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Black powder cleaning questions

3K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  CoyoteJoe 
#1 ·
I recently purchased a 50 cal flintlock reproduction with which I am becoming familiar. I am currently shooting 85-95 grains of FF with a single patch over the powder and a single lubed patch with a Remington brand .50 lead ball.

At the range I am only getting 4-5 shots before it becomes practically impossible to re-load through the residue. When I use a brush and liquid BP remover there seems to be a great deal of unburnt powder residue at the bottom of the barrel. The rifle seems to fire reliably when clean but I have had several misfires when, after cleaning, I assume that I let the powder get wet with residual cleaning fluid requiring pulling the load and that whole hassle.

Two questions: 1) is 4-5 shots a reasonable number before having to clean? Am I using too much powder resulting in incomplete burning? 2) What techniques can you recommend for "at the range" cleaning to facilitate my shooting sessions without creati8ng misfire conditions?

Thanks for your advice.

Brad
 
#2 ·
I recently purchased a 50 cal flintlock reproduction with which I am becoming familiar. I am currently shooting 85-95 grains of FF with a single patch over the powder and a single lubed patch with a Remington brand .50 lead ball.

At the range I am only getting 4-5 shots before it becomes practically impossible to re-load through the residue. When I use a brush and liquid BP remover there seems to be a great deal of unburnt powder residue at the bottom of the barrel. The rifle seems to fire reliably when clean but I have had several misfires when, after cleaning, I assume that I let the powder get wet with residual cleaning fluid requiring pulling the load and that whole hassle.

Two questions: 1) is 4-5 shots a reasonable number before having to clean? Am I using too much powder resulting in incomplete burning? 2) What techniques can you recommend for "at the range" cleaning to facilitate my shooting sessions without creating misfire conditions?

Thanks for your advice.

Brad
These traditional rifles are funny. Some days I have shot up to 20 rounds and never had to swab the barrel and on other days I am LUCKY to get five shots. I think a lot of it depends on temperature outside, humidity, the kind of black powde you are shooting, and the muzzleloader gods whether they are in a good mood.

Five rounds is not uncommon. I think your misfires after cleaning is caused by the way you are cleaning. What I do (and I am not saying there are not hundreds of other ways to do it) is I use 91% isopropyl alcohol to swab the bore with. I take a patch, and wet it with the alcohol. I then ring out the patch with my fingers to remove all the alcohol I can. When I swab, I work that down the barrel in short strokes. Pay close attention when you get down to the bottom of the breech. After that I do a couple dry patches. Again, swab in short strokes, pay attention to the breech. After I have swabbed the course stuff out of the barrel, I push a fuzzy pipe cleaner through the touch hole instead of a bird feather. The fussy pipe cleaner drys that area, and also opens that hole up good and wide.

Leave the pipe cleaner in there and dump your powder and set your next ball. Then pull that pipe cleaner out slowly. Now you have pulled powder right up to the open vent liner. It has dried that area, so you should get a nice fast ignition next time.

I have also swabbed with a spit patch. Again as little spit as I can work through it. After I swab in the short strokes, I still run a dry patch or two. If you feel that patch start to bind at any time, pull up back up and work in shorter strokes.

I am going to guess that when you use a brush and black powder remover, you are actually pushing more crud off the walls of the bore down to the breech. You might also be putting too much moisture down there and then not getting it out. When you swab, the idea is not to clean the rifle, but to remove the chunks to make the next loading easier. Perhaps try the alcohol patch next time out and see if that does not help. Also use the alcohol patch to wipe the pan out and the flint off when swabbing. It will give you a lot faster ignition.
 
#3 ·
I have shot my flinter in several matches that range from 40 to 60 shots, without swabbing. I learned a long time ago not to use stuff like Bore Butter or those commercial pre-lubed patches. I use plain old pillow ticking from Wal-Mart. It mics at .018. For lube I use a mix of 4 parts water and 1 part Ballistol: http://www.ballistol.com/ . It's like cleaning your barrel every time you ram that ball down. Another thing is to pick your vent every time you prime. This insures the flash hole is clear. This works for me. Good luck and happy shooting.
 
#4 ·
For range shooting I shoot only spit patches and can shoot all day without swabbing the bore if I wish to do so. Each time a spit patched ball is rammed it is cleaning away the fouling from the previous shot. Of course it does not clean the area where the powder sits so the ball seat, where the ball stops atop the powder, will gradually creep upward. When I find my ramrod mark is 1/4" above the muzzle I will screw a cleaning jag onto the rod and run a saliva wet patch down to the bottom, followed by a dry patch before the next load.
You don't identify the rifle but I suspect it has a "patent breech", meaning that the breechplug has a powder chamber of smaller diameter than the bore. When your brush pushes wet fouling into the powder chamber the dry patch cannot get in there to dry it out. Forget the brush and just use cleaning patches on a jag, one wet with spit or solvent followed by two dry patches. That will not reach into the powder chamber and thus will not wet it.
As to your powder charge, no, 85-95 grains is not "too much" but for most purposes it is certainly more than you need. You are correct in thinking that less powder will leave less residue. For target shooting and plinking I favor 40-60 grains of 3f and 80 grains seems plenty for hunting. The one elk I've taken with that 80 grain load just walked slowly in a small circle and fell over dead.
 
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