Where there's smoke....

[StewartLeach]

Had a slightly scary experience at the range yesterday afternoon. Although conditions were hot and dry, there was a pleasant breeze to clear the smoke.

I loaded the 50 cal cap gun as usual- 55 grns 3Fg GOEX, WallyMart ticking patch strip lightly lubricated with olive oil, #11 CCI cap. Only thing different was use of a ball cast in a Lee mold instead of Lyman mold, or Hornady swaged ball. Bought the Lee mold after getting very good results with a Lee mold in my 40 cal flinter which has a tight bore.

The ball started easily, needing little more than thumb pressure before going in far enough to cut off the strip. A light thump finished the starting, and the combination slid down easily to the powder charge. Fired the round, then turned away and stepped back to load again.

A few moments later I began to smell smoke, turned around to see a small area of buffalo grass on fire! The burn area was downwind from the remains of a patch. I stomped it out, then watched for the patch from each of the next four shots. All were smoldering. I've never had this happen before.

I decided to do some experimentation. Fired five shots with Hornady balls, which require a good solid thump to start. No problems. Going back to the Lee balls, I added saliva as an additional lubricant- and fire retardant. The olive oil tasted a little stale. No more smoldering patches.

My supposition is that the smaller diameter of the Lee cast ball allowed enough additional blow by to set the edges of the patches on fire. This was a close call. What if I had walked away to use the latrine and hadn't smelled the smoke? We've had a lot of fires here this summer, and of course we're coming up to the first anniversary of the Four Mile Fire, which destroyed 169 homes.

Has anyone else had experience with smoldering patches?

White Fox

 

[necchi]

Ah yup,
Few years back we had dry conditions here.
I remember it was 101 the week end of the vous, (this weekend as a matter of fact)
We had to shut down the range 3 times so we could trot on down range and stomp out grass fires.
Luckily it was just short mowed dormant dry grass but we did have 3 fires.
So smoldering patches does happen if conditions are right.
Now that you've experianced it, just keep it in the forefront of yer kind and keep looking.

I'm sure some will come up with;
"That's never supposed to happen!! You need more lube!!"
Idealy a patch shouldn't smolder or burn through, but if your getting good groups with what you have,,It is what it is.

 

[S.Kenton]

Yesterday it happened to me.. smoldering patches that I had to stomp out..

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

I have had the same experience using olive oil. Switched to Ballistol all other conditions and specs. were the same except no smoldering patches. I am not saying Ballistol is the best for your rifle; just that olive oil catches on fire to easy by itself. That is my experience, YMMV.

 

[tiger955]

We had a small fire started by a smoldering patch at our club shoot a couple weeks ago. As I was shooting with another group and don't know the fella that started it, I don't know what patch/ lube combo he was using. I use wet patches with LVL or Hoppes and haven't had a problem yet.

 

[Rifleman1776]

olive oil catches on fire to easy by itself.

That is a big reason why I prefer peanut oil. High temp resistance. Cheaper too.

 

[Lonegun1894]

olive oil catches on fire to easy by itself.

That is a big reason why I prefer peanut oil. High temp resistance. Cheaper too.

Rifleman,
Thank you for a good idea. I have both, but never tried the peanut oil. Usually use Stumpy's Moosejuice, and like it, and spit is a near second accuracy wise, but quit using olive oil cause of siliar issues a few years ago. Have several gallons of peanut oil, so should've thougth of it before seeing you spell it out.