fouling ring in barrel

Last Nov.30,I was competing in the last match of the year at my club with my Blue Ridge flinter,which I had tuned up,and it performed real good,fired 21 shots,only one misfire,my fault for not wiping the frizzin clean,and didn't even have to touch the flint.Used .490 ball,pre-lubed patches with Wonder Lube,3f goex,4f goex for priming.The only problem I had was that after about 8 or 9 shots,without wiping between shots,I developed a bad fouling ring about 5 or 6 inches above the bottom of the barrel.It was so bad that after that I had to wipe between shots just to be able to load a ball down there.The temperture was about high forties or low fifties.Almost forgot,the patches were .15.
Would the temperture have anything to do with this?Never had this trouble with my .50 cal Lyman trade rifle.
This is the most shots I have fired at one time with the Blue Ridge.

 

[Zonie]

My flinters and precussion guns all build up fouling down at the bottom 3-6 inches of the barrel when shootin black powder.
The FFg is worse than the FFFg but the only powder I've used that doesn't do this is Pyrodex.
Course, Pyrodex doesn't work in flinters worth a durn so I've learned to just live with it and wet wipe the bore to the breech plug about every 6 shots. I then run a dry patch down the bore before reloading.

 

[musketman]

When the muzzleloader is loaded and the lubed patch and ball (or lubed bullet for that matter) is sitting on top of the powder, some of the black powder sticks to the wet lube and becomes saturated...

When you fire the gun, as the patched ball moves out the barrel, it drags this lube soaked powder with it for a few inches...

This is where I believe the fouling ring comes from, 5 or 6 inches above the bottom of the barrel, allowing 3 inches for unfired powder and patched ball combo...

The small amount of "lubed" powder is eventually ignited after it is dragged about three inches towards the muzzle by the patch, but a fouling ring has been formed by then...

 

[TwoShadows]

Some guns do...some dont....but, yes the weather can have some bearing on the situation too. Different colors of residue appear near the muzzle when humidity or hot conditions in the weather happen.
I can usually tell from the loading process when the fouling is getting built up and swab with a wet patch when it first starts building. Normal matches at my club are 16 shot matches. I find I have better luck when I wipe about every 4-5th shot.

Part of my ritual is to wipe across the frizzen before I prime each time. I carefully wipe the leading edge of the flint too. Easy to split a finger if you don't take care here. A fall of the hammer is usually counted as a fired shot around here, so I want to be sure of ignition. I'd rather have a slow fire and miss as to be left wondering if it would have been a hit had it gone off.
Each rifle has it's own inherent excentricities too. One of mine requires me to prick the touch hole with the vent pick each time. A new vent and polished surfaces didn't help. Knowing this is gonna have to be done, I just do so and get on with it. Having the patience to cater to things like this just proves to me that the muzzleloading fraternity is in general a laid back easy going crowd. Folks with short fuses and little patience don't last around Rag-nosed guns very long. Just my $.02 worth.

 

Thanks Zonie for making me feel better about posting my first post to the wrong catagory.
Also thanks to everyone else for the input.Sometimes its hard to tell if what is happening is normal or your doing somethig wrong.
That is what makes muzzle loading fun.Them new fangled guns are just too easy.

 

[roundball]

One of the nice benefits of using nothing but natural lube 1000 inside the bore is that there are never any problems like that...and doggone wonderwads are annoyingly expensive but you can just shoot and shoot and shoot..

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Indiana immigrant:
That is what makes muzzle loading fun. Them new fangled guns are just too easy. Another big plus in muzzleloading is that YOU are in charge of the loading process, not someone you never seen before, running a cartridge loading press on the other side of the country...

Muzzleloading is hands on history...

 

[Birddog6]

Every grease type lube, be it natural or petroleum product, that I have ever used left a ring in the barrel right in front of where the charge would be. I believe it is the heat from the ignited powder burning the grease into a varnish like substance & onto the barrel. Try some moosemilk or Lehigh Lube or good ol spit (it is real cheap) and see if the same thing happens or also to what extent.

 

[Deadeye]

I get the ring and I use spit but I believe the ring I get is right where the powder is because I don't ever feel it when loading just when cleaning
and pushing a patch all the way to the bottom.
Deadeye

 

[roundball]

I've never felt that...maybe because all the TC Hawkens have a patent breech...and/or because I always use natural lube 1000, dunno...but I've never had that happen

 

[Rocky Johnson]

Like said...Evey rifle is different, I have a CVA mountian rifle that I put together from a kit maybe 25 or 30 years ago, It's a tack driver,but with pre cut pre lubed patches 90 gr. of fff bp you can't get the third shot down the barrel without wipeing.It is 50 cal. Rocky

 

For what it's worth, I use moose milk/dry patches cut into squares from .015 pillow ticking and always got that "tight" spot everyone mentions. That was in my Pedersoli Jaeger which is now on Track's website.

 

[Aline]

Both my two rifles develop a tight spot about 1 inch above the point where the ball (or bullet) sits. That happens after 20 shots or so. Running a spit patch between shots helps (the tight spot will take longer to develop). When pushing the ball/bullet all the way down becomes too hard, then I swab the bore with a patch soaked with solvent. Usually one patch is enough to get rid of that tight spot.
I

 

[roundball]

Although I'm not sure, it sounds like you're looking for a possible solution...one would be to change from 'spit patch' to patches lubed with natural lube 1000.
It's all I use and in addition to it's other benefits, I never have this ring that you're experiencing.
A quick inexpensive test would be to buy a package of prelubed patches...ie: OxYoke .015" cotton or TC .018" pillow ticking