Care and feeding of black powder rifle

[Captchee]

before you wash it , try it .
the sizing wont hurt the bore any . If you using it for spit patches , it does taste rather odd at first .
The reason I mention this is that I have rifles that actually shoot better with un washed ticking then they do with washed ticking .

Myself I went to cutting my patchs at the muzzle a long, long time ago.
However for those who prefer a cut patch one option that I used to do that worked real well is to tear the ticking into strips that are just a tad larger then what you want your patch to be. don’t make the strips to long or you will have a hard time cutting them . Now fold the strip back and forth on itself . Take sizzlers and starting just alittle to one side of the center of the folded edge. Cut a half circle by cutting off the corners tell you get all the way around to the other folded side . Now skip over about 1/8 and cut around to the side you started on . Be sure to stop short so as to leave an 1/8 inch of the fold on that side .
Now unfold your strip . What you have is a strip of round patches that are connected by a 1/8 inch tab ..
To use this strip you can either simply cut the patch off OR lay a patch on the muzzle . Start you ball , grab onto the next patch and yang . The patch you started will be in the bore and the rest of your patches are still on at strip

[SpareMag]

So what I am looking for is some kind of stiff fabric, stiffer than a cleaning patch, but not necessarily a wool felt?

Uh...just WHAT does the patch do?

I thought at first it was a gas barrier, but balls are pretty tight anyway, and conicals don't use them at all. i understand.

Then I thought a patch "protected" the powder from some odd reaction with the ball...but that doesnt seem reasonable.

Patches in revolvers make sense to prevent chain fires...but that won't happen in a rifle.

It is unlikely the patch provides enough resistance to balance the force of the powder explosion across a larger surface area and promote a cleaner exit from the barrel...

I use lubed patches because the instructions say use lubed patches, and the guy who showed me how to use the rifle used lubed patches....

[mehavey]

The patch is the interface between the steel rifling and the lead ball.

It permits some cushioning "give" to that interface so the shooter does not have to literally swage a
metal-to-metal fit by hammering a circular-shaped oversize projectile down into the cut rifling
grooves at the muzle (and beyond).

Second, properly sized to the ball/barrel dimensions, it grips both the ball and the rifling to impart
consistant spin from one to the other

Third, it also serves as a gas check once the powder ignites and the ball/patch combination begins to move.

Fourth, it carries some residual lubrication (even if only spit) along that interface to assist in seating the
ball, and keeping fouling "a little-bit" soft(er). (On the other hand a spit patch can dry out during a
day's hunting and still perform well on that shot)

Last, it must be a very strong/tight weave to survive all of the above and firmly grip the ball
without slipping. Ordinary cleaning patches may not have that material strength "unless cut
from the same cloth"

[SpareMag]

Mehavey,

OOOOOOhHHhHhhhhhhhh...

All that makes great sense, than you!

Then conicals _should_ have patches?

The conicals I got with the rifle, sized as 54 cal, were too tight to fit with a patch. I fired one without a patch and nuthin' blew up....think I had some keyholing with it, but will work out that issue later. I had undercharged the weapon a bit when I used the conical. I was using a ball load.

[mehavey]

Then conicals _should_ have patches?

Negative. Properly-designed conicals are a variation on the Minnie ball and "generally"
have a concave/hollow base.** That base allows the conical to operate differently from
round-ball by expanding under gas pressure to seal against/into the rifling -- imparting spin.

The conical can therefore be smaller than the bore size (a bit) and make loading easier.
Properly fit to the bore diameter -- but covered in lube -- it needs no patch.





** some conicals are actually flat based, but operate by the long/heavy projectile obduating
(donut squishing) under heavy acceleration to expand out into the rifling. That's another treatise

[Captchee]

Mehavey is pretty much on the spot .
Any yes most conical that you buy today are designed to be hand engraved to the rifling at the muzzle . Once they are started , they will go down and depending on the depth of your rifling , exspand to seal the bore

Past that , allittle more info then you probably need to know right now .
Ironically with the hollow based Minie it was designed for slow twist rifling . The base also had a much thicker skirt . Thus an expander , which was also hollow based , was placed in the base of the conical so as to give better expansion of the thicker skirt

Also not all conical are shot without a patch . Just like in revolvers , paper patching is sometimes used , especially in long range target applications .

As far as everyday use . There are also conicals which use and benefited from a cloth patch . Case in point the conical used in the Stutzer rifles was a cloth patched conical .
The patch was actuallytied around the conical . When used the patch and conical is then loaded as one

[SpareMag]

Got it.

Thanks, all...tremendous help!

Now I just have to get out and shoot!

Oh...another question:

I see the benefit to rifling with a conical, spiraling to stabilize an oblate spheroid and all (though in truth I never understood WHY this works, just that it does, but that isn't the question here...)

WHY does rifling help a ball, which is NOT an oblate spheroid, but a sphere, and near as I would think, would make no difference if it were spiraling or not?

Is there a range difference with a conical vs a ball? Or is the benefit in the wounding upon impact?

[mehavey]

Gyroscopes can spin around any symmetrical axis.

Both the spinning ball AND the spinning cylinder are therefore solid gyroscopes, and rotate around an axis
aligned with the direction of flight. The projectile (whether ball or cylinder) therefore resists any change
in direction from that rotation/firing axis.

Without that spin, you have -- quite literally -- a knuckleball that will drift all over the place

[SpareMag]

Ahhh...of course...simple now that you explained it...

Thx!

[BirchOrr]

"do not put any products down your barrel that are not water soluable".

I agree, that's why I mentioned Ballistol. It is a non-petroleum product. (the best their is IMHO).

modern barrel stels do not act like iron barrels .

I agree with this also. IF and I say IF they get rusty, you can run patches till you're blue in the face and still get rust on the patch. Best thing in this case is to wet a patch with Kano-Kroil, run it down the barrel and let it set overnight. Continue to run Kroil patches later until the rust is gone. If it's really bad, run patches of JB Bore Cleaning Compound to clean and polish. Then... take good care of it after that! No more problems.

I use a pretty wet patch and it picks up fouling as you seat the next ball, so you are shooting through a cleaner bore compared to products that just lube and not clean.
Using this method, I can fire 50+ shots and never clean the bore in the process....and the balls will still seat easily.

I do this as well. I run a few patches with TC #13 Bore Cleaner to remove the "in-between shots" fouling. Many here use other products, Simple Green, etc.

you are seating a damp patch against the powder?

For the sake of simplicity, I use Ox-Yoke patches of the correct thickness. They are pre-lubed and available in 4 thicknesses. Round, pre-cut in packages of 100 for around $6.50

Very good thread and great stuff guys!



Birch

[Old Stony]

I agree....great thread and lots of good info. Great examples of different methods of getting it done. Lots of ways to skin that cat, but he still ends up naked in the end.