Picking Flash hole

[Horace]

I had been reading on the forum about picking the flash hole to create an air space to speed up ignition. Well my ignition was fine anyway, but I had to fool with it and pick the flash hole and all I got were misfires. What am I missing here?

 

[ian45662]

I dont know I stick my vent pick in as far as it will go and it will go off every time. Who makes your gun and what kind is it? Some makers put the touch hole closer to the bottom of the pan when it should be a little higher than the top center of the pan, atleast thats where I put mine and it is quick.

 

[Horace]

My gun was build by Larry Cruise of Neb. The vent hole seems to be located in the proper place. Maybe I just need to leave well enough alone as it worked fine without picking, but trying to "improve" I messed with it. When you insert the pic do you just stick it in or wiggle it around some (the pic that is).

 

[FPDoc]

Don't forget to remove the vent pick...sorry, couldn't resist. Just straight in and back out works for me. Is the powder setting in the pan the same as before? Bottom line I guess, if it was working before...

 

[jtmattison]

If it's not broke, don't fix it.

I never pick mine before firing.

Why pick it and remove powder from the flash hole?

HD

 

Yep! Do yer pickin' before ya load 'er. You may be pushing the powder away from the hole and thus the flash.

 

[roundball]

I wonder if some if it is carry-over from the old days...as I understand it they typically had smaller diameter vent holes and often not coned inside or out so the powder was a long ways from the pan.

With larger size vent liners of recent times, heavily coned inside, and some on the outside, the powder is very close to the pan...can see the Goex perched right there in the hole waiting...I don't use a vent pick either (don't even carry one)

 

[Stumpkiller]

Mine is not internally or externally coned (at least not enough that I can detect any inside with a small wire that has a bent tip) and it benefits from a picking after the first three or four shots.

If picking makes matters worse, don't pick it! Every rifle is an enigma as to what it prefers for reliability vs. accuracy vs. convenience. A happy man has all three and the rest of us must experiment until we get there.

 

[biliff]

I've found that the powder granulation actually makes a difference. If I'm shooting FFg, I insert the pick before loading and then just withdraw it. If I try and pick the vent after loading I tend to get misfires. I suspect its because the pick actually packs the powder instead of opening it up to the flash. FFFg doesn't seem to matter what I do, it pretty much goes off no matter what. Haven't tried NOT picking with that granulation. Maybe next range session now that I'm thinking of it.

 

[Horace]

Right on Guys! Thanks, from now on, only the nose gets it.

 

[Bob Gular]

After loading with powder(3F Goex), patch(linen lubed with secret tallow,beeswax,and bear oil mixture), and ball(soft lead), I insert the vent pick into the charge, prime the pan(4F Goex), withdraw the pick and shoot. Not even Paul's rifle fires quicker than mine.
Just a few sparks from this side of the fire. Merry Christmas To All.
Bob

 

[paulvallandigham]

You are asking two questions, one about whether to pick open a hole in the powder charge, and the other, about what may becausing the misfire? NO?

If your pick has flat sides on it, turn the pick once its in the powder to open a space inside the back of the powder so that the flash will ignite more than one granule of powder at a time. If you don't pick such a hole, you may get the gun to fire, but ignition then begins at the vent, where the nearest granule of powder is exposed to the flame, or " flash ". You then get a slow fuse effect.

For many flintlock shooters, who have never fired a properly tuned flintlock, this IS the proper way to shoot a flintlock. They not only expect the fuse effect, but they actually look forward to it because it requires someone to be able to hold his follow through-- keep his sights on target until the gun actually fires after the required delay---- before they can be a good flintlock shooter.

Then someone comes along like me, and suggests you can get faster ignition by using coarse powder, loading it so its loose, and picking a hole in the back of the powder charge so that you ignite several granules, and get several " fuses " going all at the same time, all to speed actual ignition and burning of the powder charge. HERESY! THROW THE BUM OUT OF HERE! :youcrazy: :blah: :rotf:


But it works. :hmm:

About the misfire, without seeing exactly how you load the gun, and prime your pan, and where the vent is located in relation to the pan, and how large the vent hole is, I can only guess why you are getting misfires.

Don't cover the hole with priming powder or the prime has to then burn down to ignite the powder in the barrel. It doesn't always do it. All the heat has gone up over the top of the barrel and action, leaving the bottom, including the vent hole receiving a rush of in-coming cold air.

If the vent hole is too small, it may be difficult for the heat from the flash to reach the powder. I DO have a Vent liner in my rifle, and my fowler, for a reason. Both have significantly more reliable ignition since the vent liners were installed. The White Lightning vent liners, from Jim Chambers([url] www.flintlocks.com[/url]) have an oval cone on the inside of the hole, which focuses both heat and pressure back into the powder charge as gases are trying to escape out the vent.
That is the geometric genius of a parabolic curve.

No one, not even Jim Chambers, thought the shape of the cone on the inside of his liner would make that much of a difference, but it surprised him, and everyone else who has made a legitimate trial and comparison to other liners, with either no coning, or straight sided cones. There are, still, some people who will continue to argue that they find no advantage to using a vent liner with a parabolic cone on the inside of the liner, nor that moving powder closer to the exterior of the vent hole by coning at all contributes to ignition speed, but they are becoming a decided minority.

If you don't have a good set of machnist drill bits, then you may want to invest is a couple of drill bits. I first opened up a troublesome vent to 1/16". I shot the gun, and there was no doubt that ignition improved and I thought my flash in the pan problems were history. Then it happened again, and again, as I fired more, and the gun got more dirty. I consulted my favorite gunsmith, and gunmaker, who suggested I enlarge the vent again, this time using a drill size just a little larger than 1/16" I did, and there was improvment. Again, I thought I was done, but after a long shoot, it began again. This time, I stopped and cleaned the breech out thoroughly with moose juice, and then with alcohol. The patches came out clean. So I went back to shooting. About 15 shots later I had another flash in the pan. Everything was the same as the last time. I shot again, it fired. I fired again, and another flash in the pan.

I called my gunsmith and talked him through my loading procedures, and cleaning procedures, and he could not find any flaw in how I was doing things. He suggested that I open the vent to 5/64", a diameter that he had done many times on other guns to get the ignition to work properly.

So, back to the hardwared store, bought a 5/64" bit, and drilled out the vent carefully. Back to the range for more shooting.

I have not had a misfire since, no matter how long I shoot, or how dirty the barrel gets. I told my gunsmith, and he said, sometimes a 1/16" hole is enough; other times it has to go up to 5/64". He could not tell me why some guns required one size and others didn't at all. I was ready to buy a new liner, and start over again, if the 5/64" did not cure the problem.

So, work with the vent hole diameter. I know part of my problem is that the vent hole is placed so that half is above and half is below the top of the flashpan. I have to bank my powder away from the hole to get the prime to both ignite, and then burn towards the vent hole and into the barrel. On my Fowler, the hole is located above the top of the flashpan, and I can fill the pan full of powder if I desire to insure a hot enough " flash " to ignite my main charge. Ideally, you want the hole to be .030" above the top edge of the pan. If you are shooting a small caliber flint barrel, that may be difficult to achieve and still center a vent liner on just the side flat.

 

[Snakebite]

You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose. :blah:

so much for pickin'.

 

[Trkdriver99]

You can pick your seat, you can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relatives.........

Ronnie

 

[Dphar]

I had been reading on the forum about picking the flash hole to create an air space to speed up ignition. Well my ignition was fine anyway, but I had to fool with it and pick the flash hole and all I got were misfires. What am I missing here?

If you have a properly made rifle goofing with the vent is seldom needed. People who have to constantly pick the vent have a problem and don't know it.

Dan

 

[paulvallandigham]

You are wrong, Mr. Phariss, but you have that right to be wrong. I can show you the difference in ignition time, or you can find it out for yourself, but no one is going to convince you writing about the " Why " here. You have a standing invitation to come to Champaign, Il. where we can take my rifle out and show you the difference. :hatsoff:

 

[rabjr]

I pick the vent every time before priming and I know of a few deer that probably wished I didn't.

 

I do too. It is just a matter of good maintenance. 100% maintenance = 100% performance.

 

[armymedic.2]

i pick mine, never have a falsh in the pan, even when it is filthy from a lot of shooting. if the prime goes, the charge goes. i do not swab between shots, or wipe my pan if i am range shooting. jus' pick it :}

 

[ronrryan]

I pick after loading, before priming. I can feel the granulation of 3F well. Ignition is very rapid, often commented on by neighboring shooters. Guess different guns, different vents, Good smoke, ron in FL