How to determine proper prime?

[JRDRI]

Bear with me, there's a question at the end...

My new Blue Ridge .50 cal came in from Cabela's. This morning I lapped the bore, cleaned it out with hot water, and then seasoned it while still hot.

I won't be able to get to the range until Monday, but I wanted to get a feel for the ignition. I put a smear of bullet lube over the flashhole to keep the fouling out of my barrel, got the flint adjusted, and tried about 10 priming charges behind the house.

I was using a 22 Short case as a measure for FFFg. That amounted to 3.2 grains of powder on my scale. This amount filled the pan about 3/4 full. I know the only way is to try it, but I wonder if anyone can give a recommendation of how much priming powder to use.

I need to get used to the flint ignition because I was trying to concentrate on the sights and trigger, but still felt my head twitch when the pan went off. Practice, practice...

Jason

 

[lonehunter]

shoot, shoot,and shoot some more. The gun will tell you what it likes. :v

 

[rabjr]

shoot, shoot,and shoot some more. The gun will tell you what it likes. :v

Exactly. :thumbsup:

 

, and tried about 10 priming charges behind the house.

I was using a 22 Short case as a measure for FFFg. That amounted to 3.2 grains of powder on my scale. This amount filled the pan about 3/4 full.

Go to the range and see if it works. Use as little prime as necessary to shoot the gun. No two guns are alike.

Good luck!

 

[Trench]

My Blue Ridge likes half a pan. However, after monkeying with different amounts of prime, I haven't noticed that much time difference in ignition speed. I have noticed that too much is much worse than too little, however.

 

[paulvallandigham]

"and then seasoned it while still hot."

WHAT??

You season CAST IRON skillets, NOT steel gun barrels! Whatever you have read or been told about " Seasoning " barrels, STOP IT. IGNORE IT.

I don't know what you did to " season your barrel". Whatever you did, its not going to help the accuracy of the gun. Tell us what you did do, and we can try to help you reverse it.

As to your question about HOW MUCH PRIMING powder do you use: As long as you don't cover the touch hole, you can't use too much. Most rifles will fire adequately with less than a full pan. If the TH is lower than the top edge of the pan, you may have to use even less priming powder. Shooting the gun will tell you quickly when you have used too little, or too much. Go shoot the gun. :thumbsup: :wink:

 

[Billnpatti]

Three to five grains is usually plenty. You don't want too much powder or it coulod cover your touch hole and cause what is called a "fuse effect" which results in a slow ignition. Just pour enough powder in your pan to fill the bottom but not cover the touch hole. Start there and then just work with your gun to see what it likes.

 

[rabjr]

After spending 5 years here and reading all kinds of questions, I've concluded we worry way to much about the little things and should spend much more time shooting our fire sticks. :thumbsup:

 

[DrLaw]

ARG! :cursing:

I don't know what you people have done to me!

I used to check out other forums with revolvers, milsurps, semi-autos, etc... but lately, the only thing I check out are this and the black powder sections of the other forums.

You're driving me nuts, :youcrazy: and yes, the only thing I want to do now is shoot my fire stick.

Oh, and while I am at it, Junior Dri, listen to Paul, he gave me invaluable advice that got my firestick booming whenever I pull the trigger.

The Doc is out now. :v

 

[tg]

" This morning I lapped the bore, cleaned it out with hot water, and then seasoned it while still hot"

Whatcha usin' fer seasonin' pard, Pepper, Sage, Oregano? I am kinda partial to Parsley Flakes me'self :hmm:

 

[rabjr]

I just noticed he's from R.I, well welcome to the boards!

Easy TG, he's probably just been taken in by the T/C hype. If he sticks around, we'll teach him right. :thumbsup:

 

[rabjr]

Bear with me, there's a question at the end...

My new Blue Ridge .50 cal came in from Cabela's. This morning I lapped the bore, cleaned it out with hot water, and then seasoned it while still hot.

I won't be able to get to the range until Monday, but I wanted to get a feel for the ignition. I put a smear of bullet lube over the flashhole to keep the fouling out of my barrel, got the flint adjusted, and tried about 10 priming charges behind the house.

I was using a 22 Short case as a measure for FFFg. That amounted to 3.2 grains of powder on my scale. This amount filled the pan about 3/4 full. I know the only way is to try it, but I wonder if anyone can give a recommendation of how much priming powder to use.

I need to get used to the flint ignition because I was trying to concentrate on the sights and trigger, but still felt my head twitch when the pan went off. Practice, practice...

Jason

Jason,

My .58 wears a pretty good sized lock which likes two plunges of one of those brass primers that are supposed to throw 4 grains a plunge. this puts the prime just below my touch hole and she goes off everytime. They sell smaller ones that throw 3 grains a plunge. Thats probably supposed to be 4F but I use 3F for a prime and never have any problems. I don't know much about your gun but that amount of primes seems pretty close, you'll have to shoot it a few times and see for sure. Just make sure your prime is just under and not covering the touch hole. Good luck! :thumbsup:

 

[JRDRI]

Danged it, I bet it would have been much more accurate if I'd used some sage or oregano. Perhaps I was to graphic in describing "seasoning". I simply cleaned the gun with hot water and then ran a patch of bore butter down it while it was still warm. I doubt it harmed anything or helped anything, but it was a fun thing to do on a rainy Saturday.

Also even more importantly it was time well spent with my 8 year old boy. He was sick on the couch, so I set up my cleaning cradle on the floor next to him and we spent the morning talking about how a flintlock works, muskets, bores, rifling, etc while admiring the new toy.

Yes, indeed I'm from Rhode Island. My goal for this year is to take a deer with a flintlock. I've taken plenty of deer with my in-line, and decided I wanted to get into traditional muzzleloading. I've been thinking flintlocks and reading about them for about two years before I've finally gone and got this one.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I won't be able to get to the range until Monday, but I wanted to get a feel for the ignition. I put a smear of bullet lube over the flashhole to keep the fouling out of my barrel, got the flint adjusted, and tried about 10 priming charges behind the house.

You'll do better if you keep lube and oils FAR away from the pan and vent. These will leach into priming powder or migrate up to lubricate the frizzen so it won't throw a spark. Wipe the pan and frizzen face well with alcohol before use and pick the vent to clear it.

 

[torn moc]

First...Welcome to THE FORUM! You picked a nice rifle too! Your gonna love it. I have one and its one of my Favorites. One tip is to Never use Skunk tallow for Seasoning the bore or patch lube.
They say it will cover your human scent while Hunting and I tend to believe it,.....

 

[rabjr]

Danged it, I bet it would have been much more accurate if I'd used some sage or oregano. Perhaps I was to graphic in describing "seasoning". I simply cleaned the gun with hot water and then ran a patch of bore butter down it while it was still warm. I doubt it harmed anything or helped anything, but it was a fun thing to do on a rainy Saturday.

Also even more importantly it was time well spent with my 8 year old boy. He was sick on the couch, so I set up my cleaning cradle on the floor next to him and we spent the morning talking about how a flintlock works, muskets, bores, rifling, etc while admiring the new toy.

Yes, indeed I'm from Rhode Island. My goal for this year is to take a deer with a flintlock. I've taken plenty of deer with my in-line, and decided I wanted to get into traditional muzzleloading. I've been thinking flintlocks and reading about them for about two years before I've finally gone and got this one.

Well thats just great to hear as there ain't many of us here who try to use the older guns. I'm kinda down atm after an operation but I hope to get out and will be looking for my 11th Flintlock deer.I gave up on my sin-line a few years ago and have no regrets. I wish you much luck on that first one, it will be something you'll never forget. :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Flush the barrel of all oil and wax/lube using alohol, and pour it out before going out to the range, or field. You can run a lightly oiled cleaning patch down the barrel for transporting the gun, but use a dry clean patch to remove most of the oil before you fire the first shot. Use a vegetable or mineral based oil- not a petroleum oil inside the barrel. Petroleum based oils gum up and leave behind tars, and partially burned oils that stick to the bore, and are difficult to clean out. ( unless you have alcohol available. Even with alcohol, cleaning a barrel with substantial oil residue is going to take work.)

 

[musketman]

I need to get used to the flint ignition because I was trying to concentrate on the sights and trigger, but still felt my head twitch when the pan went off. Practice, practice...

Jason

You can practice with the flint and live powder in the pan any time, just don't load the barrel with a main charge.

With the gun empty, prime, cock, aim and shoot. All you will get is the "poof" and a small tuff of smoke, nary enough to alarm the neighbors. (mind where you point the barrel when doing this for it will look like you are trying to shoot something)

Be sure to clean your gun afterwards, inside and out, just because there is no main charge in it doesn't mean that the black powder's hot gasses doesn't go through the flash hole.

Oh, and don't practice this way indoors unless you want to set off the smoke alarms and set the curtains on fire. :grin:

 

[ohio ramrod]

After spending 5 years here and reading all kinds of questions, I've concluded we worry way to much about the little things and should spend much more time shooting our fire sticks. :thumbsup:

So very true ,if we stop and think about it there are so many variables it is a wonder we can hit anything. So we need to stop thinking so much and start shooting more. There is no substitute for experience.

 

[MikeChapin]

Got out and shoot it. Most rifles like the prime to come up to just under the touch hole. A member of the board, Pletch, has done some very good studies on how placement of the prime effects the amount of flash through the touch hole.

The only thing particular to the Blue Ridge/Frontier Pedersoli is the small ignition chamber in the patent breech. You will need to clean this well when you clean the rifle. Many people use a .22 brush with a patch wrapped around it to clean this area out.

Have fun!