Scored more #11 caps at my LGS. 
What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?
- Thread starter PathfinderNC
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Today will be starting on an overdue project. I've made many pairs of buckskin pants over the years but never tried a pair of leather knee-breeches so today will be a first.
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Must be gettin' old , used to be able to inlet an intricate patch box head in a day using dental bits. I'm on my 11 hour and still inletting over three days. Try some more today.
Smokin' Joe
32 Cal
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- Sep 9, 2019
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I'm working on restoring a East India Co. Brown Bess, Harpers Ferry 1817 Artillery/Cadet Musket, and tenetively identifying a 4th Virginia Manufactory cannon.
retrieverman
32 Cal
I bought a Lyman Great Plains rifle in really good shape yesterday.
We had a very wet spell here a few months ago, a check of my B/P rifles showed some surface rust in the bores of most of them in my gun safe which is out in the garage and not in a climate controlled environment.
I gave them all a good going over and tried a product called Butch's Bore Shine after a few swabs of JB bore paste. The bore shine is supposed to leave a film that will prevent rust. I left some with RIG in the bore and some with the bore shine.
I checked them two days ago and the rust was back in the ones I left with the bore shine in the barrel, not much in the round bottom rifled barrels but plenty in the corners of the lands and grooves on the square bottom rifled guns.. After a good scrubbing I found these corners were hard to get the rust out of. I have to state that with a bore light none of this rust would be visible but my Teslong bore scope can see a hair on a gnats behind and make it look huge.
This time I started with a bore brush, I only had the kind you shouldn't use for my Kibler .32 and sure enough, when the brush wires pulled out of the threaded ferrule it was right at the bore with enough for me to grab with a pair of pliers, I didn't have to unbreech the gun to get the brush out. A friend gave me his cap and ball pistol range box and it only had the undesirable bore brushes in it in various pistol calibers.
I followed the bore brush with a squirt of WD40, drying out the WD40 with several clean patches, a brush with a patch covered with JB bore shine for a dozen strokes or so and finished with a patched soaked in 10W30 motor oil.
I followed this procedure on several rifles, my Teslong scope showed nothing but a mirror finish in all of the bores.
A little info on bore brushes for the newbies; There are two kinds of ferrules on these brushes. The cheap ones at the big box stores have the wires cast into the ferrule, these will pull apart and result in a "I have a bore brush stuck in my barrel what do I do" thread here. The other kind and what you want to buy have the wires pushed through the ferrule and twisted back into the brush, it is unlikely that these brushes will come apart.
DON'T BUY THE TYPE OF BRUSH ON THE RIGHT!
I gave them all a good going over and tried a product called Butch's Bore Shine after a few swabs of JB bore paste. The bore shine is supposed to leave a film that will prevent rust. I left some with RIG in the bore and some with the bore shine.
I checked them two days ago and the rust was back in the ones I left with the bore shine in the barrel, not much in the round bottom rifled barrels but plenty in the corners of the lands and grooves on the square bottom rifled guns.. After a good scrubbing I found these corners were hard to get the rust out of. I have to state that with a bore light none of this rust would be visible but my Teslong bore scope can see a hair on a gnats behind and make it look huge.
This time I started with a bore brush, I only had the kind you shouldn't use for my Kibler .32 and sure enough, when the brush wires pulled out of the threaded ferrule it was right at the bore with enough for me to grab with a pair of pliers, I didn't have to unbreech the gun to get the brush out. A friend gave me his cap and ball pistol range box and it only had the undesirable bore brushes in it in various pistol calibers.
I followed the bore brush with a squirt of WD40, drying out the WD40 with several clean patches, a brush with a patch covered with JB bore shine for a dozen strokes or so and finished with a patched soaked in 10W30 motor oil.
I followed this procedure on several rifles, my Teslong scope showed nothing but a mirror finish in all of the bores.
A little info on bore brushes for the newbies; There are two kinds of ferrules on these brushes. The cheap ones at the big box stores have the wires cast into the ferrule, these will pull apart and result in a "I have a bore brush stuck in my barrel what do I do" thread here. The other kind and what you want to buy have the wires pushed through the ferrule and twisted back into the brush, it is unlikely that these brushes will come apart.
DON'T BUY THE TYPE OF BRUSH ON THE RIGHT!
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I'm at work dreaming about going squirrel hunting tomorrow with my GPR.
One thing I found with the Teslong bore scope is just how rough a GM barrel is on the inside, I have a number of Rice barrels and two GM barrels, the Rice barrels are smooth inside, the GM barrels look like a washboard. In spite of this roughness the GM barrels are the best shooters.
Started to work on my new Kibler, .54 colonial rifle, I wanted to scribe a line on the forearm with a tool loaned to me by a buddy, turned out I scribed about 3 and had to go beyond that! So I ended up being forced to make a concave edge along the ramrod channel, hairy moment! I found an article in one of my NMLR magazines that showed how to go about it and it saved my butt, thanks to Fred Stutzenberg , the author.
Attachments
A watershed day.
The seven year old grandson asked 'how old guns are'. A good conversation followed - ending with me showing how you check if a flintlock rifle is truly unloaded before sparking an unprimed lock in a blacked out room.
Wide eyes and a big smile.
Score!
The seven year old grandson asked 'how old guns are'. A good conversation followed - ending with me showing how you check if a flintlock rifle is truly unloaded before sparking an unprimed lock in a blacked out room.
Wide eyes and a big smile.
Score!
That's because 1137 steel is tougher to machine than 12L14, and also holds up to wear better.
Rice also pulls a sizing die through the barrel as a final step which smooths the lands and grooves. In all the barrels I have looked in the lands are fairly smooth but the groves all like a washboard to a some degree. The lands and groves in a GM barrel are both rough, much like this TC barrel except considerably rougher.
John Spartan
40 Cal
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Total breakdown and cleaning of my new Pedersoli Dragoon rifle.
Mtman725
The Last Best place, MT
How far?
Spent Wednesday as a range safety officer. Helped Jim with his brand new Sharps 45-70. He made the black powder, cast his bullets and refilled the primers even!
John
John
Out to ring some steel today with my Frontier .50....loving the buckskin pants andy52....thanks again for the great work.
@Mtman725 I believe this was at 25 yards….was back in January so it’s been a while.
Merry Christmas to all my BP friends!
