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Black Powder Drop Tube

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xbowman

40 Cal.
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
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Been wondering if a drop tube for placing powder down a Flintlock barrel have any benefits for target shooting. :hmm:

Thanks, xbowman
 
The people I have seen using the drop tube were the real serious chunk gun shooters. They use it to make sure every grain, every time, gets to the bottom of the barrel. If their powder load is off even a slight amount it will affect their accuracy. For plinking or hunting I don't believe it would make that much of a difference.
 
No Deer is pinging on target.I shoot competition chunkgun,and most of us who shoot these matches do use a drop tube.Serious chunkgun shooters weigh powder to the nearest tenth grain, and it's wasted effort if every tenth grain doesn't get to the chamber.Same with round balls....all weighed to the nearest tenth grain.

I really don't think a drop tube is necessary for general target shooting,plinking or,for sure, hunting.
 
Gentleman .. may I ask where you get a drop tube of that length? Is it made of brass? Cost? I am thinkin we are talkin a barrel length greater than 30 plus inches when I say that, as most chunk guns I have seen pictures of are quite long barreled! Am I correct in assuming the drop tube is in fact near as long as the barrel? :hmm:

Thanx for your reply ...

Davy
 
Don't know where you would get one, I think you have to make it. The ones that I have seen are made of a funnel and a long plastic tube. The tube does indeed reach just shy of all the way to the breech. Never used one myself, just have seen it.
 
Well ... hmmm. I would be a bit concerned with static electricity with a plastic tube sliding up and down my barrel! :hmm:

Davy
 
Drop tubes are most often used to load BPCR cartridges in order to pack the powder to the neck of the cartridge, That said, I use a Brass drop tube to load my rifle in target shoots---precisely to get as much of the powder as is possible to the breech without getting mixed up in the fowling. I don't know if enough statis discharge can build up in a 36" plastic tubing to cause any mishaps---but IMHO brass is best. :hatsoff:
 
The barrel on my chunkgun is a 48 inch Getz chunkgun barrel.The whole darn rifle weighs close to 20 pounds.

I made my drop tube out of copper tubing that will just go down a .50cal opening.A small brass funnel is soldered on the top end. The tube is cut to drop the powder just into the chamber. TOTW has these funnels in the catalog.
 
Well, you can quit being concerned of the "Static Discharge" igniting the BP, cause it ain't gonna happen.... All of that static ignition stuff you hear is total B.S. from people that don't know what they are talking about..... It has been tested time & time & time again & static electricity has not yet ignited BP in all of the thousands of tests performed on it..... And especially what little you may possibly get from a plastic tube in a barrel..... (Note: I am not excluding BP DUST in the atmosphere at a powder manufacturing facility...... That is usually the culprit of the explosions you hear of from there & just about anything will set that microscopic dust mixed in an enclosed area)

It takes HEAT from the spark to ignite regular BP & the static electricity will not produce it, as it produces mostly voltage. I have tested trying to ignite it with a 500 volt megger, a 1000 volt megger, spark plugs on engines, static discharge of various ways, small hand cranked magnetos, etc. The only way I could get it to ignite was with over 10 amps of DC current & that produced enough heat to ignite it.

Check this out. This is a good experiment a guy did with some wonderful photography capturing it all at the test. Quite impressive to me:

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/mlexperiments/sparks/sparks.html
 
Interesting stuff Bird dog .. thanx fer posting the article! :hmm:

Davy
 
I have thought about this a time or two as an intellectual exercise, but never got beyond pricing some brass and copper tubing from various suppliers and looking at funnels for the top. I figure that adding some rudimentary bore guide a few inches from the bottom end would help to keep the bottom end from plugging itself with barrel fouling on its way down. But I always stopped short of doing it. As I shoot mostly off hand or from crossstick, I figure that good enough is, weeelllll good enough. Besides, I can't picture Dan'l or Davy toting all that fooferaw into the woods.

CS
 
I just made a small one for my pistols using a brass funnel and a piece of aluminum arrow shaft. Arrow shafts only go about 36" max though. I have seen a pistol funnel made with the non-funnel end cut at about a 45 degree angle. I don't know if this is important.

Dwight
 
Greeting Xbowman and All,

To begin with, you must have a rifle that has been twicked to to produce not only its maximum capable accuracy level, but one that is capable of cutting the X-ring on the NMLRA 50 yard 6 Bull 8 Ring Target. The X-ring is 3/8's inch in diameter while the 10 ring is 7/8's inch in diameter.

In addition to having an accurate rifle, the shooter must be capable of shooting the rifle to its maximum accuracy level. That is a factor that is seldon discussed. In all of my 54 years of ML shooting, It is my opinion that only 10 - 15 percent of the shooters are capable of shooting at that level, maybe less.

With that being said, only then will a drop tube be of any use. Accuracy improvements SELDOM come in major gains, only small increments, and the smaller the groups, the smaller the increments of improvement.

My drop tube is made from 3/8's inch diameter Stainless Steel tubing. A DELRIN bushing is epoxied to the end of the tubing to center the tube in the bore. A DELRIN bore/crown is used to center the tube at the muzzle.

Like it or not, the bore must be wiped between shots to prevent powder fouling build-up. If a shooter is not willing to wipe the bore between shoots, do not bother with the drop tube.

Best regards and good shooting,

John L. Hinnant

If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.
 
They use it to make sure every grain, every time, gets to the bottom of the barrel.

I push a patched ball down on top of mine to guarantee that. :) The barrel IS a drop tube.

I can't figure what advantage a drop tube has for a muzzleloader. I've only even seen them used with blackpowder cartridge rigs.
 
Some of the old original duelling/target pistols had a powder charge cup built into the end of the ramrod. To use it, you filled the cup, then, while holding the ramrod vertical, you lowered the pistol barrel down onto the ramrod 'til the cup was at the breech, then inverted the whole thing and pulled out the ramrod.
 
Greetings Stumpkiller,

The drop-tube causes the powder to settle to the bottom of the barrel in a consistent, even manner every time, while preventing individual powder grains fron sticking to the side of the barrel and getting crunched between the side of the bore and the patched ball.

As I stated in my previous post, a drop tube has no instant accuracy magic and is used only by the purist of the pure competition bench or cross sticks shooters. And then only by those very few who cannot understand why they are not shooting an X with every shot, only 10's. OH....... if only I had that kind of problem.

Unless one has one of those very, very rare hunting rifles that will shoot along with a 30-50 pound bench rifle, 15-20 pound chunk gun or 14 pound cross sticks rifle rifle, a drop tube offers little or no advantage.

If however, using a drop tube is an itch that must be scratched, then by all means try it. Hopefully you will prove me wrong and satisfy that itch to try something new (for yourself)

Any idea that promotes a safer improvement in shooting accuracy is never a bad idea. Besides, the main idea in shooting these front loaders is to have good, clean (excluding the cleanup) fun, and there does not seem to be enough of that today.

Best regards and good shooting,

John L. Hinnant

If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying you load.
 
Got to go with ole John on this one. If you want to try it, do so. As mentioned, they're actually most useful in competition but an experiment is always a good excuse to shoot some more! "That's right dear, I need to do some more testing!"
-------------------------------------
Hey John, missed you at the meetings!...and I don't mean AA!!!!!
 
All you guys had good input on this subject. I read it somewhere about drop tubes and just needed to know your thoughts.

Thanks, xbowman :thumbsup:
 
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