Forums.NitroExpress.com

Tom - good that you now have a range to use whenever you are able to go and shoot.

Sometimes a card between the powder and patched ball will protect the ball enough that a loose combination will shoot OK. In my guns, putting anything between ball and powder, other that the ball's patch, has hurt accuracy. My 14 bore rifle is least effected, but it does lose accuracy if a wad is used. When hunting, I use a very thin wad, like a shotgun's overshot wad to protect the powder from lube. This works.
Unfortunately, a wad thick enough to protect a loose patch from the powder flame and pressure, will also wipe out most of the lube deposited in the bore by the patch, and the gun will foul badly.
The patch has to be thick enough to carry enough lube to do it's job - to soften the fouling deposited in the bore by that shot, so that when the next one is loaded, it goes down easily as it pushes that fouling down onto the powder, and wets the bore again to lubricate that ball's flight.

When you load the next shot, you are actually cleaning the last one. This is why it is imperative that the patch go to the bottom of the grooves, with some compression. It deposits moisture - ie: water based as when target shooting, or an animal or vegetable oil when hunting, onto the bore, which softens the fouling of that shot. It also has to be thick enough to wipe the fouling from the previous shot, down to an almost clean bore - otherwise, the fouling will build up and become impossible to load, requiring wiping out.
We (all of us) shoot the entire day, 50 to 80 shots with never having to wipe the bore. The gun loads as easily for the last shot as it did for the first in the spotlessly clean bore. The accuracy does not change, all day as the bore remains in the same condition - no fouling buildup at all, except in the chamber area, where the patched ball does not touch. This minimal buildup in that area does not hurt accuracy. By the end of the day, the rod will refuse to go down as far, by about 1/4" in a .45 or .50. That is no consequence, as the powder charge now occupies more length of bore - no problem.
When we clean our rifles or smoothbores at the end of the day in a pail or bucket of water (I use a 3 pound coffee can), the water barely turns only greyish - not black and scungy and aside from the taste, would be probably be quite drinkable.
Just cleaning off the flintlock's cock and pan colours the same water more than the smae aount of water used in cleaning the barrel.

--------------------
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V

Post Extras