polish the pan?

[rabjr]

It probably wouldn't hurt to take the lock off the gun to to this for a few minutes.

 

[miked35]

Dremel and polishing compound. Got it.

Do you leave the lock on the rifle or remove to polish?

The one I polished was so rough the dremel/compound didn't work. First it needed to be sanded with 320 grit and then polished with dremel.

Mike

 

[fyrfyter43]

Yep, the pan on a GPR is pretty rough. Using just a Dremel with polishing compound will leave a bunch of small pits behind to trap fouling. Use some sandpaper to get rid of the pits, then polish with the Dremel and compound.

 

[eaglesnester]

Well my answer is: I do believe (and this is for me only) polishing the pan is just so much internet B.S. I have a Traditions Penn 50 caliber flint lock. The pan is rough. It never fails to fire if I pay attention when loading and priming, and most times I get ignition even when I do not pay attention to what I am doing when I load and prime. The flinter goes off all the time every time. Polished pan or no. I would rather shoot than waste time polishing my pan.

Cheers & Tighter Groups: Eaglesnester

 

[Trench]

Well my answer is: I do believe (and this is for me only) polishing the pan is just so much internet B.S. I have a Traditions Penn 50 caliber flint lock. The pan is rough. It never fails to fire if I pay attention when loading and priming, and most times I get ignition even when I do not pay attention to what I am doing when I load and prime. The flinter goes off all the time every time. Polished pan or no. I would rather shoot than waste time polishing my pan.

Cheers & Tighter Groups: Eaglesnester

Right, but the point was to make it easier to remove fouling. One swipe of a finger gets mine clean after I polished the pan. A rough pan will take more work (and more time from shooting) than a smooth one.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Trench is correct. :thumbsup: The reason for polishing the flash pan is to make it MUCH EASIER to clean of powder residue off before repriming the pan for the next shot. My Gunmaker- and long time Flintlock shooter-- not only polished the pan on my fowler, but he widened it to make it a bigger target for the sparks coming down off the face of the frizzen. The result is very quick ignition, while clean- up is ONE SWIPE of a clean, cleaning patch across the pan with my thumb.

Historically, there have been efforts to speed ignition by plating the pan with chrome, Gold, Silver, and Nickel. None work better than a plain steel pan, but all made it much easier to clean the pans. However, a polished steel pan is just as fast to clean.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I agree. Has nothing to do with ignition - per se.

A polished pan makes it easier to remove fouling, and removed fouling doesn't attract moisture, and dry priming powder does ignite better. So if you shoot in a humid area and leave a load in place for some time between shots (like when squirrel hunting) it may improve ignition.

 

[Zonie]

I agree.

My tests to determine if 4F powder was harmed by humidity showed that if the pan was clean humidity was not a factor.

If the pan had fouling left in it the fouling rapidly absorbed the moisture from the air and this moisture then wetted the priming so that it would not ignite.

If the guns pan was dumped and reprimed right before firing the humidity did not have a chance of wetting the powder.