Firing trouble

[tljack]

I am having trouble getting one of my flintlock rifles to fire. Actually I can't get it to fire at all! It is a Pennsylvania Lancaster in Isaac Haines styling. It has a 50 caliber Colerain Early American swamped barrel, large Siler lock.

Recently I fired nearly 50 rounds through it and then it stopped firing. The power in the pan is completely comsumed however. I cleaned the flash hole and tried again. No luck. I pulled the ball to make sure I hadn't gotten sloppy and forgot the powder. It had powder. I thought I may have bad powder so I tried it in the flash pan. It was completely consumed.

I took the gun home, cleaned it completely. Nothing but clear water coming out of the flash hole.

Obviously these are very simple guns and it should fire. I am out of any idea. Do any of you have a suggestion. I am sure I am over looking something obvious. I have been shooting these things nearly 40 years and I am always learning.

Thanks ahead of time

Terry

 

[Stumpkiller]

If you're getting pan ignition it has to be something blocking the vent or preventing the main charge from igniting.

Pike a vent pick in (straightened small paperclip wire) to make sure the vent is clear.

What is your main charge powder and is it viable?

Are you getting the oil out of the breech before putting the powder in?

Are you sure there isn't a bore obstruction at the breech? If you stick a pin it the breech can you see it from the muzzle with a light? Have you run a breech scraper around down there?

 

[tljack]

Thanks for the reply. I have cleaned the vent. Also using warm water the the breech in it and running a ramrod with patch I can pump lots of water so I know it is not plugged. After drying it with several patches they are clean. Today before attempting to shoot it, I ran a dry patch down the bore to remove excess oil. The ran a little rod into the flash hole.

The whole thing is not possible. That is what has me so stumped. I have taken the gun to the Gunworks here in Springfield OR. They have no idea. Joe Williams the owner is going to look at it first thing in the morning.

I will keep you posted when and if I find something out.

Thanks for taking time to post.

Terry

 

[tljack]

I forgot to mention that my main charge is 70 grains of 3F. I do not know what you mean about viable. I was thinking that maybe that powder was bad so I put some in the pan and it flashed fine.

Terry

 

[tljack]

Also have run a scraper down bore and blew air from flash hole to barrel.

 

[Zonie]

Obviously your shooting a custom gun so that brings to mind an incident I had with one that I built.

When I finished this gun I took it to the range and had absolutely terrible luck getting it to fire. When I got it home and started cleaning it the problem was found.

I had forgotten to cut the vent liner length down to match the inside of the barrel.

With this in mind I suggest that you use a bore light and try to examine the area where the vent liner is installed. If it is sticking out into the bore at all it can produce exactly the problem your seeing.

If you can't see it clearly, remove the liner and check its length. It should be equal to the barrel wall thickness or slightly shorter.

 

[Vaino]

You don't mention if the rifle has a vent liner and what kind or if it has a straight drilled hole and very importantly, what's the touch hole diameter?....Fred

 

[J.D.]

Sounds like a dry ball. How do you know it had powder loaded below the ball?

 

[Vaino]

He said there was powder and double checked....Fred

 

[hanshi]

Wouldn't hurt to open the flash hole to 1/16" to 5/64". Also is it coned on the inside of the vent? Make sure there's no piece of patch material blocking the inside of the vent. If it intrudes into the bore like Zonie said, it can snag patches.

 

[wulf]

Maybe you are one of those who wipes the bore
after a shot and the wiping patch came off the
rod and stuck against the breech plug...the pick
will poke and water will by pass but the heat
from the pan wont....just a guess....Wulf

 

[Larry Pletcher]

If you decide to enlarge the vent diameter, please realize that there are 5 numbered bit sizes between 1/16 and 5/64. I hesitate to drill as large as 5/64. I would look for another cause. Personally, I like a #50 or #51. If you use this idea, work your way up a size at a time. You can't drill them smaller.


1/16" 0.0625
52 0.064
51 0.067
50 0.070
49 0.073
48 0.076
5/64" 0.078

This and 50 cents used to buy you a Coke. Not sure now.
Regards,
Pletch

 

[tljack]

First let me say thanks to everyone for trying to help me out!!

The gun is a custom gun. I do not know the flash hole diameter and can't measure it as it is at the Gunworks now. I doubt it has a liner as this is an almost new rifle. I do not know if the builder coned the flash hole or not. I have run a worm down the barrel to see if I had left smome patch or part of one down there and it came out empty.

This rifle had been firing almost instantly. I have told people it fires even as fast as some of my percussion guns.

I am certain that when we get to the bottom of this, I am overlooking the obvious.

Will keep you posted and thanks again for your help

Terry

 

[Leatherbark]

If you fired it 50 times and then cleaned you may have a lot of gunk on the face of the breechplug. I once had a 20 gauge fowler that had the touch hole even with the face of the breechplug.............The ashes of firing that was stuck to the breechplug looked like powder at the touch hole but was actually burnt powder fouling.............You might need a flat fouling scraper to clean the face of that plug properly..................Good luck

 

[brubincam]

-----I don't oil my barrels--WD-40--lets a dry protective coat and have no trouble firing a clean barrel----you said you wiped the oil out before loading--may be clogging vent----- :idunno:

 

[daperdon69]

In reading all the posts. Sounds like your vent is clear. Firearm is clean. The only other thing to ask is are you useing real black powder in the main charge or are you useing a black powder sub.(pyrodex)
The subs don't light off in a flinter with any reliablity at all.
Just something more to think about.

Good luck, Tradegunner

 

[ebiggs1]

Your problem sounds a lot like my flintlock beginning. I had all kinds of trouble, almost to the point of giving up. I tried everything these guys told me, Nothing worked. Than one day after I got my first order of new GOEX, I walked outside and it fired and fired every time. And has been doing so ever since. You can count the number of misfires on the fingers of one hand since that beginning. I really don't know what the problem was but I suspect I had bad powder. It was 25 years old and the only difference I could find between shooting and not shooting was the new powder.
Try some new powder. I bet your gun is fine.

 

[gordy]

I"ve gone over your post twice to make sure I didn"t miss anything that you
've done , so far . You didn"t happen to change main charge powder types , or brands since you fired the 50 shots? You seem to have done most of the normal corrections for a miisfire ? If you have scraped the breech face and picked the vent , and the powder in the pan flashes but dosn
't ignite the main charge , I would tend to think there is some type of obstruction happening between the pan and main powder charge , or you
';vew changed main powder . If it"s a new rifle it"s possible (not probable) that a steel sliver is acting like a flapper valve that shuts the vent at the moment of ignition of the pan powder ? It could also as others suggest be a small piece of patch doing this ? :hmm:

 

[tljack]

I come crawling humbly back here. Actually I should just go away and not come back....... :redface:

The problem seems to be solved........... :grin: I loaded a ball first. "breaking my rule of no chatting while loading". Pulled the breach and found this. Then some compressed powder. I am not sure why my scraper, worm and bullet puller did not clean this out.

Anyway, please accept my apology for all of the trouble I have caused. I know better than to do this. In the back of my mind however, I did suspect it was someting simple and stupid I had done.

Again thank you so much for your time and effort

Terry

 

[Zonie]

Hey, you didn't cause a problem here.

Hopefully someone will read this post and realize that being distracted while one is loading can cause all sorts of problems with a muzzleloader.