Tough day at the range, some questions

[newarcher]

Hello all, it has been a while. I took my TC High Plains Sporter out today to the range to sight it back in. I took it and had it shooting great last time, drove all the way home and while cleaning the peep sight came loose! :barf:

I use 80 grains of Triple7.

Problem 1: I am using a 50 caliber TC round ball along with a TC titch patch pre-soaked in boar butter (.018 thickness). The last time I shot it, it took some effort but I was able to start the ball and load/shoot. This time, I couldn't force that ball into the barrel with the patch to save my life and I am a big strong dude. The ball was actually deforming instead of loading. My workaround was to load and shoot without the patch. The ball would sometimes stop at the barrel and take a very small tap to load and sometimes would fall in all on it's own. [question: why would it load last time and not this time, nothing has changed--I am using the same equipment. Perhaps use a thinner patch or do I even need one?]

Problem 2: I switched to a TC hot shot nipple system that uses musket caps (presumably to achieve more consistent ignition). Today, I only got three shots out of the gun before it started refusing to fire--again it didn't happen last time like this. I tried several caps in a row to see if I could burn it out. Finally I had to remove the nipple system, clean it out the best I could, and then prime the pan a little to get it to shoot. Then it went back to frustrating the heck out of me and not firing. So I quit and took my frustration out on my AR15 and the guy next to me (flying hot brass).

So today when I came home I got out the handy drill and increased the aperature of that hot shot nipple just slightly to maybe prevent this (it was what another shooter recommended). Hopefully I didn't ruin it. [any other ideas how to prevent this other than increasing the aperature?]

One more question: is there any procedure at the range (since this is not an inline) to clean it between shots...my normal cleaning regimen is soapy water. If I do that at the range the day is over because the powder will get wet. But I was told that accuracy would suffer after the third or forth shot without a cleaning.


Thanks,
New

 

[rabjr]

Your absolutely sure you didn't have .015 patches the first time?

You don't have to do a complete cleaning between shots. I always use a slightly damp patch with Black Solve on it followed by a dry patch and then load up.

 

[newarcher]

Thanks....yes I am sure on the patches.

I only bought one size and one pack since the gun was given to me so there was no chance that I mixed them up with others hanging around the house. I don't have any other thundersticks, this is my first.

Thanks,
New

 

[123.DieselBenz]

How old is your 777?

 

[Rogue River]

I take a bottle of alcohol and swab between shots with a alcohol dampened "patch"!

 

[newarcher]

It is two years old and has only been opened once. I thought about the powder being the problem but on some shots it worked fine...this seemed to be more of an issue with the nipple system clogging up.

Another member had a nipple pin that I used to clean it and then the gun fired with the same powder in it.

Having said that the musket caps are also two years old so maybe they lost some of their oompfhh?

New

 

[newarcher]

Cool thanks for the idea, that's easy enough.

New

 

[uncmrkhd]

Got me one of them fancy digital caliper from Harbor freight and for the heck of it I checked some of my Hornady 490 balls. I found .484-.493 over 6 balls. I just figured they must not be to picky on production. I'm saying this as to your first having trouble loading . I'm going out in the morn to play with mine as its new too and hope to shoot cheap with pillow tick form Jo Ann fabric, its $4.99 a yrd here by me and even with bore butter at $10 a tube I think I'll get by. I've read a lot about the alcohol patching and I'm gona take a safety pin to clear the nipple.I too am using T-7 but looking to use real BP as soon as its gone, it was all I could get at the time and it did work for the 6-7 times I got to first shoot.My mentor was really surprised at how easy the T-7 cleaned up as compared to real BP.

 

[Nappers]

Make sure hammer is off of nipple. It can form a tight seal. Running a patch may have caused the nipple to plug up and not igniting. Make sure hammer is clear from old cap. Did the caps get exposed to moisture? I shot at a rendezvous and it sprinkled here and there and I had problems with no pop... New can of RWS caps....

 

[William O.]

That's a pretty stout load for a .50 using T-7. I second the use of an alcohol dampened patch every couple of shots but I would not drill out the hole on a nipple, #11 or musket size. Check to see if all your RB are .490 and that no .495's have gotten in there.

 

[Trot]

I would throw away that drilled out nipple. You may not have drilled it out much, but it could cause a dangerous blowback situation.

 

[Nappers]

Make sure hammer is off of nipple. It can form a tight seal. Running a patch may have caused the nipple to plug up and not igniting. Make sure hammer is clear from old cap. Did the caps get exposed to moisture? I shot at a rendezvous and it sprinkled here and there and I had problems with no pop... New can of RWS caps....

I need to add that I use .497 RB, 70GR 3F and RWS or Remington caps. and a few times I need to manipulate it to get it started. My buddy at work uses same set up and it seems to work in my gun as well. I made a short starter with button and use a rawhide hammer to get it started. With the hammer down, it won't even budge and a bruised palm later, I look down...oopsie.

 

[TFoley]

I use 80 grains of Triple7.
New

Sir - just to post a gentle reminder that your 80gr of Triple 7 is the equivalent of around 100gr of FFg - maybe more, depending on how much you end up compressing the load...and BTW, in MY Hodgson book, it says that Triple 7 does not overly care to be compressed.

That is some load for a .50cal ball shooter, IMO.

Just sayin'.

tac

 

[newarcher]

Interesting....what would an appropriate load be? I actually got the load information from the fellahs here back when I was given the gun as a gift a couple years ago.

I'm not married to the idea of the 777 80 grains. I'm willing to change or reduce the load if someone can give me some idea of what to use. I plan on taking deer with the gun, or trying anyway!

As for compression, I just seated the ball and gave it a couple pushes to snug it down. I didn't lean on it. How would I know if I over compressed it?

Thanks,
New

 

[t-buck]

this may be the answer and help to problem one
i do not know how you cleaned the bore after the last shooting session you had before this one but if you did not do a through job of cleaning and after cleaning use some type of rust preventive in the barrel , rust build up may be the cause of you tight loading

problem two may be a result from problem one old fouling is blocking the fire channel to the powder
clean the bore good after a shooting session and before the next one swabb the barrel out with with alcohol or something like it to remove any oil pop a couple of caps to dry it out then start shooting/// it is ok to swabb the bore between shots then run a couple dry patches before the next shot
third never drill out a nipple it can cause many problems including hammer blow back which can lead to more problems as in broken lock springs sears and other lock parts even some people parts
mule/t-buck

 

[newarcher]

I ordered a new one last night with the idea of having a spare so that if it happened at the range again, I could just switch nipples while the other one was cleaned up.

I'm new, what would a blowback be...I'm assuming that fire shoots out of the pan through the nipple and into my face? That doesn't sound fun.

Thanks,
New

 

[Rat Trapper]

80 grains of Tripple Seven is not a hot load in a TC. Are you using 2F or 3F? I would throw away the nipple you drilled out. If you are having trouble getting your ball to start, you need different patching and or smaller balls. Your barrel could be on the tight side. You should not need musket caps for Tripple Seven. While I do use the CCI mag #11 caps for hunting, I often use regular caps with not problems.

 

[t-buck]

hello newarcher
blow back is when the hammer is blown back past the full cock position by over pressure from a shot fired
when you drill out a nipple the over sized hole will allow more pressure to escape thru it to the hammer , venting is another term, this can cause cause enough force on the hammer to over come the force of the spring and be pushed back beyond the full cock position which could cause damage to the lock parts and possibly to the person shooting or people standing close by from flying debris if any
hope this helps you on this
mule/t-buck

 

[newarcher]

It does, thank you much.

New

 

[newarcher]

Hi.

After the last session I plunged it into hot soapy water and kept plunging it out until the water ran clean through it. I then dried it out with patches and let it dry. I then ran a patch of weapon shield clp down it to prevent rust.

I will try the alcohol next time as well.

Thanks,
New