Drilling flash hole?

[750k2]

On a white lightning vent When you dill it out do you worry or do anything about burrs?(inside)
Mine goes boom 100% of the time so far - about 200
rounds now - pretty good I think for my first flinter.
I think it fires pretty fast but am going to try to speed it up some.
What size is you usin for 3f? I here alot about 1/16"
but Brownells offers drill bits that will let me work it
bigger in small steps.
Thanks in advance.

:thanks:

 

[Birddog6]

I never have worried about a burr on the inside of the cone as the burr would be the other way, or going in with the flash going it, thus it would flow past it without obstruction or turbulation..
As for the size of the vent hole, on a small bore most like a 1/16" hole, however on .40 cal & larger I use a 5/64" hole. Also on some of the vent liners I cone the outside bery slightly, just depending on the installation depth & etc. However I keep a .025 min straight wall thickness in the vent hole. Works for me........

:results:

 

[Packdog]

750k2,

As Birddog said no need to worry about burrs on the inside. If the hole isn't already 1/16 that is the starting place. Be aware that going up to 5/64 will sometimes vent a little 3F into the pan when loading. I know because like Birddog my hunting gun has a 5/64 hole. My last .40 ended up being larger than 1/16 but not as big as 5/64. Wish I could tell exactly what size that was?

:imo: I will offer this to go along with opening the hole up a little if you haven't already noticed. Try a full pan of powder and then a half pan of powder. You should notice a difference in ignition time. The gun will like one or the other better or at least mine have.

Some say 4F in the pan is faster than 3F? Look in the archives regarding this. I like using the same powder to load and prime myself but if speed is what you are after.

ff: But...Have you got it sighted in yet? How's that Rice barrel shooting?
PD

 

[750k2]

Shootin like a house a fire! Off a rest at 25 is one ragged hole. Haven't measured the flash hole yet but will before I drill. As far as taken a file to her, will be next time out I think - Hits 1" low and right on for windage now. No biggie but what did you use for glue on the leather and flints (Got some Frenchy blond things I gotta try yet.).
She dosen't seem to care really about the amount of prime(that I can tell) as long as there isn't to much,
Just seems to make a bigger mess?? I use 1/2-2/3's
This rifle just seems to fire every time - But I'm pretty anal with my pre-fire proceedure..
Boy this thing rocks! And this has led to my kids sayin they want flinters instead of caps and even have
a couple of new shooters possibly at work interested.
Just gotta work on my offhand some, But the tree rats are in for grave danger!!
It's all your fault cause I'm still waitin on my TVM and have already contracted a JP Beck in 54 - OUCH!
I think you should maybe foot some of the bill?
Sure love these things..
Hope everything is goin your way
Best wishes
Steve
:master:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Let me get this straight.

Gun fires 100% of the time.

Puts balls in "one ragged hole" at 25 yards.

And you want to mess with it? :youcrazy:

Enlarging a vent will increase ignition percentage (but you can't do better than 100%) and will also increase standard deviation between shots, loss of pressure/velocity at muzzle and side flash.

The only reason to open a vent is if you have flashes in the pan without firing. You stand a chance of losing accuracy as the vent size increases.

The smaller vent hole you can get by with, the better.

I opened mine to 5/64" after experiencing many misfires at 1/16" because hunting dependability is more important to me than fine accuracy. Four 10-X holes in a cherry size hole on a target and one cloud of prime with no "bang" still score much less than five 9's in an plum size group. That simply translates to four deer vs. five deer at 80 yards.

 

[Packdog]

750k2,

I use Tandy's leather glue to pre-glue the strips of leather. Just seems to make changing a flint in the field a lot easier.

Glad to hear it's shooting good. Having a good pre-fire regiment makes all the difference in the world for reliability and it sounds like you must have a good one.

Now that you said that about it not caring how much powder in the pan I remember we are talking about a Late Ketland lock and it has a very shallow pan to begin with so it probably would not make much difference like it does on some of the locks with deeper pans.

Good Luck,
Ken

 

[Birddog6]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........... It just hit me what rifle we are talking about. IF this it Packdogs TN rifle, I have a solution to your delimma.....

Let's do this........ I will send you a shipping crate & you ship the rifle to me and I will pay the shipping cost & Fully reimburse you for your cost of the rifle.

I had already decided that if it had made it to Friendship & I could shoulder it & it fit me, it was going home with me ! That is One FINE lil rifle......

:thumbsup:

 

[Darkhorse]

The recommendation from the Chambers people about tuning the White Lightning is this: Drill it out one number drill at a time (a number drill is graduated in thousandths of an inch which allows you to make small increases) until your desired results are achieved, then slightly chamfer the outside. A large diameter increase is usually not needed, just a few thousandths greatly increases your surface area.
For instance I have a .54 that is drilled out to .067 (if I remember right without looking at the drill index) this gives me 100% ignition and fast lock times.
As for the burr created by drilling. If there indeed is a burr after drilling into a cone then just think how small a burr it would be, going from .060 to .067 leaves only .0035 to the side.
If you are already getting 100% ignition what reason do you have to drill it out? Faster lock time maybe? Are you getting some hangfires?
The advice about the amount of prime is good. My Chambers likes less than 1/2 a pan, anymore and I get fuse effect hangfires.
This is something your gun tells you and usually its not negotiable.

 

[750k2]

Yep!! It's miss prissy the Baxter Bean.
I think I'll wait til my TVM comes this fall and replace
the vent with a Chambers and experiment with that.
As I said this is my first flinter and I'll have to wait til
I can obtain more data to make a wise choice.
It goes fast but I don't know how fast is fast??
There is no lag time between prime and main charge.
Seems almost like one event-almost..
Waitin on some 4f to so I'll try that before I drill.
Just wanted to maybe speed things up even more -
I just lucked out in that Packdog builds one damn fine shootin iron.

And NO! I ain't gettin rid of it ever!! This is one that will
be handed down.
Just goes to prove even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

:thumbsup:

 

If you say it's nearly instantaneous, I don't think you're going to get it any faster than that. I'd say leave it alone and don't mess with a good thing!

:redthumb: