White Lightning touch hole liner & fouling

[duelist1954]

I'm pretty new to using White Lightning touch hole liners, and I have a problem with mine getting packed with fouling.

I like to run a wet patch followed by a couple of dry patches after every shot. Today, after a few shots, the gun wouldn't go off.

I pricked the vent hole and even poked powder into the hole with the prick. Probably tried to shoot it out 10 times before I gave up and breeched the bore, and picked out the powder charge and drove the ball back out the muzzle.

I pricked the touch hole and saw that I was pushing damp sludge with the prick. The cone of the liner was full of it.

A little canned air blew it clear.

Anyone else run into this?

 

[jamesthomas]

Quit using a wet patch, Damp patch only. :surrender: :shake: .

 

[Col. Batguano]

If you use an alcohol swab (with the other white lightning) it will evaporate faster than a water-based swab.

 

[Dphar]

I'm pretty new to using White Lightning touch hole liners, and I have a problem with mine getting packed with fouling.

I like to run a wet patch followed by a couple of dry patches after every shot. Today, after a few shots, the gun wouldn't go off.

I pricked the vent hole and even poked powder into the hole with the prick. Probably tried to shoot it out 10 times before I gave up and breeched the bore, and picked out the powder charge and drove the ball back out the muzzle.

I pricked the touch hole and saw that I was pushing damp sludge with the prick. The cone of the liner was full of it.

A little canned air blew it clear.

Anyone else run into this?

If you wipe and push fouling into the vent then its going plug. This can be the result of its position AND/OR the use a TOO TIGHT a patch. When wiping between shots use a patch that is not too wet, heavily damp I like to call it. Use a jag that is a loose fit in the bore so the patch will ride over the fouling going down then bunch up as the patch is drawn out and drag the fouling out on the patch. Pushing the fouling to the bottom is a mistake unless a LOT of water is used to wash it out.
Damp patch once each side (dirty side toward the jag for the second pass), dry patch once each side should be ready to reload. A pipe cleaner pushed into the vent will clear it if you are not sure.

Dan

 

[rickystl]

Hi Duelist. I've run into the exact same problem with the vent liner. It seems the "cone" in the liner tends to clog while reloading - and especially after running a wet patch down every three shots. What I did to solve the problem was to vent pick after taking a shot, BEFORE reloading. That seems to push the fowling out from the liner and subsequently down to the breech plug face while reloading or cleaning. At least it works for me.
It's interesting to note that all my other flintlocks with 3/32nds hole and NO vent liner never experience this problem.
I'm sure you will get some additional posts on this subject. There was a recent Thread about this a couple months ago. You might search for this. Rick. :hatsoff:

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I've run into this twice with white-lightning liners in thick-walled barrels. They do accumulate fowling but I believe the main problem was the vent hole is simply too small to assure radiative heat reaching the charge in a big barrel when some fouling is present. That was particularly true when the touch hole was level with the top of the pan rather than lower. Two ways that I solved this problem were 1) loading the gun with the vent pick in place, 2) drilling the hole a tiny bit larger. The third solution is if making a gun with a thick barrel, I place the touch hole below the top of the pan.

dave

 

[Vaino]

For ease of loading, I just run a wire brush down the bore and "dump" the debris. Have never had a failure to fire w/ this procedure which is done after 7-10 shots. Don't own a vent pick and have never taken any precautions.....sometimes "doing too much" actually screws things up. Like to keep it simple as our forefathers did for all those years when shooting their reliable flintlocks.

All my builds have White Lightening" TH liners which are drilled out to .067 {#51}......Fred

 

[Leatherbark]

I agree with everything said here. Used to have the same problem. What I do is with my range rod I swab as I seat the ball. Load powder patch and ball with the short starter. Lick a patch place it on bore and seat the ball with the cleaning patch on the jag. Down and back up. Never a flash in the pan again. Plus did you open the hole up in the WL liner? That touch hole is pretty small. I'll bet a little larger hole will allow the hot jet of gases to scavenge the liner better.

P.S enjoy your writing and videos.

Bob

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I use a wl in a c wt. rice bbl and have had no problems. When I do swap between shots a mild damp patch first then a dry one. As others have said I opened her up to the next size and it is fast! Thanks for all your posts! Dan.

 

[Zonie]

I'm pretty sure a brand new White Lightening vent comes with a pretty small hole thru it.

As Chambers doesn't know what his vents are going to be used in, he makes the vent small to accommodate the .32 and other small caliber rifles.

IMO, the small caliber guns are more sensitive to vent hole sizes preferring small vents for consistent velocity and accuracy.

In a .45 caliber a 1/16" (.0625) vent works OK.
In a .50 or larger even going to a 5/64 (.078) diameter vent works very nicely without effecting the velocity and accuracy a great deal.

As for swabbing the bore with wet patches, that is guaranteed to turn the fouling into a paste that will plug the best of vent liners.

 

[rickystl]

Good thinking Zonie. My barrel is a C weight swamped in .54 caliber. I'm sure the liner is still a 1/16th. I'll open it to 5/64ths.
thanks for the tip. Rick. :hatsoff:

 

[Grenadier1758]

My thoughts are to use the smallest touch hole that provides reliable ignition. My first step is to use a number 51 drill bit of 0.067" diameter. You have several drill sizes to use before you open the touch hole to 5/64" or 0.078" diameter.

Not much of a secret, but you don't want to pack sludge from a too damp patch or dry fouling into the touch hole. It can be a good learning process to figure out what is best for your gun. Iknow that I am still learning.

 

[Rifleman1776]

wet patch

:shocked2:
You answered your own question.
Stop doing that :nono: , use slightly damp patch only. Once is enough. But, sometimes I turn mine over and swab second time with same patch.
Touchhole liners are not part of the equation. The cruding up is the problem from your technique.

 

[M. De Land]

I like the bronze brush idea every few shots personally.
Think I'll give it a try.
I also like and use a soft wire pick left in the flash hole while loading.
It keeps the hole uniformly clean and is a safety measure blocking the flash hole against accidental firing while loading.
I'm still reminded that before vent liners were all the craze I doubt interior cones on the flash hole were used at all and they had reliable ignition or they died! Mike D.

 

[jamesthomas]

You use a bronze brush and you'll be on here asking how to get it out. Do not use a bronze brush :nono: . Use a nylon one.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

5/64" would be the next size up in a normal bit set, but there are 5 numbered bits that bridge the gap between 1/16" and 5/64". I would suggest working my way up rather than jumping to 5/64". A 5/64" hole has 55% larger area than a 1/16" hole. The bits are available at good hardware stores. Ace is where mine came from.

While coned vent liners were not used in the flint period, internally coned vents were used by some makers. Gary Brumfield, at CW, showed us a coning tool that worked through the open breech. It worked similar to an egg beater.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[M. De Land]

I don't think there is any need to stick a bronze brush if the correct size is used and it is given a full turn before retrieving it.
I have never stuck anything be it ball, jag or brush that I could not pull out with my heavy steel range loading rod and think many brush sticking problems has to do with a difficulty in the breeching(ledge between breech plug and barrel wall) that should be corrected or use of a flimsy loading rod.
I have no problem with pulling a breech plug either if anything gets stuck and driving it out once I get back to my shop. Mike D.

 

[M. De Land]

Yeah, I've seen tools made for that purpose as well Larry but don't think it was common practice until vent liners became popular.
The reason being the circular barrel wall on the inside of the vent and any complete circle coning would needs be quite deep leaving an oblong, ovate cone on the interior barrel wall.
The inside of a liner is of course flat and allows a perfect hemisphere cone. One mans opinion. Mike D.

 

[frogwalking]

I second what Grenadier 1758 said. Once the hole is too big, it is a pain to replace the liner. Oh. I seldom clean my rifle while shooting, and then, only with a patch dampened with a little bp solvent or spit. Tightly patched and lubed balls seem to keep a good barrel shooting well for me all day.

 

[MJMarkey]

The first time at the range with one of my rifles I had a problem with the TH clogging. When I tried to pick it my pick did not fit in the TH.
I called Chambers Locks and spoke to Jim. He told me that my WL liner was not one of his. Since he never patented the liner copies are out there, and the hole is VERY small.

He told me his TH are almost 1/16" But he opens them to 1/16" for all his rifles. The larger diameter gives reliable ignition.

So if that is the advice from the guy who invented the thing, that's what I do on all my TH's.

Ocasionally in very humid weather I'll get a fouling problem but usually flawless firing.

I only buy my White Lightening TH's from Chambers now.