how many shots can you get before cleaning?

[quinnconner]

Again on a woods walk, I have a rifle a buddy of mine built with a .45 cal green mountain barrel. 445 ball, .015 ox yoke wonder patch, 50 gr.fff. I have easily shot 10 shots without wiping or cleaning in any way.I have a douglas 45 that needs to be wiped between each shot or you have to pound the ball down the barrel.

 

It sounds to me like you need to polish the bore in that Douglas barrel. If you can get the first ball down with reasonable resistance but it gets more difficult with each shot, you have residue hanging up in your rifling. You might try JB brand bore polish and follow the instructions on the can, quite a few of the guys here have used it . They would be able to tell you more than I could.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I can shoot about indefinately with Natural Lube 1000 Plus. With my own concoctions I'm getting upwards of 15 shots. I still can load, but accuracy falls off - I'm working on that. (see Lube Wars #1 on Shooting Accessories).

I have polished my barrels with J-B Paste, and that certainly helps for a smooth loading. With some lubes (beeswax/mutton tallow/crisco, for instance) I still must clean between each shot.

 

I got tired of pounding balls and bullets downbore, pulling stuck balls and so on so I swab bewteen shots all the time now.
I did notice that my jeager .58 does NOT have to be swabbed between shots. It wears a Colrain swamped round bottom grooved barrel and is easy to load. I still swab between shots for consistancy though.

 

[Griz]

I have a TVM Virginia rifle and I have went 25 shots between cleaning and the accuracy held just fine. I am not sure of the barrel brand name, it is long hammock, I think. I use Lehigh Valley as a patch lube, 42" barrel,.495 R.B. and .015 patch with 80Gr. FF Goex. seems to work for me.

 

[roundball]

I use natural lube 1000 as a bore lube and in prelubed pillow ticking patches, plus Goex powder.
I usually shoot a 40 shot range session without wiping...and one time I shot 50 but get tired shooting that much on one trip so I've dropped back to 40 as the norm.
My assumption is I could have kept shooting all day without wiping...TC's advertised tests went over 1000 shots without wiping before they figured enough was enough.
For me, natural lube 1000 makes a range trip an enjoyable shooting event instead of a wiping/cleaning event

 

[cayugad]

I have "shot all I wanted to" (never kept count) with out swabbing in my sidelocks. I will admit that towards the end the accuracy started to suffer some.

I also lap all my barrels as soon as I get the rifle if they fail the test. Run a cotton ball test on them and see if there are ruff spots in them. If there are any, then a short lap will usually fix that. Also about every 20 times I clean the rifle (if I think of it) I J.B. Bore Paste the barrel just to make sure any nasty things that might be gathering in there, are gone.

My inlines on the other hand (unless shooting LEE R.E.A.L. conicals) have to be swabbed at least every other shot or your wasting you powder and projectile when shooting sabots.

 

[squirejohn]

In my .45c GMB I swab after every shot. I could probably shoot 2 to 4 shots without cleaning but that's about it. I shoot a .451 RB, with a .010 patch either 1000+ or bear/beeswax concoction with 55g of 3f, and have put about 2000 rounds through it so it's broken in. I wish I didn't have to clean between shots- it's a pain. I've tried a smaller ball but don't remember whether I needed to swab as often since accuracy suffers and therefore don't use the smaller ball(GMB recommends for accuracy .451 in a .45 and .500 in .50 cal. for target shooting). Unless I bare ball or use paper catridges I also need to swab my 20g smootbore (.60 RB .012 patch and 70g of 2f). I use 60g of 3f in the paper catridges - seems to burn a little cleaner but not quite as accurate.

 

[roundball]

Curious what brand of powder you might be using?

 

[Rebel]

Must be thet thar Eleeephant stuff. ::

 

[squirejohn]

I only use Goex - just bought another case , at your suggestion, from J&B Pyro; best price I've seen.

 

[roundball]

Glad to hear you were satisfied with J&J...

Sure don't understand the fouling if you're using natural lube 1000 and Goex

 

[buckknife]

well i will say it since no one else has,if you dont want to swab make your self a blow tube that will fit the muzzle snug.after a shot pull the hammer back at half cock an remove the cap if its a capper.Place the tube in the muzzle and blow a very long big breath threw it.sould see smoke ccome out of the nipple hole.You will find that this moistens the fouling where you can reload with out swabing untill you just grow tired of shooten.
But after 15 0r 20 shots you will have to clean for by this time it will be shooten considerble bit lower than the first few.
every shot puts down anuther layer of fouling and bakes the preveace layer.Most people swab every shot for this reason.The idea is not to really clean but to keep a consistant bore.
If you dont swab and blow down the barrel or use plenty of lube the idea is that the patch will clean it on the way down and push it out on the way out,but shooten a ball after a swab does the same thing but you already have removed the layer of fouling with the swab.
Either way you want to keep it as consistant from shot to shot.
The only thing i can see about not swabbwen is the fact that you are not pushen fouling down in the breech before the powder is added,you are putting it on top of the powder.
My 36 plugs up fast in about 8 shots if i swab,an i have tryed 3 different cleanen jags with the same results.If i use a blow tube an dont swab an load a lightly lubed patch i can shot for ever with no problems but every shot starts walken down the target around 10 shots an by 15 or more its shooten 4 inches low at 25 yards.So if i want much accuracy after 10 shots i need to give it a good cleanen,out hunting it souldnt be much for i doubt i shoot that much anyways.I will take a small bottle of moose milk and cleanen patches just to be safe,them squirrels are little targets so who knows i might shoot more an 10 shots.If i do i want to know i will be on target. ::

 

[squirejohn]

At a line shoot I don't mind swabbing after every shot; particularly when shooting paper targets that don't lie as opposed to shooting gongs where any hit is a "10x". Some years ago I used to blow down the barrel after every shot which I assume would be comparable to a blow tube. As I recall I still needed to clean between shots. At that time I was useing a .50c GMB cap lock with a .500c ball and a teflon coated pillow-ticking patch with 90g of 2f. Soon after I discovered flintlocks and haven't touched the cap lock since. It's during woodswalks and other informal "stump" shoots that the swabbing between shots is the biggest bother. Carrying a blow-tube on a woodswalk wouldn't be an improvement. Another drawback to swabbing is speed shooting; e.g. "how many targets can you hit in x minutes." During these events I bare ball after about 3 or 4 shots. This is ok in my smoothbore but accuracy really suffers with the rifle.

 

[sse]

If my memory serves, seems I read a dissertation on the relative merits of swabbing when cutting the propellant with the ashes of a former in-lining, unrepentant luber and swabber, versus those of your basic spitter and blower.

Seems accuracy, minimal fouling, velocity was found to be verifiably superior in the latter of the two mentioned species, and there was a reduction in potential corrosion for the same group. So, if you're gonna try this, forget the lubing and swabbing, just spit and blow it out your ash.

Regards, sse

 

[buckknife]

Yup aint never seen a traditional blow tube,an i just recently made one, for blowen down the barrel just aint safe but is just as effective.If you blow hard enough it will load easy.
Where is Rollingb when ya need him.He is the one that taught me this nasty habit. :winking:

 

[squirejohn]

After reading a number of posts about not having to swab between shots using Goex. Nl 1000+ etc. I thought I'd give it another try. I was very skeptical it would work since I have used 1000+ in the past. I assumed the reason I needed to swab was the relatively large ball size to bore size,and therfore, based on past experience I've been swabbing between shots for years. So yesterday at a woodswalk shoot I loaded up loading blocks with .451rb, .010 NL1000+ pre-cut patches, and used 3f Goex powder. The weather was very damp so I figured if I could shoot without swabbing this would be the day. Well LO & BEHOLD it worked . Fired 15 shots and the gun loaded just fine and performed flawlessly - no hangfires, misfires or vent piks. I don't know why it worked this time - maybe the damp weather ::. I'll try it again at next weeks shoot; maybe the humidity levels will be lower. I'll also try a few with a beargrease/beeswax lube and see if that loads just as well.

 

[roundball]

The stuff really works doesn't it...and I use it year round in both low and hi humidity, and it works the same all the time for me.
Also, since I use NL1000 all the time, I always include a couple dozen strokes with a bore brush as part of my cleaning process to ensure everything is scrubbed out of the bore right down to the raw metal to prevent any gradual buildup

 

[squirejohn]

At a shoot yesterday which was made up of a woodswalk (21 shots) and novelty shoot (11 shots) I tried 4 patchlube combinations without cleaning between shots to see if I could determine any significant difference in ease of loading. The combos were: precut 1000+ 10 shots, bear/beeswax 5 shots, lubed strips of 1000+ cut at muzzle 6 shot and spit patch strips loaded at muzzle 11 shots. To make a short story shorter I couldn't determine any differece between the 4 combos. All loaded fine without swabbing between shots as long as the gun was reloaded immediately after shooting. When not loaded for several minutes after fireing loading became a little "sticky". I only tried this for two shots (waiting several minutes before loading) and if I had continued for several more shots I would have expected the bore to become too fouled to load without swabbing regardless of the patch lube. However this needs to be tested further. The added benefit of not swabbing between shots is the comparatively clean bore to clean up after shooting, and I never had to pick the vent once because there was no crud pushed down onto the breech face.
Gotta go get geady to go to the Grande Encampement at Fort Ti - heard there were lots of good sutlers there

 

[Ohio Joe]

I'm a powder miser, I load lite when doing timed events against the clock... I prefer my .45 Dickert Flintlock with 45 grains of 3fg Goex, and I prime with it too... If the day is humid I'll opt for the Percussion .45 Dickert, same load... I use bullet blocks with lubed patches, but I'll still slobber some spit on the patch before loading it... I have found that I have no need to wipe the bore during any of these type of events, and usually they last for no more then 12 shots... 36" to 42" Green Mountain Barrel's with their deep rifling are pretty forgiving using lite loads, and I believe the spit helps... I do blow down my barrel between shots and I know it's not political correct in some circle's, but it keeps the fouling soft and lets me know if the touchhole or nipple port is free of obstruction... If there is a hot ember still burning in the bottom of the barrel by the time I wipe my flint and frizzen, or remove a spent percussion cap, and measure out a load to be dump it in the bore,,, well,,, I'd be surprised...