Enlarging Flashhole

I drilled out my standard White Lightning flash hole insert to the point that 2F will not fall out but you sure can see it now! I then coned around the hole with a drill bit two sizes larger.....anybody else cone thier flash hole and do you think it makes a difference?

Did you ask if it made a"differance" or did it make it "dangerious"???? Yes and Yes.

I like .067" . I think the bit number is #52. I use a counter sink spun in fingers to take off the sharp edges - maybe a little more - not much.

If you keep the vent clean smaller works too. Clean may be more important than size.

Regards,
Pletch

not sure what was ment by dangerous....I did not enlarge it to a #2 pencil.....just opened it up a couple hundredths and slightly coned it for improved ignition, not sure the danger in that.
As far as keeping it clean, I run a vent pick after I shoot and after I load it so keeping the channel clear is not a problem.
Am not meaning to sound like a know-it-all, I guess I need to provide more information......BUT....if there is a danger of something please explain....as I am always open to new knowledge........THANKS 'Brim' :v

I have mine opened up to 5/64 and it will self prime with fffg and ffg is right at the hole, it goes off every time. :wink:

the hole ain't to big till the ball rolls out. :haha:

I think Sperit de bois may be alluding to the fact that when you externally cone a liner with pronounced inner cone like the White Lightning soon you will have a much bigger hole than you have now.

The metal where the inner and outer cones meet will errode quicker than if you left it at it's original thickness. You have created kind of a lop-sided hour glass effect in cross section.

As to your original question, I don't know anybody who cones the exterior of an internally coned liner. Seems as though it wouldn't be neccessary and more prone to collecting crud.

You are asking if anybody has noticed a difference. Have you? Did you shoot it before enlarging? Before coning the outside? Would really like to know.

Enjoy, J.D.

Here is standard, enlarged hole, and enlarged and coned hole.



I usually like .070 and coned inside and out. I can live with .067 like Mr. Pletcher recommends but I find larger is more forgiving than smaller. Plus I have given up on the vent pick as it is unnecessary when the touch hole is .070.



This shows inside cone.

I have no idea what is meant by dangerous? :hmm: You can certainly make anything dangerous so common sense must be observed. :idunno:
But enlarging the touch hole to .070 and coning both sides has proven not to be “dangerous” in about 5000 shots now.
I don't know where some of this stuff comes from?

i did find it fired faster and more consistant than before I enlarged and coned it. But like I said before it is not much larger and not a deep cone, but it seems like it fires every time now(if I keep my flint sharp) as before it would fail to fire 1 in every 12-15 shots.
It will be mainly used as a hunting gun, not a rendevous gun, have other flinters for that!

My post was only a guess at what Sperit de bois was driving at. Perhaps he will chime in and clarify his post.

I am glad you had positive results but I am still curious whether or not you fired your gun after you enlarged the hole but before you coned the outside.

Now, I haven't used any liner other than the White Lightning in a long time so others may have changed their design.

That being said, I don't believe outside coning is as neccessary on the White Lightgning as it is on the some of the other liners on the market as the internal cone is larger and extends further into the liner.

I have some others with liners like ebiggs posted and can see where an external cone (or a deeper internal cone) would be beneficial as the web is thicker between the internal cavity and the flash hole. I even have one in .45 that is coned externally as ebiggs demonstrates and it does fire reliably.

I'm interested in what others are doing.

Emjoy, J.D.

I did not shoot between enlarging and cone....did both then shot and received the results with both improvments, not on at a time......next time I will do that!

A preference of mine is 1/16" (.0625"). All my guns have this size vent hole. Reliability is excellent but it does allow occasional self priming with 3F though it's unusual for this to occur. IMO this is the minimum size for a vent hole to give good ignition.

Brim said:

I did not shoot between enlarging and cone....did both then shot and received the results with both improvments, not on at a time......next time I will do that!

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I am glad it worked for you. Achieving reliable ignitian can be frustrating sometimes.

Maybe others will chime in with their experiences with the White Lightning too.

Thanks, J.D.

hanshi said:

A preference of mine is 1/16" (.0625"). All my guns have this size vent hole. Reliability is excellent but it does allow occasional self priming with 3F though it's unusual for this to occur. IMO this is the minimum size for a vent hole to give good ignition.

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I agree with Hanshi on this. 1/16" works great for me. Along with White lightening Liner. :thumbsup:

Not with a liner. But, I did open the touch hole on my Jackie Brown fowler and coned the outside. I has having ignition problems. Essentially, the gun would not go off most of the time. I was about ready to return to Jackie in a most uncomfortable manner in person. :shocked2:
I had been using Swiss 1 1/2Fg. just to use it up. But switched to Goex 3Fg and it now bangs reliably every flint fall. Go figger. :idunno: This ml game is funny.
But, lesson learned is keep trying. You mentioned 2Fg, have you tried 3Fg.?

hotoSmile: They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

group size suffered when I tried 3F, 90 grains of 2F goex cut holes within holes at 75 yards, so since it is a huntin' gun.....think I'll call it good!!

If you enlarge the touch hole to .070. Cone both sides, plus use a goodly amount of 4F for prime. Your flint doesn't have to be as sharp. More shots before knapping. You will still get great, fast ignition.
You can spend more time shooting, instead of fiddling. Some guys like messing around with their guns after each shot. I don't. I would rather shoot. I make it so my rifles work. That's all.

I did as Pletch recommends with all my flint locks up until the last rifle I bought. It has a Chambers Virginia lock and White Lighting liner. I took it out to shoot for the first time just as it came and got excellent ignition. So I never changed it. Now after 500 shots I have never had a flash in the pan. If the prime powder goes off the main charge always goes off. So I have told people try it first, if you are getting flash in the pans than open it up but if you are not why bother?

ebiggs,

Are you shooting White Lining liners?

I understand the need to cone the exterior of the others but have you shot a WL before and after coning the outside and noticed a difference in ignition speed?

Thanks, J.D.

Flash Pan Dan said:

I did as Pletch recommends with all my flint locks up until the last rifle I bought. It has a Chambers Virginia lock and White Lighting liner. I took it out to shoot for the first time just as it came and got excellent ignition. So I never changed it. Now after 500 shots I have never had a flash in the pan. If the prime powder goes off the main charge always goes off. So I have told people try it first, if you are getting flash in the pans than open it up but if you are not why bother?

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I had the same thing happen to me recently. I was planning to open the vent to .067", but had good luck with the 1/16" vent. I'll open if I need to, but so far no problem.
Regards,
Pletch