Ignition problem

Cooner54 said:

"...blowing down the barrel before your first shot puts moisture in the barrel and I for one do not recommend it..."

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Correct...its obvious you're thoroughly familiar with muzzleloaders
:thumbsup:

You guys are awsome. Just when I think I figured out muzzleloaders I find that I still have a LOT to learn. I did find some very light rust in my previously pristine bore. :shake: I obviously blew it this week end. I'm just glad it was only loaded for three days instead of a week :shake: I would have had real problems.

Just to see if I have this right.

1) clean the barrel of any oil I can
2) pour alcohol down the barrel
3) run dry patch down the bore again to dry out any more residu of the oil/alcohol
4) take out nipple and run a pipe cleaner through the flash chanel and get out all oil left over.
5) replace nipple and fire ONE cap at a leaf/piece of paper.
6) load the gun.
7) leave outside in cold until ready to clean the rifle.

I hope I have this right now. The New Englander deserves better than this.

Jerem

Number two should read: Run a alcohol soaked patch down the bore. Ya don't need to pour it down the bore. :grin: Yer getting it though. :thumbsup:

sweet, thanks for the correction. I thought pouring alcohol down the barrel would be kinda messy. lol.

Jerem

better than poping cap with muzzle pointed at leaf, is to run patch on ram rod down barrel and leave it there. with patch and rod in barrel now pop couple caps. when you pull patch out it should be black from the firing of the caps. If it is not, you need to do more cleaning before loading. The patch will collect any oil the cap blew out and will be removed with the patch.

Two things:

1. Tap the side of the barrel some to settle the charge and get some of that Pyrodex into the flash channel. Some guns such as Hawkens could also use a small rap on the butt stock for the same reason!

2. Too much oily lubrication remaining in the flash channel (but you snapped several caps before loading, so maybe not), or just simply condensation from going into the warmer house (probably the villan here).

So leave the rifle in the cold and you'll probably be fine!

Good luck with the hunting!

Dave

Jeremy,

What grade alcohol are you using? Rubbing alcohol is 50% water. I use 91% isopropyl as a good cleaning alcohol. Stove alcohol or solvent alcohol from the hardware store is good, also.

I don't actually pour alcohol down the bore, gust a good damp patch. Though I do usually leave the nipple out for a couple days after cleaning the rifle to let everything evaporate out. After I clean I wipe with Birchwood Casey Sheath and then, before shooting again, I wipe with alcohol and then a dry patch.

Any time you leave a percussion gun sit a week or more it's not a bad idea to dribble in a few kernels of powder (don't plug the channel, just a few). As an experiment I left my New Englander loaded 11 months. Fired first pull without doing anything put capping and pulling the trigger. (CCI regular #11 cap).

Any residual oil or lube from the patch can leach into a charge and "kill" it. I had a vegetable fiber wad between the patch and the powder in that instance; which I usually add for hunting as I do tend to leave them loaded between hunts.

I just wanted to fyi everyone. Friday night I did as a lot of ya'll suggested. I cleaned the barrel with dry patches to get out all of the oil, then I removed the nipple and removed as much oil as I could with a pipe cleaner, cleaned up the nipple. Then I drove my ramrod and a dry patch all the way to the breach plug. I then fired a cap and I then repeated this until there was no oil residue on the patches when I pulled them out. I nervously loaded my rifle. Yesterday after another hunt of seeing nothing I shot this rifle of. OMG this thing fired off quicker than It ever has and there was no hint of delay. My gun went boom.

Thanks ya'll for helping me solve my problem. No more snap boom or just snap for me. :hatsoff:

Jerem