Something odd happened

[Brasilikilt]

After a few unsucessful attempts (first time out, dropped my tin of caps in a mud puddle) I got to actually shoot my Spanish Hawken yesterday!!!

I was shooting 50-70 grns of 3f Pyrodex, with a Hornady .490 rb lubed with crisco, patched with some simple cotton cloth.

When it did shoot.....I got some pretty nice accuracy at about 50 yrds.

A few times the odd thing happened...I would load her up same as always, aim, pull the trigger the cap would pop, but nothing else would happen. Try another cap......same thing. Did this 1 or 2 more times and eventually had to take the screw off the drum and pour a little goex 3f in there to help the cap do it's thing.

When I did this the gun went off......kinda. I heard the cap pop but no big boom or smoke. A guy who was shooting near me said that he saw the ball land about 20 feet in front of us.

After that I loaded up again and shot many more times without incident, and then it happened again

Has this ever happened to any of you? What's the cause of this?

Thanks

Iain

 

[davy]

After a few unsucessful attempts (first time out, dropped my tin of caps in a mud puddle) I got to actually shoot my Spanish Hawken yesterday!!!

I was shooting 50-70 grns of 3f Pyrodex, with a Hornady .490 rb lubed with crisco, patched with some simple cotton cloth.

When it did shoot.....I got some pretty nice accuracy at about 50 yrds.

A few times the odd thing happened...I would load her up same as always, aim, pull the trigger the cap would pop, but nothing else would happen. Try another cap......same thing. Did this 1 or 2 more times and eventually had to take the screw off the drum and pour a little goex 3f in there to help the cap do it's thing.

When I did this the gun went off......kinda. I heard the cap pop but no big boom or smoke. A guy who was shooting near me said that he saw the ball land about 20 feet in front of us.

After that I loaded up again and shot many more times without incident, and then it happened again

Has this ever happened to any of you? What's the cause of this?

Thanks

Iain

Yeah ... I think I know the problem firsthand! :cursing: Its called "dry-ball"!!(i.e. no powder) :rotf:

Davy

 

[TennesseeJed]

Something along those lines happened to me once with a brand new Lyman Plains Pistol. It had fired the first 5 times with no problems, but then on the sixth, it didn't go off. I popped 5 or 6 caps and no boom. I got out my ball puller and pulled out the ball and for some reason or another there wasn't any powder on the bottom of the patch or in the bottom of the barrel...don't know how that happened because I'm much too bright to forget to put the powder in. Must be a defective gun or something. :winking:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Ian: This is only unusual if you are new to Black Powder shooting. You forgot to put powder in the barrel before putting the Patch and Ball down. It happens to us all eventually. Its not a question of " If ", but simply " When " it will happen. As you get more accustomed to loading, and clean the gun, so that movement during the loading process can become more polished, you will find that you don't forget to put the powder in the gun.

For now, try to eliminate all distractions during loading. Don't let anyone talk to you, and don't talk to anyone else during the procedure. Just work on concentrating on what you are doing. IF my gun club's experiences is representative, there are more guns " Dry-balled " because of talking, than for any other reason. Isn't it amazing how far a ball will go with only a few grains of powder behind it?

 

[davy]

Ian: This is only unusual if you are new to Black Powder shooting. You forgot to put powder in the barrel before putting the Patch and Ball down. It happens to us all eventually. Its not a question of " If ", but simply " When " it will happen. As you get more accustomed to loading, and clean the gun, so that movement during the loading process can become more polished, you will find that you don't forget to put the powder in the gun.

For now, try to eliminate all distractions during loading. Don't let anyone talk to you, and don't talk to anyone else during the procedure. Just work on concentrating on what you are doing. IF my gun club's experiences is representative, there are more guns " Dry-balled " because of talking, than for any other reason. Isn't it amazing how far a ball will go with only a few grains of powder behind it?

I guess I should fess up ... I once dry-balled twice in a row! :grin: It wern't my first rodeo neether! :hmm: :cursing: :rotf:

Davy

 

[Don]

I have found that with pyrodex P that I will get miss fires after a half dozen of so shots. Simple solution is to run a few dry patches down the barrel to clean out majority of fouling and pick the nipple. This should fix the problem. I'm not going to assume you dry balled but it is something to consider.

Don

 

[Slake]

Repeat after me, powder patch ball or you have no shot at all...seriously now. i've heard you can gum thing up pretty bad with crisco. Are ya swabbin at all between shots? Or after a few? I find that a quick swab between shots, you can shoot much longer before cleaning and cleaning is not such a chore either

 

[AZ-Robert]

And if you do swab between shots, be careful not to leave the bore wet or you will end up with damp powder down there. That will give you the same symptoms you described above. Been there, done that, and thought it was 'dry ball' until I pulled it out with a screw and found all that damp powder underneath it. I guess that makes it a 'wet ball'.

 

[Rebel]

Or , if you used a screw type ball puller, A Screwball. :rotf:

 

Or , if you used a screw type ball puller, A Screwball. :rotf:

:rotf: :rotf: Rebel,that's a goodin' I'd say!!! :blah: :rotf:

 

[sequoia]

Dry-ball or not dry-ball, that is the question. I've been shooting ML for 25 years and I've had my share of dry-balls. (sounds like a personal problem to me) I once had a stretch of several years without doing it and then did it twice at one rondy! It happens to everybody eventually, welcome to the club! :thumbsup:

 

[bpbrs]

Thats one heck of a percussion cap to push the ball up the bore?

I say it was a dirty breech--powder not making it into the fire channel.

 

[Bob Riegl]

:bow: Welcome to the most distinguished club of "Them as ain't ever dry-balled in thar consarn lives---so help me Judah." :rotf:

 

[Elkinde]

Don't feel bad about not putting in your load. I've got a story for you and I'm spilling my guts. I had just gotten my brand new Hawken Woodsman and I was up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin at my brothers cabin with a crew of guys that where up deer scouting. We were trap shooting and target shooting and these guys had never seen a smoke pole before. They had a zillion questions for me and you know guys,I had to have all the answers. Wellllllll... I took my next shot and my Buddy says " Hey you shot a branch out of the tree there. What did you do?" I thought I felt the gun buck unusually hard but being a newbee I didn't pay much attention till I went to clean my barrel and low and behold my ram rod was gone !!!!!!!!!! Well I casually put the ole smoke pole away and strolled on down the shooting range and off into the woods were I saw something fall out of the trees and there it was. Kind of splintered and the brass ends all distorted and such. I knew what I was in for as these were "The Guys" you know. Well I ended up down the road with the ram rod in hand and it happened to be under the " DIP " sign along the road. With cameras flashing and now I'm a legend. These guys are merciless. Those days are long gone and I instruct newbees in the black powder arts now. Who better?

 

[Charley Hart]

Agree sounds like dirty breech. I recently did the no powder shuffle. Kind of embarrssing. Even putting a little powder in did not seem to help.

I agree that you had some kind of blockage from swabbing... Had this problem with my springfield when using crisco as a lube. Now use a wax/crisco mixture and it seemed to have helped. As long as you were cautious about waiting to be sure it was safe before mucking with the rifle, then no harm done.

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey fellas...

Thanks so much for the feedback! While I'm not ruling out the dry ball completely, I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case because more than once, after putting a few grains of powder in the drum, the gun went boom just like normal.

The very first time I tried to shoot it, I was completely certain there was a full charge in the barrel and it made a "whoosh" sound similar to a bottle rocket.
At that point in time the barrel was perfectly clean because a few nights previous I had spent over an hour removing a bunch of sludge and crap left in the barrel by it's previous owner.
I think that time was possibly the liberal amounts of oil I put in the barrel which pooled up in the breech area, the powder soaked it up causing it to not ignite properly....The same might have happened with melted crisco, that's my theory

How say you?

 

[Don]

Didn't sound like a dry ball situation the way you discribed it. Oil in the breech will definitely effect the powder and cause the problem you discribed.

Don

 

[Pittsburghunter]

How old is the Pyrodex? I have seen the pellets do the same thing when old.