I am one of the SOBs who says to bank the prime away from the touch hole. See my article.
[url] www.chuckhawks.com/flintlocks.htm.[/url]
Leaving air away from the touch hole give extra oxygen to draw the flame of the burning priming powder SIDEWAYS, towards the touch hole, and through it into the main charge. Always pick your main charge with a vent pick when loading( YOu can put a pick or feather in the touch hole while loading the powder patch and ball, or pick a hole in the powder charge after you have seated the ball, as i do. It achieves the same result.) YOu want the heat from that priming powder to reach several granules of powder in the main charge, so that you get multiple " fuses" burning all at once to quickly ignite the powder charge. Not doing so can contribute to that unreliable and unpredictable ignition you complain about.
Drill the touch hole above a line drawn across the top of the pan. That way you you can load the pan full of powder, on a cold dry day in the woods, so you know you have sufficient heat to ignite that main charge when you fire the gun, and not have to worry about a delay because some of the powder has to burn down before the heat of the flame can get into the barrel.
If you men will light a candle, and actually look at it, you will find that the flame has an air space in the middle where there is no heat. Likewise the flame is the coolest at the bottom of the wick. The hottest part of the flame is right where the light of the flame is ending at the top of the flame. In fact, you can light a stick match quickly by putting it about 1/2 inch above the flame.
Now, the lesson to be learned from that observation is that you have to figure a way to get the hot part of a flame to go sideways, and not up, so it can be directed into your barrel to ignite the main charge. Putting powder right to the bottom of the touch hole just makes the flame next to the touch hole the coolest part of the flame. Putting the prime away from the touch hole, on the outside of the pan, will allow you to draw that flame, and its hot " top " down and sideways towards and into the touch hole. If you will fill the pan across the bottom, but leave air above the powder and below the touch hole,( something not all pans are deep enough to allow happen) you can get quick ignition as the powder flames and flames spread in all directions, including entering into the touch hole. Since not all pans are deep enough to allow this last technique to be used, it is the last one I talk about, and then usually only when I personally examine the pan to see how much clearance exists below the hole, and above the floor of the pan.
To improve ignition, a coned liner like that sold by Jim Chambers is recommended. If your gun does not have a liner, then you may benefit from drilling open the hold to 5/64". The inside coned touch hole allows powder to be closer to the opening of the touch hole, which speeds ignition.
Finally with flintlocks, ignition is speeded considerably, and your standard deviation in velocity is the smallest when you do NOT compact the powder, as you would using a percussion gun. You use a coarser granulation of powder than you would choose for a similar caliber in a percussion gun, and you pour the powder so it slides down the barrel instead of free falling.Then seat your PRB on the powder so it just touches the powder, and does not crush, or compact it leaving much air between the individual granules. All this effort gives the prime the best opportunity to light all the powder in the chamber as quickly as a fuse type system can do so, raises pressure in the chamber quickly so that the powder is burned more efficiently and completely, and you attain similar velocites shot after shot. Someone earlier posted some test results that showed that while you get a slightly lower velocity loading your PRB to a mark on your rod, and not compacting the powder( a problem easily corrected by adding a few more grains of powder) putting that ball on top of the powder so it is not crushed or compacted gave the lwest SDV of any method of loading.
With percussion ignition, which burns and blows a hole through the middle of the main charge, and provides its own source of fire to ignite the powder, you get best results by compacting your powder charges consistently, and using the smaller graulation of powder in those rifles. Getting a consistent compaction of the powder charge is the only problem facing percussion gun shooters. Once achieved( I have seen men with bathroom scales at major shooting matches to measure how much pressure they put on each ball when they load their guns) you get the lowest SDV and the best groups.
If you want to argue with someone about this advice, contact me. I don't like to argue, but I listen pretty well.
I'll give your method a try and see what happens...
