sessions, and in the first 211 shots I fired with the Kentucky rifle using 3f powder I had 35 pan flashes, which was way more in term of percentage than any of the other rifles. I tried some different things but nothing seemed to help till I hit on the idea of loading it with 4f as the main charge. Since I made that switch I have fired 107 shots with only 2 pan flashes.

I don't claim to be an expert but I have learned a few things by the old trial and error method.

 

[Billy Boy]

I imagine the humidity levels in Colorado are much less than here in Indiana. I didn't have an issue shooting in late winter with 20%-30% humidity , but now with levels between 60%-80% it has cause problems.

I only swab the bore when loading gets tight, but I now realize I've been doing wrong so I need to change my method a little. Anyone swab after the ball is seated ?

The channel is clear after firing. I wait a bit then drop the next charge - without pushing all the fouling crud back into the breech area by swabbing - then seat the patched ball which ‘wipes ‘ the bore. Never have an issue with GPR .54 percussion, or CVA .32 patent breech percussion.