Patent Breeches With Reduced Chambers

[coloradoclyde]

I've never had any cleaning issues with patents breeches ....but my gripe is the minimum powder charge required to properly seat a ball.....Sometimes I like to plink with light charges.

 

[roundball]

I've never had any cleaning issues with patents breeches ....but my gripe is the minimum powder charge required to properly seat a ball.....Sometimes I like to plink with light charges.

There is no such thing as a minimum powder charge to seat a ball.
It is common practice to put a mere 5, 10, 15grns powder in under a dry ball to bloop it out.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Some patent breeches have a very long powder chamber that the ball will not enter. I have one that requires about 30 grains to fill before the ball will sit on the powder charge.

 

[roundball]

Bore size balls don't enter powder chambers in any Patent Breeches...they all sit on top of the reduced diameter powder chamber.

 

[coloradoclyde]

yes, but the amount of powder they hold varies with their size and shape.
I'm not saying they are bad or anything.....just different.

 

[Zonie]

I think what ole' Roundball is saying is you can safely load 10 or 20 grains of loose powder into a powder chamber that needs at least 25 grains of powder before the ball will compress it.

'Course, he'll correct me if I'm wrong. :rotf:

 

[azmntman]

but would 10 be safe?

 

[19 16 6]

Why would it not be safe ?
How can the barrel bulge with the ball seated onto the antechamber mouth ?
Or with such a squib charge ?
O.

 

[Vaino]

People can use whatever breech system they prefer....but, when cleaning, a patent breech requires more care and time than a flat faced breech in a flintlock. To some this isn't a problem, but evidently around 1800 it probably was....not many patent breeches around and the idea was somewhat known.

Field cleaning in 1800 had to be simple....couldn't dunk the bbl in a buscket of water and special dia pre-chamber brushes probably didn't exist.

I've had no problems w/ my TC Hawken caplock, but the bbl does get dunked in a bucket of hot water and evidently the flushing cleans out the flash channel and pre-chamber. For storage, a waxy lube is used and the rifle is racked horizontally. Using a "runny" lube and racking the rifle vertically causes the flash channel to be a sump....this has caused a problem for 2 friends while deer hunting.

Not many patent breeches are installed in flintlocks.....the factories do it because of manufacturing expediency....they don't have to have separate breech/bbl assemblies.

Simple is better and a flat faced breechplug in a flintlock w/ direct flash access to the powder charge meets that criteria. For a caplock, a patent breech is stronger, but requires extra care, but in the end, it's a better system than a drum.....Fred