To pick, or not to pick. That is the question.

[M. De Land]

I do when I think of it and not in a hurry as it is both a safety when loading (keeps the vent plugged) and leaves a cavity for the flash to get into the middle of the charge.
It also makes a consistent flash hole diameter clear of fouling build up.

 

[Flintlock]

He's a pickin and I'm a grinnin. Anyone remember Hew How.

 

[Skychief]

No, but I recall Hee Haw. :haha:

 

[Flintlock]

Dat be it.

 

[tenngun]

I do blow down my bores between shots, anything stuck in the vent is blown out. You get the same effect from a patch down the bore, a little whoosh of open th. Old timers sometimes used a quill to block the vent, a prick would serve the same fiction. With a prick in place you ram home ball, and remove the prick leaving a th without any powder in it. Thus you don't get a fuse effect.
It never worked for me, at least that I could tell.

 

[Darkhorse]

Sometimes when loading, a "Klinker" (BP crud) will slide down and block the vent. Then a pick is neccessary to pick a hole in it so the fire from the prime can reach it. "Klinker" is a term I used to hear on the Flintlock firing line years ago.
In all the years I've been shooting I've only had a couple.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have found that most of my guns and rifles do not need to be pricked, but one rifle absolutely does. My .40 needs regular pricking of the touch hole, and I think that's because of the small caliber vs. the sides of the barrel...and the fact that it doesn't have a touch hole liner...none of my rifles do. When it comes to muskets and trade guns, when I shoot a lot of rounds like at a reenactment a prick is needed as well.


BTW is it a vent "pick" or a vent "prick" ?

:idunno:

LD

 

[Artificer]

In my opinion folks use the wrong material for a vent pick. Most all use sharp pointed, hard steel picks.
I did for a while and decided to try a notion of making a pick of soft black iron wire and profiling the nose to be half round or blunt with rounded corners.
The idea is to have it a tight slip fit to the vent diameter so that it pushed out a plug of fouling not just piercing a hole through it.
Also a soft wire pick with a round nose won't swage out the vent hole or stick dents into the barrel steel on the opposite side of the bore from the vent hole.

18th century touch hole pricks were made of soft Iron wire, cast brass and sometimes were made from cast lead. Don't know how well cast lead would work, but it may have been due to not having Iron Wire available.

Gus

 

[Larry Pletcher]

I suspect that there is no right answer for every situation. Here are a few rambling thoughts:

One of my rifles has the vent located at the base of the breech plug. If I wipe between shots, fouling can be left in front of the vent. This rifle likes to be picked. If I use a pick, it needs to be after wiping.

If I run a pick into a loaded barrel, I like to feel a crunch, as the pick hits powder. If I can't feel the powder, something is wrong.

If the barrel is loaded and I can see 3fg through the Chambers vent liner, I'm happy and don't use the pick.

This last happened during test session. I was cleaning a barrel stub after running some trials. This stub has a clean-out hole located directly opposite the vent. After wiping the barrel, I opened the clean-out, looked into the barrel, and noticed a chunk of fouling in the vent. I took a pick and ran it into the vent while I watched through clean-out. I saw the pick push the fouling into the barrel. But when I removed the pick, I could see the fouling was deposited back in the vent again. That ruined my confidence in the pick for vent cleaning. For testing, I use a pipe cleaner instead of a pick, or use compressed air. Neither help a real world shooter, but work fine for testing.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Vaino]

Many years ago I realized that swabbing a bore could deposit fouling into the cone of a TH and if the swab was too wet it could dampen the charge....so, I started using a wire brush and dumped the debris and eliminated the above reasons for failure to fire or for delayed ignition. This totally eliminated the need for picking the TH or for that matter, even carrying one.....Fred

 

[M. De Land]

I like the wire brush idea instead of using a dampened patch between shots for fouling control.
The pick is best used being left in while charging as the fouling plug will be buried in the fresh powder where it can do no harm and cannot be dragged back into the vent.
It also acts as a safety plugging the vent while the charge is dropped.

 

[Coot]

BTW is it a vent "pick" or a vent "prick" ?

:idunno:

LD

In Baker's book (Sons of a Trackless Forest), he includes a period account of Thomas Skaggs escaping from a group of pursuing Indians:

"Three Indians took after him his gun would not go off he ran and picked in dry powder & at last found that one of the Indians was almost up with him, with a spear inches hand & in broken English telling him to stop & cussing him that his gun would not shoot Tom at last saw that he must do something he turned, raised his gusto his face she fired & the Indian fell dead at his feet"

Since he "picked" in dry powder, I assume that it was a "pick" of some sort that he used to complete the task. :hmm:

But, was the use of the term universal or varied with place & group? :idunno:

 

[Nessmuck56]

Pick for the vent.......A prick was my next door neighbor..

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Picking the vent on a standard breech flintlock just clears the path for the spark because it is a straight path to the powder, which is a good thing.

Picking the vent on a patent breech can actually clog the patent breech because the path comes in below and behind the powder and that is not such a good thing.

Twisted-1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

 

[Maven]

:rotf:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Pick for the vent.......A prick was my next door neighbor..

I wondered where my old boss had gone. :shocked2:

No seriously I asked about "pick" vs. "prick" because the artillery command for the vent hole on the cannon is "prick and prime". So I thought perhaps it was similar.

LD

 

[Artificer]

Dave, Can't remember if it's in "Of Sorts for Provincials," "A Soldier Like Way" or other books; but I have come across the period terms "Vent Pricks" and "Pricking Wires."

This is a bit OT, but the name for the period leather tool that marked the holes for stitching in leather were called "Pricking Irons" and that name is still used by some leather workers and tool makers for leather working, today.

Gus

 

[zimmerstutzen]

When I load the gun, I want to see some grains of powder lodged right at the opening of the touch hole. Easier for the pan fire to reach the charge powder that way. Sure would not want to push those grains deeper into the flash channel. Picking the TH would be counterproductive.

 

[Rifleman1776]

While I always keep a vent pick close at hand but it is not often used. I have found that weather, especially humidity conditions, usually dictate how often picks must be used. I prefer spring (music) wire for the picks but have a couple iron forged which work OK also. BTW, I swab and do not fault that practice at all when the vent occasionally gets clogged.