The Learning Curve

[jjsemperfi]

Well I had a sweet and sour day at the range today. Started off great. I had drilled my touch hole to 1/16th, Shot 9 times, grouping well, cleaning after every 3 shots. Until.....click...poof...no bang. Picked, reprimed, no boom. Had great spark, touch hole was clear, couldn't get it to fire. Took barrel and touch plug out, cleaned, reprimed, nothing. About 10 "pan" fires later I gave up and used a ball puller and cleaned the barrel out. I have a hunch as to why. I think I have the powder too far away from the touch hole in the pan. Do you guys bump the side of the rifle so the powder collects a little better towards the touch hole? Seemed to work again for another 6 shots. I put about 1/3 of a pan charge in, bumped it towards the touch hole and seemed ok. Does this sound logical?

 

[jamesthomas]

I don't bump the rifle to get the powder close to the touch hole it should already be there when you pour the powder in. You also shouldn't clean after every 3 shots either. I believe you didn't have the barrel dry enough so when you poured your next load in the powder got wet. Also if you clean the barrel you should only use one stroke down and out, because if you pump the rod up an down you will clog the touch hole with fouling.

 

[nchawkeye]

Did it do this after you had cleaned??? If so it sounds like maybe too much moisture got into the breech area...Or possibly too much crud was pushed down in that area when cleaning...

For hunting, learn to get 3-4 shots reliably...

For all day target shooting keep learning how to clean with a damp patch, not soaked...Sometimes it's best to stop and give a good cleaning and then use alcohol and WD-40 to help dry the moisture...

I always fill my pan up but my touch hole is coned and located above the top of the pan so it's behind the heel of the frizzen...

 

[Kapow]

I have a little pump spray bottle of alcohol and give one squirt on a patch and wipe after each shot. It seems to work well as when I clean the rifle at the end of the day I only need 6-8 patches to get it clean. I am using a much dirtier powder than you are too. It becomes second nature to wipe after each shot very quickly and easily.

 

[jjsemperfi]

Ok thanks. I was using 90% alcohol today. I figured that would dry up fast. I even waited a little bit before loading each time. Hmmm, so you guys are saying it shouldn't be a pan issue then?

 

[jjsemperfi]

Just installed an RMC Touch Hole Liner. We'll see if that helps as well.

 

[satwel]

Armakiller has it right. I used to clean after each shot. I had frequent flash-in-the pans. Then I decided to stop wiping after every shot and reliability went way up. I can shoot two events a day (40 shots) and not experience a single misfire. Wiping with a wet patch after each shot pushes wet fouling down into the vent area. If you use the right ball and patch combo, with the right amount of lube, the patch will pickup the fouling from the previous shot.

 

[Kapow]

What is the right amount of lube to achieve what you have described? What type of lube?

 

[azmntman]

Hoppes # 9 solvent AND PATCH LUBE (regular # 9 is NOT the right one) and dampish NOT wet. NO way should you be able to squeeze a drop out. Hoppes is tops for NOT swiping between shots.

I now using the Dutch system so I swipe. Was using too thin a patch I believe, last time and had a ball stuck BAD, took 3 hours to remove and had to "fabricate" a slide hammer/ram rod to get it!

 

[Kapow]

Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated, I'll give that a whirl for sure. So you are mixing Hoppes No. 9 solvent with your patch lube such as say, Wonderlube? Any other pearls of wisdom?

 

[Kapow]

Ah looked it up and realise what you were talking about. One and the same item. Will track some down.

 

[don hepler]

Some good information, but I'll add one more thing. I wipe the frizzen, the pan, and the flint, between shoots. When the pan powder burns, it fowls up everything around it, and the most reliable flintlock, is clean and dry.

"CLEAN AND DRY", barrel, flash hole, pan, frizzen, flint. How clean and how dry? How reliable do you want it? It's that simple.

 

[dikman]

Kapow, something you mentioned in another post, and which most here won't be aware of, the Wano powder that we're using is very dirty stuff compared to what many would be used to. It can clog up a barrel very quickly. I reckon wiping often is virtually a necessity!

 

[Many Klatch]

Learn to shoot without having to clean. My rifle will go through a 30 shot match without cleaning. I use spit patching. Nothing fancy. In my .54 I shoot a .526 ball and .012 patching. Even when dirty I can load and shoot. Got a 50 and 4X on the Fox target last weekend and it was the third target shot, so the barrel was 16 shots dirty when I started on the target. I had one misfire. The flint was worn to a nub so I changed it out and it all worked fine.

Cleaning is over rated.

 

[Walks with fire]

If your rifle has a touch hole straight into the barrel then a simple pick of the vent liner is all that is usually needed provided you don't leave any moisture in the barrel when you swab. If you don't swab each shot then there could be some moisture attraction from the fouling. If your pan looks wet your barrel interior probably is as well.

If your rifle has a patent style breech it has a step down or smaller diameter than the barrel for the last inch or so and a cleaning patch will not reach into that area. TC makes a straight brush that I wrap a patch around to clean down into the recess area. A .35 caliber brush would probably work pretty good too. The patch will stick to the brush and dry and clean the breech area. I use the RMC vent liners and a pipe cleaner will swab out the touch hole and the fire channel as well.
One of the main things that I do when loading for hunting is to make sure my barrel charge is right up to the vent liner so I can see it peeking into the pan. On my TC's it does that when the ball is pushed down the bore but on my Lyman it doesn't always get into the fire channel and out to the vent. I just pump a cleaning patch down the barrel a few times and visually check that the powder went out to the vent then load the ball.

If I am just range shooting I don't concern myself too much with loading but if I am hunting everything is free of fouling and bone dry with the powder right out to the vent liner. I use denatured alcohol for cold weather cleaning and just a mist of water during the summer.

I think the RMC vent liners are .070 but I am taking that from memory. I have not pinned one in quite a while. It's a bit bigger than the .0625 your using but I use 2f most of the time in my rifles. 3f still works without leaking into the pan too much. I have heard that a smaller vent is better for accuracy and velocity as well but neither is much concern in my rifles.

 

[jjsemperfi]

In my .54 I shoot a .526 ball and .012 patching.

That's a small ball and patch, no wonder you don't have a hard time loading. I'm using .530 with .017. It gets really tough to load after 3 shots.

 

[jjsemperfi]

Also, just for my information. Does my Lyman Trade Rifle have a standard or Patent Breech? I'm not really sure, but I think it has a Patent?

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

One other thing to remember. On the couple of production rifles I have I had to shoot a couple of hundred rounds through them before my groups settled down and the loading got easier. And yes, your Lyman Trade rifle does have a patent breech.

 

[Brokennock]

All locks seem to like different things. Mine likes just a little powder, I believe my push valve primer drops about 4 grains or so and I don't even need all of that, and it likes that priming away from the vent hole. So when I prime at the range I place the powder just slightly outside the halfway point across the pan from the hole, when knocking around the woods or sitting under a tree I give the gun a sharp "flip" to the outside to move the powder away from the hole.
I also plug the vent hole while loading and I don't remove the plug until it's time to prime.