Robin Camp
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Do you use a measure before pouring priming powder in the pan? How much priming powder do you put in the pan? Do you fill the pan up to, or over the flash hole?
Priming powder
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Fullstock58
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All of my flinters use between 1/2 and 3/4 of a pan, I do not measure just eyeball. I try and keep my priming away from the flash hole as much as possible, I normaly tilt my rifle away from the flash hole before firing.
You can get a priming flask that will dump approx. 5 grains of priming powder into the pan with each plunge on it. See Track of the Wolf's website.
Also, you don't need to fill the pan. It only takes a little priming powder to set off the charge. Always keep the prime below the vent hole. One or two plunges on a priming flask should be good enough, but through testing you'll find out what works best for you. :thumbsup:
Also, you don't need to fill the pan. It only takes a little priming powder to set off the charge. Always keep the prime below the vent hole. One or two plunges on a priming flask should be good enough, but through testing you'll find out what works best for you. :thumbsup:
bart_anastasi
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I always use a TC priming tool with 4f powder which measures around 2.5 gr.
Different guns are going to like diferent charges I expect.
If you fill the pan to much you spark has to burn down to flash hole slowing down you ignition.
I also try to stay away from anything but 4F powder for a couple of reasons.
1. Most important.
4f powder is made with three(3) ingredints
2F & 3F have a fourth(4) powdered Graphate which is added to help the powder pour better.
Powdered Graphite is the most effective mineral lube in nature and is used reduce friction in locks for example.
2. When you use 2F or 3F and shoot a lot the graphite will start to coat the flint and the frizzen on your rifle. If you shoot white agate frints like I do you can see the flint after a few shots looks like it has been sprayed with glossy black paint.
I just do not think vaporized hot graphite on the lock and flint is to cool a idea.
3. 4F burns hotter and faster which should speed up your ignition. You could expect a 1 second added delay to shooting 2F and a half second additional delay to shooting 3F over what you can get with 4f. (more or less.
4. 4F is cheap when you think about it. If ther are 7000 grains of powder in a pound can and you prime with 2 grains that is over 3,000 shots. per pound.
5. 4F will lite off strongly even if you get a weak spark on ocassion. The stuff just begs to burn.
6. Most priming tools are I think designed to measure 4F powder. When I tried 3F in the tool things just seemed to jam up a bit as to a regular charge.
Different guns are going to like diferent charges I expect.
If you fill the pan to much you spark has to burn down to flash hole slowing down you ignition.
I also try to stay away from anything but 4F powder for a couple of reasons.
1. Most important.
4f powder is made with three(3) ingredints
2F & 3F have a fourth(4) powdered Graphate which is added to help the powder pour better.
Powdered Graphite is the most effective mineral lube in nature and is used reduce friction in locks for example.
2. When you use 2F or 3F and shoot a lot the graphite will start to coat the flint and the frizzen on your rifle. If you shoot white agate frints like I do you can see the flint after a few shots looks like it has been sprayed with glossy black paint.
I just do not think vaporized hot graphite on the lock and flint is to cool a idea.
3. 4F burns hotter and faster which should speed up your ignition. You could expect a 1 second added delay to shooting 2F and a half second additional delay to shooting 3F over what you can get with 4f. (more or less.
4. 4F is cheap when you think about it. If ther are 7000 grains of powder in a pound can and you prime with 2 grains that is over 3,000 shots. per pound.
5. 4F will lite off strongly even if you get a weak spark on ocassion. The stuff just begs to burn.
6. Most priming tools are I think designed to measure 4F powder. When I tried 3F in the tool things just seemed to jam up a bit as to a regular charge.
The Prophet said:
I use pocket pan primers which have 3 grn plunger/dispenser tips on them, 4F only, always below the vent. A tip I read somewhere when I started with Flintlocks was to prime the pan, close the frizzen, then with a flick of the wrist rock the rifle to the side away from the vent so the prime slides away from it.
The couple of benefits are supposd to be:
1) It ensures the powder is away from the vent so it's clear and exposed;
2) By rocking the powder away from the vent, it usually occupies the right side of the pan and slopes back down towards the vent side of the pan...when the prime ignites and flares some of the flare is coming off that slope directly sideways into the vent.
No idea if it's true of not but it seems to make sense, I've always done that, and my ignition is always as close to instantaneous as I can imagine it could be.
:thumbsup:
I found a couple funny little brass tubes that make a perfect priming flask with the addition of a wood plug. I refill them with 3F from my main horn as needed. It's easy to dribble out a few grains (about half a pan full) to prime with instead of trying to wrangle the whole horn in tight places and inevitably dumping way too much prime.
I keep one in a little sheath on the back of my pouch strap and a second inside the hunting bag. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make these things - sealed on one end and with a rim so it doesn't slide out of the strap. Pretty handy but I'm not sure what they are really designed for.
I keep one in a little sheath on the back of my pouch strap and a second inside the hunting bag. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make these things - sealed on one end and with a rim so it doesn't slide out of the strap. Pretty handy but I'm not sure what they are really designed for.
paulvallandigham
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Bart: Sorry, but any delay is more a figment of your imagination than actual. Measurements put the difference in ignition time in millionths of a second, which is not enough time for you to blink, much less move your front sight off target, using either 3Fg or 2Fg powder for priming. I use 4Fg on the range, because I can. In the field, because of the usual damp fall conditions, I prefer priming with whatever I am using in the barrel, usually 2Fg powder. In the below freezing temperatures of winter, it does not matter if you use 4Fg or 2Fg.
As for the graphite, simply wipe the flint and frizzen and pan after every shot with a damp cleaning patch, and you have no problem. I don't want any residue remaining in my pan when I next prime, as tests indicate it is the residue that is hydroscopic, and not the powder, itself. In damp weather, the graphite helps the powder stay dryer longer, and keeps it from clumping up longer. I can wipe out a priming charge with a cleaning patch, or just my bare thumb, so I can reprime, when I am using the stuff that is coated with graphite. That is a plus, and not the " Minus " you seem to think about using the heavier granules as priming powder. If I were shooting a smaller caliber rifle, I would be happy using 3Fg in both the barrel and the flash pan, as Roundball does. My brother is shooting a nice .40 caliber rifle, using 3Fg powder for both charge, and prime.
As for the graphite, simply wipe the flint and frizzen and pan after every shot with a damp cleaning patch, and you have no problem. I don't want any residue remaining in my pan when I next prime, as tests indicate it is the residue that is hydroscopic, and not the powder, itself. In damp weather, the graphite helps the powder stay dryer longer, and keeps it from clumping up longer. I can wipe out a priming charge with a cleaning patch, or just my bare thumb, so I can reprime, when I am using the stuff that is coated with graphite. That is a plus, and not the " Minus " you seem to think about using the heavier granules as priming powder. If I were shooting a smaller caliber rifle, I would be happy using 3Fg in both the barrel and the flash pan, as Roundball does. My brother is shooting a nice .40 caliber rifle, using 3Fg powder for both charge, and prime.
Larry Pletcher
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paulvallandigham said:
I agree with Paul here. In an April 2005 article published in MuzzleBlasts I timed 6 different powders for pan ignition. Each was timed 20 times and and the average was found. Here are the averages:
Swiss Null B -- .03931 seconds
Swiss ffffg -- .04127
Goex (late) 4fg -- .04739
Goex (early) 4fg -- .0486
Goex fffg -- .05951
Goex ffg -- .06978
The difference between the fastest and slowest average is about .03 seconds.
Regards,
Pletch
Stumpy,Stumpkiller said:I found a couple funny little brass tubes that make a perfect priming flask with the addition of a wood plug. I refill them with 3F from my main horn as needed. It's easy to dribble out a few grains (about half a pan full) to prime with instead of trying to wrangle the whole horn in tight places and inevitably dumping way too much prime.
I keep one in a little sheath on the back of my pouch strap and a second inside the hunting bag. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make these things - sealed on one end and with a rim so it doesn't slide out of the strap. Pretty handy but I'm not sure what they are really designed for.
Not really sure what them tubes are...
....They must be really old...I haven't seen them around here for a long time.You should keep it,might not never find another one.. :wink:
I think it's a French idea. I found one with a metal plug and it was MUCH harder to get the plug out and get to the powder. And that powder didn't take a spark, no-how. Much improved with the wood plug. Worse priming powder inside I've ever seen. Little macaroni looking granules.
Anyway, I think it's French because some other shooter was makin all like I was a rube because I didn't know it was a "bullette". Now, why it's called that and not a "male calf" I can't say, but he was an odd one all around. He offered me to shoot his really wierd rifle, no hammer a'tall, and when I poured a charge down the tiny, tiny bore and tried to seat the metal plug from the bullette (near lost a tooth getting it out) he grabbed it away from me all mad like. I'd only got the metal plug from that bullette pounded in flush to the muzzle by then and it took a rock to do that. Tore up the patch awful. I was stopped tryin to find where you prime the darned thing when he grabbed it away from me.
I think it's a dead end idea, so you better grab all the empty ones you can find.
Anyway, I think it's French because some other shooter was makin all like I was a rube because I didn't know it was a "bullette". Now, why it's called that and not a "male calf" I can't say, but he was an odd one all around. He offered me to shoot his really wierd rifle, no hammer a'tall, and when I poured a charge down the tiny, tiny bore and tried to seat the metal plug from the bullette (near lost a tooth getting it out) he grabbed it away from me all mad like. I'd only got the metal plug from that bullette pounded in flush to the muzzle by then and it took a rock to do that. Tore up the patch awful. I was stopped tryin to find where you prime the darned thing when he grabbed it away from me.
I think it's a dead end idea, so you better grab all the empty ones you can find.
:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Charles D. Prokopp
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I've seen those things, too. The guys who use them seem to be kind of...erm...hasty!Always hurrying.
Patience is a virtue.
Patience is a virtue.
Good gracious...somebody needs to get on the CEO's calendars at Goex, Swiss,[url] etc...explain[/url] to them they're wasting their time separating, packaging, marketing, distributing, and selling cans of 4F granulation based upon speed differences if it's not possible for anyone to tell any difference...
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The flaw there however, is that 4F has been around far longer than you and I have been alive, has been and is used all around the world.
And I know I'm reaching here...but I'm gonna GUESS...that somebody, somewhere, after scores and scores of years of continued use of 4F as a priming powder...would have stepped forward and blown the whistle on such a world wide conspiracy to hide the fact that 4F was a sham by now...
:thumbsup:
And I know I'm reaching here...but I'm gonna GUESS...that somebody, somewhere, after scores and scores of years of continued use of 4F as a priming powder...would have stepped forward and blown the whistle on such a world wide conspiracy to hide the fact that 4F was a sham by now...
:thumbsup:
