How Often Do You Remove the Touch Hole Liner

[tenngun]

How do you remove and replace your liner? I have a WL and regular 1/4 x 28 liners, they are flush with the outside of the barrel. If I wanted to remove them I would have to use an easy-out.How could I reinstall them after that?

An easy out can be used on such but it ruins the liner and it has to be replaced.
Look or Track of the wolf or Log Cabin sport shop ect to look at liners. Some are flat and files off flush leaving only the touch hole. Some have a slot or a hex female end.

 

[OldJoe212]

Only recently have I acquired flintlocks with touch hole liners. My other flintlocks just had touch holes - no liners.

My two Pedersoli Charles Moore flintlock pistols have hooked breeches. So this makes them easier to clean.

On the other hand, my Frontier rifle lacks the hooked breech but still isn't difficult to clean.

I use white lithium grease on the threads of the touch hole liners so they are easier to remove.

I decided to try the barrel flushing kit from TOW for the Frontier rifle. However, it's impossible to get a good seal with the o-ring if the touch hole liner is in place. The slots in the liner prevent a good seal.

So the only way to get a good seal with the barrel flush kit is to remove the touch hole liner. I find this difficult when the gun is fouled even with the lithium grease in place.

With all this said, I am thinking about going back to my traditional way of cleaning the barrel like I did with other muzzle loaders and leave the touch hole liner in place.

I would only remove it when it needs to be replaced.

Sorry for the long way around to asking the question.

How often does everyone here remove their touch hole liners in their flintlocks?

I have one liner that I got from Dixie a really long time ago. It came with a slot. I've made a few out of 1/4' Stainless, threaded to 1/4 x 28, and counter sunk inside. A couple I slotted and a few not. Anyway, I've never pulled one. I figure it's the same as one with out a liner, if you screw up, either dribble some 4F through the touch hole or pull the ball.

 

[Realwarrior]

White lightening here too & Never remove

 

[olskool]

never,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[flntlokr]

Only recently have I acquired flintlocks with touch hole liners. My other flintlocks just had touch holes - no liners.

My two Pedersoli Charles Moore flintlock pistols have hooked breeches. So this makes them easier to clean.

On the other hand, my Frontier rifle lacks the hooked breech but still isn't difficult to clean.

I use white lithium grease on the threads of the touch hole liners so they are easier to remove.

I decided to try the barrel flushing kit from TOW for the Frontier rifle. However, it's impossible to get a good seal with the o-ring if the touch hole liner is in place. The slots in the liner prevent a good seal.

So the only way to get a good seal with the barrel flush kit is to remove the touch hole liner. I find this difficult when the gun is fouled even with the lithium grease in place.

With all this said, I am thinking about going back to my traditional way of cleaning the barrel like I did with other muzzle loaders and leave the touch hole liner in place.

I would only remove it when it needs to be replaced.

Sorry for the long way around to asking the question.

How often does everyone here remove their touch hole liners in their flintlocks?

I remove them every time. I made an adaptor with a hose on it, thatt screws into the vent hole. Hose into a bottle of soapy water, then pump away. No mess.

 

[hinamanra]

If it has a liner and it was designed to come out, then every time I clean them.

 

[Dphar1950]

If the thing is properly designed and installed it should be impossible to remove without destroying it and its unnecessary to remove a liner anyway if the shooter cleans the barrel properly. Unless it has a fouling trap of some sort. I have not used a removable vent liner since I found one of these gas cutting around the threads about 1977. Vent installation against a shoulder to reduce pressure on the liner and eliminate any possible gas cutting. 303 stainless. The #38 (.101") is the drill size for the pilot on the counter bore . The liner is bored just slightly smaller, #40 (.098) perhaps to avoid a fouling trap or the #38 hole in the barrel can be opened a few thousandths to avoid a fouling trap. This liner is designed for FF or FFF powder. It, like a White Lightning, puts the charge within about. .030" of the priming.

.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Very competent bit of machining.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Very few, and I think probably less than .5% of black powder shooters have a lathe and other like tools in our garage.

 

[Pete G]

Very few, and I think probably less than .5% of black powder shooters have a lathe and other like tools in our garage.

But a good gunsmith should.

 

[Dphar1950]

But a good gunsmith should.

Exactly. Foot powered lathes were used in the 19th c.

 

[Dphar1950]

Very few, and I think probably less than .5% of black powder shooters have a lathe and other like tools in our garage.

Shooters are not gun builders. Shooters have others do their work if its beyond there capability. The question of course is; "do you want it right?"

 

[Dphar1950]

Very competent bit of machining.

Thank you.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Shooters are not gun builders. Shooters have others do their work if its beyond there capability. The question of course is; "do you want it right?"

And how many costly mistakes are you willing to absorb before you get any good at it. ;-)

 

[Griz44Mag]

But a good gunsmith should.

OK point made, so for the 5.96 the liner cost me, it seemed a cheaper alternative to buying 5 grand in machine tools that I don't want or need to enjoy my hobby.
I just needed a dependable gun that I can do simple repairs on and maintain myself.
I do cut dovetails with a hack saw and a "safe" file. I don't attempt to cut threads on stainless bar stock....

 

[Enfield58]

If the thing is properly designed and installed it should be impossible to remove without destroying it and its unnecessary to remove a liner anyway if the shooter cleans the barrel properly. Unless it has a fouling trap of some sort. I have not used a removable vent liner since I found one of these gas cutting around the threads about 1977. Vent installation against a shoulder to reduce pressure on the liner and eliminate any possible gas cutting. 303 stainless. The #38 (.101") is the drill size for the pilot on the counter bore . The liner is bored just slightly smaller, #40 (.098) perhaps to avoid a fouling trap or the #38 hole in the barrel can be opened a few thousandths to avoid a fouling trap. This liner is designed for FF or FFF powder. It, like a White Lightning, puts the charge within about. .030" of the priming.View attachment 20129 View attachment 20130 View attachment 20131 View attachment 20132 View attachment 20133 View attachment 20134 View attachment 20135 View attachment 20136 .

That is some nice work. What is the size of the flash hole?

 

[ugly old guy]

If the thing is properly designed and installed it should be impossible to remove without destroying it

I misr respectfully disagree.

As for removing it in the first place, I'll agree it is unnecessary.
Only legitimate reason I can think of is to replace it when burned out.
(even arms without a removeable vent liner can burn out the vent eventually.)

 

[Dphar1950]

That is some nice work. What is the size of the flash hole?

1/16" works well. If you are after best accuracy it will start to degrade if it gets much bigger. Its been tested by the Bevel Brothers and written up in MBs. I have a rifle I did a larger vent and it shoots really well. But it has a Nock breech and shoots a one ounce ball.

 

[Dphar1950]

OK point made, so for the 5.96 the liner cost me, it seemed a cheaper alternative to buying 5 grand in machine tools that I don't want or need to enjoy my hobby.
I just needed a dependable gun that I can do simple repairs on and maintain myself.
I do cut dovetails with a hack saw and a "safe" file. I don't attempt to cut threads on stainless bar stock....

I also use H1 taps and if a die is used an expandable type to keep thread tolerance (slop is another term) to a minimum on pressure bearing parts. People using store bought vent liners and standard taps may have the vent come "adrift" or leak. If you install a vent liner you need to PROOF THE BARREL afterwards with double service charge of powder and two balls to make sure its going to stay in. I recommend you do it with the barrel removed from the stock. I could tell you some scary stories about breech plugs installed by the "barrel" makers. I did pull a breech for what it seems is now my apprentice, a new guild member, to be sure it would not need to be redone AFTER it was in the stock. To my surprise it was about as perfectly breeched as they can be. Some "custom barrels" are tapped 2 or more threads longer than the breech plug. Others with other "issues" allow powder gases and fouling full access to the threads where its impossible to remove and just stays there. When debreeched they may look like the photo. The BORE was clean. They are a lot easier to install that way you know. I have had, over the years, a nipple blow out of a Belgian made DGW rifle about 1965, had a modern drum BREAK off, seen a barrel ( by one the big names in ML barrels) so screwed up in the breeching by the barrel maker and by dovetails cut too deep in the waste of a swamped barrel by the parts assembler that I junked it and installed a new barrel. The more you learn the more finicky you tend to get. Unless, like some ML barrel makers you just don't care.

 

[GregLaRoche]

I was advised to install mine with Teflon tape, so it can be more easily removed if replacement was needed