RED Residue

[arquebus]

Yes, I often see the red streaks in the muzzles of my rifles, often referred to as "bleeding".....never had it transfer to the cleaning patch though & have never associated it with any particular season or weather condition, though maybe(?). Was told it was a sign that the load was 'Optimum' ie. burning efficiently.

 

[roundball]

Was told it was a sign that the load was 'Optimum' ie. burning efficiently.

Just another of muzzleloading's old wives tales
:grin:

 

[Zonie]

jethro224: I used to shoot Elephant. Now I shoot Schuetzen and Swiss.

 

[renovato]

I don't remember having seen red or green residue from my BP guns. The only time I've seen green was from copper fouling and the only time I've seen red was from rust.

 

[Stophel]

I ALWAYS see red goo. ALWAYS (and believe me, it is always humid here....) I have NEVER heard anyone else ever talk about it before. I at first thought that maybe my patching material wasn't actually all-natural, and I was getting melted synthetic material in the bore (which is exactly what it looks like), but I get the red stuff no matter what the patching. Now I see it is to be expected...I feel better now!!!

 

[cowpoke1955]

I've had several old timers tell me the tiny red drops appear when the "barrel bleeds". This occurrs when your ball, patch, lube and powder charge is a perfect match for your barrel. They told me to work your load until your barrel bleeds. Then adjust your sights accordingly. Seems to work for them and it's been working for me.

 

[jethro224]

Zonie, I have a brand new can of Swiss. Next time out I'm gonna try it and see if I still get the red stuff. :hmm:

 

[voltagehound]

I shoot a .54 GPR,85gr.goex,wl prb,and notice red beads at the muzzle and pan very often. The humidity here is usualy very low. Always curios about this myself.

 

[Jumpshot]

Never seen green or red stuff in mine, only the usual black muck.

They told me to work your load until your barrel bleeds.

My guitar teacher used to say "Practice until your fingers bleed." :grin:

 

[roundball]

And both old sayings leave a lot to be desired :rotf:

 

[robinghewitt]

I have one flinter that paints the pans red when I fire it, then I blow down the barrel and it goes away

 

[Deadeye]

I always see it, at the muzzle and at the touch hole, on all my guns everytime I shoot them. Looks like tiny drops of blood.

 

[roundball]

I have one flinter that paints the pans red when I fire it, then I blow down the barrel and it goes away

The moisture in your breath...that's why they don't show up in conditions of high humidity...the chemical residue is the same after every shot, it's what happens happens to it immediately following a shot that determines whether or not the red flecks are or remain visible

 

Holy cow, I saw a red residue (traces, that is) in the groves at the muzzle of my .54 yesterday at the range. It was redder than rust - almost Crayola crayon in apperance and I brushed it out as soon as I saw it. I could not imagine what it was so I just ignored it. Figured it was some sort of unburned (or overburned) powder residue. 80 grains of Goex under a .20 patch holding a .??? Hornady RB. I was using previously fired patches.

 

I've had the red droplets at the muzzle at times but never really paid any attention to the conditions. IMO, like RB says, this being an indicater of "optimum load" is another one of those wonderfull ML'ing wives tales. I suspect that some idjut saw it one day and thought, "Hmmmm, wonder why that's there?, must mean I've got the optimum load" and so it came to be :shake:

 

[Mad Monk]

Paul,

A few years back I had some interesting dealings with the folks at the top ATF forensic lab on the subject of black powder and the "natural taggents" in each brand.

The assumption being that black powder is prepared using pure carbon (charcoal) pure sulfur and pure potassium nitrate.
No dice! Each powder maker has different suppliers for the raw materials. Potassium nitrate produced in Chile and used in GOEX will give different trace chemicals compared to potassium nitrate made in Israel and used in Swiss and WANO.
There will be trace chemical differences in the sources of sulfur used.
A lot of differences in the charcoals being used in each brand. Then on top of that. No two charring retort loads come out with identical chemistry. The charcoal used in black powder will run from 65% to around 80% pure (fixed) carbon. About 2 to 5% mineral matter and a wide array of hydrocarbons produced by the charring of the wood.
Putting man-made chemical taggents into black powder would do nothing but make any forensic analyses even more difficult.

The guy down at the ATF lab gave a paper on the work at a symposium in Scotland a few years back after he was able to expand on my kitchen chemistry work.

 

[Zonie]

Mad Monk: Glad you jumped into this post but I was hoping you could give us an explanation of just what the red stuff is, and is it an indication of a good load or just some combination of the burning powder and nature??

I consider your expertise in these matters to be highly enlightening!

zonie

 

[SAJones]

Yep, usta get red stuff out of the bore of my Getz .54 flinter for years. And only my Getz, no other barrel. I've heard the "perfect load" comment, but discounted it because I got red w/ every load combo. Use only GOEX.

Noticed when I moved to Wyoming, the red gradually quit. Don't know if it's the lack of humiditiy or it just finally became clean. Haven't shot it much here in Idaho, but it's pretty dry most of the time.

Incidentally, through the intercession of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, small arms powders were exempted from the taggant requirement, including black powder. They convinced legislators that due to the small amounts used in shooting, taggants could dangerously affect performance. So don't fear, the Feds aren't tracking your powder purchases. Otherwise ATF woulda visted me years ago.