Seating pressure

[Grantman]

Does anyone manufacture a tool/gauge that will measure seating pressure with a ramrod?

 

[jtmattison]

The Kadooty is the only one I have ever heard of and they are no longer made as far as I know.

I don't really see how a tool like that could be accurate unless you swab thoroughly between shots because built up fouling would have to affect readings.

HD

 

[MSW]

true, Dawg. leave it to this site to inject common sense into an otherwise completely ivory-tower style arguement. there was an interesting article in MuzzleBlast magazine a while ago about patch lube material, and one of the variables was the amount of effort it took to seat the ball, but (if i remember correctly) their idea of a really fancy tool was a simple bathroom scale. on the upside, the article was pretty well done and it made sense to me, even after a big whiff of smoke and a lotta cleaning and then the obligatory home brew, or two, or four....

 

[paulvallandigham]

Clean well between shot, and then always load to a mark. If you are shooting a flintlock, don't compress the powder charge. Stop the ball when you hear and " feel " the ball grinding against the powder. A " loose " powder charge actually burns faster than a compacted one in Flintlocks.

OTOH, if you are shooting percussion, then compress the load. Because a percussion cap INJECTS flame into the powder charge, you get better SDV when the powder is compacted. But, again, always load to the mark on your rod.

IMHO, compressing powder is vastly overrated when compared to loading to the mark for accuracy. It better to have a consistent length of powder chamber and PRB, shot after shot, to get repeatable velocity and a lower SDV for your shot string. I also recommend flintlock use FFg powder, because the larger granules of powder allow more air to exist in between them, while for PERCUSSION ingitions, use FFFg, because the smaller granules compact closer together.

Black Powder does contain all the oxygen it needs to burn, but the added oxygen in the flintlocks help the chain or " fuse-type"- ignition occur faster. Think of using a bellows, or blower to put more air into the coals of a forge, or even a camp fire you are trying to get hot enough to melt lead. Its the same principle at work. A flintlock fires without the extra oxygen. However, it fires faster with it. :hmm:

And, yes, there are plenty of Flintlock shooters who use FFFg powder in their guns. They are doing what they are used to doing: I am talking about maximizing the consistent speed of ignition in a flintlock.

 

[tg]

Most kind of develope a feel for this.

 

[mazo kid]

Paul is very knowledgeable and does know his stuff. However, I have developed a loading routine in my flinters using 3fg powder and have got the process down so I have become very consistent. I just prefer to use 3fg powder... less powder, more velocity, less fouling, etc.. I always thought the Kadooty was iffy in use because of different factors such as bore size, patch thickness, fouling, etc. Emery

 

[thewho66]

I know a bench rest shooter that uses a spring loaded rod that he had made for a certain weight . He said that most of the shooters use them for competion. I do not recall any of the details though of the spring weight that was used. If I ever see him again I will try to get the details and post them.

 

[Fishhog]

LMAO.I remember starting out in the early 70's read an article of putting your finger over the top of the ramrod and putting the final pressure down with the palm of your other hand..Was fun messing with my shooting cousins who were guinea pigs to be the indicator man/finger LOL..Tried it myself a few times but gave up on it.Ray

 

[roundball]

If there's one thing I've learned on these Internet forums, its to ignore information offered by those who state anything as if it was an across the board fact. So instead of operating on the basis of old wives tales or misunderstood information read & repeated from other writings elsewhere, I've learned to depend on my own hands on experience, trials, and analysis...and this is a perfect example.

1) I use 3F in all my .40/.45/.50/.54/.58/.62 caliber Flintlocks and to a caliber, 3F is always more accurate and that includes shot load patterns out of my smoothbore flintlocks.

2) I compress my loads as close to the same way every time...for the sake of consistency...by leaning on them as hard as I can and compressing them until I can't compress them anymore, usually hearing the powder crunch noise traveling back up the ramrod when that point is reached.

3) NOTE: The combustion of blackpowder generates its own oxygen as it burns...and as we know, BP burns perfectly when tightly compressed inside the sealed, airtight cartridge cases used in BP cartridge rifles...as do my tightly compressed loads of 3F in all calibers of my Flintlocks.

4) And using Goex 3F in my Flintlocks, along with my maximum compression technique, my own chronograph tests show excellent SD, some as low as 6 fps. IMO, as it relates to the group size at the target, the only relevent aspect of compression is that it be consistent from shot to shot...like the consistency desired with every other component such as patches, lubes, balls, etc, in an effort to build a repeatable, predictiable load in a ML bore.