Ignition problem!

[PreglerD]

Hello,

since a few days I have my Investarm flinter. Today I want to shoot it. I primed the pan with the same powder as the load, it was WANO PP (FFg). I use english flints. The frizzen sparks well and ignition of the priming powder is also well. The first shot went out good. At 30 meters I hit 1'' beside the aiming point. But then nomore ignition of the load, only priming well. After replacing the ventscrew I found that there were corns of bp inside. Perhaps this was the cause? I didn't put a pipecleaner inside the hole when loading.

Please help, so that I can make smoke not only in the pan.

Kirrmeister

 

[2172]

Kirmeister, were the corns of bp inside not from the load that wouldn't ignite? If the corns were in the touchhole itself, that might have given you a slow ignition, like a fuse, but shouldn't have prevented any ignition. Were I you, I believe I'd try a few shots, carefully poking the touch hole to be sure it was free. I'd also look to be sure that the pan and the touchhole alined properly...if not in good alinement, you'd get hit or miss ignition....those are my first thoughts..I'm sure others will give you theirs, and some will be better...Hank

 

[roundball]

Did you swab between shots, and if so, your patch may have been so wet it left moisture at the bottom which killed the powder charge.

Remember, even if a patch doesn't necessarily seem too wet, when its compressed tightly into the bore, any excess liquid will be squeezed out and run down to the breech.

 

[d.thomson]

Hi Kirrmeister, I had prroblems at first with my Lyman GPR, flint and what I did was I opened up the " Touch Hole" TH, to 1/16 inches and then I opened it up to 5/64. After I did this it went off every time, but I still had a little delay. What I did then was to buy a " White Lightning" T.H. liner from Track of the Wolf. I bought the Kit which includes the right size drill bit,tap and Liner for about $15.00 U.S.pus shipping. I installed that and evenualy opened the T.H. on it to 5/64 and now it goes off as fast as my cap gun and I haven't had a flash in the pan since, Knock on wood.
My T.H is set alittle to far back mabey7/64 but it seems to work well now with the modifications. I hope this helps F.K.
[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/399066/[/url]
Look at the entire topic F.K.

 

[jweston]

I concur with Fisher King. I put a White Lightning in my Lyamn GPR and I can certainly see a difference. In addition to the tap kit, you will also need a countersink bit for the shoulder on the liner, hacksaw, and metal files.
BBurg

 

[d.thomson]

:thumbsup: :hatsoff: F.K.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Kirrmeister: Make a vent pick out of a piece of coat hanger. The metal is soft enough that it won't spark, rubbing against or striking the steel barrel, so have no fear. You can either heat the rod up with a propane torch and hammer it to a point, or simply clamp a piece in a vise, and use a file to make a long point that will fit inside the vent hole. Don't make it totally round, like a pencil sharpener does a wooden pencil. Leave some flast on the point, and round off the actual point so it doesn't stick you accidentally. What you are really making is a small rod with a " shovel " on the end that will help you move some powder around in the barrel, leaving a hole in the powder charge to help the heat from the priming charge ignite a lot of the granules( corns) of powder at the back of the charge.

Use the vent pick before priming your pan every time you prepare to fire. Just stick the pick through the hole and turn it 180o a few times, so that the flat sides will move the powder granules forward a bit, leaving the hole. Now prime and fire.

If you use a wet patch to clean after your shot, always follow up with a cry patch to dry the chamber out of water that will be left behind from the wet patch. The dry patch will also leave the entire barrel dry so that when you pour the next load of powder into the barrel, granules do not adhere to the sides of the barrel, but rather fall down to the back of the barrel.

I keep a plastic bag in my possibles bag to put the dirty cleaning patches in the field, and leave the bag handy at my range box when I am loading to shoot clay targets. I even have been known to take an old coffee can to the range to catch dirty patches , and leave it on the ground next to my loading position. No sense in leaving a mess. Someone has to clean it up, and it might as well be you. More than once, other shooters have asked me if its okay to put their dirty patches in my coffee can. ( Of course it is! I am just glad they aren't going to throw them on the ground! The next time I am shooting, I notice other coffee cans showing up at the range!)

 

[Fullstock58]

Put a toothpick into the touch hole before loading, after you load just pull the toothpick out, prime and shoot. Feathers were found alot in shooting pouchs back home, I'm sure thats what they used them for, like the toothpick. When out hunting I keep the toothpick in the touch hole, I close the pan and break off the Toothpick flush with the outside of the pan, then when I need to prime it's very easy to remove the toothpick, it helps a great deal with keeping the touch hole clean and dry.

 

[d.thomson]

That is a good Idea. Here for hunting you are not alowed a loaded fire arm in your vehicle. Def of loaded for a flint lock:
you can have a powder charge and ball but the TH has to be plugged, if unplugged it is considered loaded.
So the tooth pick , feather thing would be I deal, and like you said it keeps the vent open. :thumbsup: F.K.

 

[Ironwood]

As I understand it, 2F powder is not the best prime. You might want to crush the 2F, with your fingernail, after you put it in the pan. Like the other poster mentioned the toothpick and wire through the flash hole into the powder charge will also help with ignition.

 

[cowpoke1955]

Hi Dirk,
Welcome to the world of flintlock :rotf: . Like others have said, I opened my touch hole to 5/64", use a vent pick and use finer powder for prime, FFFFg if possible. All this has improved my GPR greatly. I may try the white lighting touch hole later. After you do these things and improve the reliability of your rifle, you can really be proud of it, because you did it. Don't forget to order plenty of flints. You can never have enough. Just hang in there and you can show your buddies what a flintlock can do :thumbsup: .

 

[Rebel]

Well, first try to get some 3f or 4f for priming, or grind up some of the 2f you have finer. Then i always take the ventliner out and drill the inside as large as i can and still leave enough wall thickeness for the threads. Drill it nearly through to the outside, but not all the way through. You want the powder as close to the prime as possible. Then drill the vent hole out to 5/64" if you are using 2f powder. I also put a bit of a cone on the outside, just to below the screwdriver slot. When done right i can't tell any difference between the stock liner and a White Lightening as far as ignition speed goes. I really hope this is making some sense to you. It doesn't explain as well in print. :grin:

 

[romeoh]

OK guys. Gonna use a few german words now.
I don´t know all the words I´ll need for my advice in english. But first of all it´s Kirrmeister that needs help and he´ll understand.

#1: For a ventpick use a Splint aus dem Baumarkt. Cheap and availiable in many sizes. With a little rope you can hang it around your neck so you won´t loose it when running around in the forrest.

#2: Wano PP has much too big grains for using it as priming powder (PP isn´t a short form for priming powder :grin: )
You need special powder. If you´ll strictly follow the german laws you´ll have to buy it.
Otherwise a Gewürzmörser aus Porzellan (important!) will serve you well to get the grains to the right size... :thumbsup:


Keep your powder dry :hatsoff:

romeoh

 

[hawkeye1755]

Kirr, here is a link about granulation of BP.
It's in german from Pulver-Müller.
Link
:hatsoff:

 

[romeoh]

Ah Pulver-Müller. Used to be my teacher...

 

[cowpoke1955]

Good show, undertaker :thumbsup: . Helping our brothers across the great waters :rotf: , but I see you are there also.

 

[MSW]

Herr Kirrmeister:

give the vent pick a try first- it's less expensive and will probably work. (paul is a wise fellow in such matters). if that fials, try enlarging the size of the vent hole. if that fails, you would do well to try a white lightnin' liner. they are a bit tricky to install if you've never done this sort of work before, but they will clear up any ignition problem unless you're not getting enough spark to ignite the priming powder.

as regards the granulation- i wouldn't get too worried about this issue unless you shoot competitively and to a very high standard, at which point the very slight increase in lock speed might give you the point or two between winning and second place.

beste gluck mit seine gewehr!

msw

 

[PreglerD]

Thanks to all of you guys for the replies. I think I will first start with the ventpick, because as I told you there was powder inside the ventscrew, so that the ignitionflame obviously couldn't get through.

Thanks again. Didn't think that the flinteradventure can start so difficult.

 

[Rebel]

It seems that all of the Factory vents have to small a hole in them. I would drill it out to at least 1/16" and see how much that helps. You may not even need a vent pick after that.

 

[Steve A.]

My Gpr vent liner was just under 1/16 when i bought it. I could just fit the tip of the drill bit in. I went ahead and drilled it out to 1/16,and that did make a big improvement. I still get the ocasional flash in the pan,but i don't always pick the t.h. either. I'm also still learning a lot. I don't understand it,but with 3f in the pan and down the barrel i didn't get a single flash in the pan,but with 2f in both pan and main load i got several flashes even when i did pick the t.h.