What is the deal with the fouling ring

[TonyC]

Don't let it dry; it's not milk any more if you do. I pre-punch stacks of patches which I store in prescription containers. I add lube just before heading to the range by squirting a dose of detergent down the inside of the container full of patches, (you could use moose milk for this) then fill the container with water, and squish the stack of patches a few times to squeeze out the air and work the soap/water mixture to completely wet the patches. At the range, I take out a few at a time and squeeze all of the water I can out of them before loading. There is no danger regarding wetting your powder doing this. The barrel is effectively wiped clean with each load, and I have never had to clean my gun between rounds. For any situation when your gun may need to stay loaded for an extended period, (hunting?), a greased/oiled patch is fine because you most likely won't shoot more than a couple of rounds.

So I went to the range today and swabbed between each shot with a patch dampened with moose milk. In addition I took your advice and loaded with damp patches. The results were dramatic. The fouling ring was all but non-existent and accuracy was outstanding! Thanks for your advice!!

 

[coupe]

So I went to the range today and swabbed between each shot with a patch dampened with moose milk. In addition I took your advice and loaded with damp patches. The results were dramatic. The fouling ring was all but non-existent and accuracy was outstanding! Thanks for your advice!!

Tony I got range time yesterday and it was very humid. This played h..l with fouling, heavy and slightly gooy. I thought it might be powder brand and type so I switched to schutzen 3f not any better. Accuracy was poor and low which was a big difference from a week ago. I also got the worst crud ring I have ever seen! Swabbing between was not much better, and this was the same powder that I used prior time, I even broke my range rod and I had not done that before. I crowned the bore and polished the bore with coarse valve grinding compound and oiled scotch bright loaded my slide rod and loaded a patched ball for checking for tares. Tapped the ball out with slide rod to check patch integrity, much better no tares so range time again soon.

 

[TonyC]

Tony I got range time yesterday and it was very humid. This played h..l with fouling, heavy and slightly gooy. I thought it might be powder brand and type so I switched to schutzen 3f not any better. Accuracy was poor and low which was a big difference from a week ago. I also got the worst crud ring I have ever seen! Swabbing between was not much better, and this was the same powder that I used prior time, I even broke my range rod and I had not done that before. I crowned the bore and polished the bore with coarse valve grinding compound and oiled scotch bright loaded my slide rod and loaded a patched ball for checking for tares. Tapped the ball out with slide rod to check patch integrity, much better no tares so range time again soon.

Coupe, When I swabbed with a damp patch I could feel the fouling ring. After running the patch up and down a couple of times the ring was no longer felt. I use Schutzen powder also.

 

[coupe]

Tonyc I had patch ripping going on too so once home and cleaned I repolished the crown and polished the bore. 50 strokes with an oiled rag filled with coarse valve grinding compound, followed by 25 strokes with oiled scotch bright then 25 strokes with new scotch bright. I made sure to exit the bore on every stroke to also polish the crown to a finer finish. Put in my slide rod a patched ball n looked for excessive stress on the patch. Seem ok shooting will tell.
Coupe

 

[Chuck Tiller]

What polishing compound are you guys recommending?

Today I thought I'd try 80 grains of Swiss just to see how things went. I used the Dawn and water lube and..... well the ball got hung up about 1 1/2 " from the bottom. I tried the palm saver and then a leathercraft wooden mallet to drive it down with no luck. So I tried a ball puller and no go it's stuck hard. I poured some water and dawn in to see if it will loosen up enough to pull it out. After waiting awhile my wife and I tried again with no luck. I kept pulling the puller through the ball. So I tried one last thing before I pulled the breech plug. Screwed the puller in again even farther and put a crescent wrench on the cleaning rod in front of the handle and hit the wrench with a plastic mallet and it finally came loose. This is ridiculous . Like I said earlier it's fine untiI it gets toward the bottom. I hope polishing helps but I have my doubts.

A simple polish is plain white toothpaste. Put it on a patch rub it in well. You might want a little water. Run it in and out on a cleaning jag.

JB Bore Paste makes good products too.

 

[hanshi]

Those rings seem to show up when you least need another problem. A good brush and elbow grease does a pretty good job as does a wet patch. Regardless, you gonna have to stop shooting in order to remove that blasted ring.

 

[Mike in FL]

Thanks for the help. Well I tried the Dawn and water and it worked like a charm. No palm saver and fairly easy loading. Group was 5 shots at 1 3/4" at 50 yds. I know that's not real great for a lot of you but compared to the 3 - 4 inch groups I was getting it's definitely better.
The thing is that this barrel is not hard to load until you get 1 - 2 inches from the bottom.
I'm primarily a hunter too and have used Bore Butter in the past with no problems either but this barrel is different.
For hunting the water and Dawn isn't a good method but for now and match type stuff it's good.

buchsenmacher and morehops52
What type of polishing compound do you use

So very much has been said about Dawn detergent. It turns up in many shooters' methods. Dawn is a dish detergent. It has no magical properties. It has been advertised for years as a grease remover. Maybe it is. But how do we know other dish detergents don't do as well. It is simply a soap. For eons black powder fowling was removed with water. Now it seems everyone has a cleaning solution that works better than any other, just like all the concoctions used as a patch lube. I'm 77. I've been shooting BP guns since I was 22. Spit works as a lube and cold water works to clean your barrels. All else borders on silly. I'm all for everyone doing as they please but I think way too much hype has come into our shooting that helps us not at all. Sure, the many other lubed and cleaners work, but I have never found these odd methods to work better. We are involved in the same game as has been going on for decades before any of us were born. The products sworn by now have no great advantage over what was used then. I just think we go overboard fixing what ain't broke.

 

[Antelope Pete]

Those rings seem to show up when you least need another problem. A good brush and elbow grease does a pretty good job as does a wet patch. Regardless, you gonna have to stop shooting in order to remove that blasted ring.

Thanks. I posted back in May that I used green Scotch Brite and it fixed the ring issue. Still cuts the patch on the first shot only but shoots ok and I'll just keep shooting until that goes away too.

Thanks Mike. Yeah I hear you. I guess we all want something we think will work better. Some want a liquid and some want a grease and then the variations of those. We all sort through what others use and hopefully find something we like.

 

[TDM]

I use Swiss and still get a fouling ring after 13-16 shots. However, since I switched to a 1:4 Dawn:water lube the fouling ring is minimal and cleans up quickly with one swabbing. But a spit patch actually works just as good. I’d use a spit patch all the time if I didn’t chew tobacco so much.