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Shots between swabing

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I basically swab every shot.

Lube:

1 cup Goop hand cleaner
1 cup Minwax floor polish
1/2 gallon of water

Put in pot and bring to low boil. Stir occasionally. Allow to cool and put it in an old/cleaned Elmers glue bottle.

At the range:
Grab yer lube.
Grab a cleaning patch.
Drench the cleaning patch with lube from the Elmers bottle.
Stick cleaning patch on end of your range rod.
Place pillow ticking on the bench.
Squirt 5 or 6 drops of lube (size of a nickel or dime) onto pillow ticking and smoosh it in with your finger. Make a circle about 1/2 dollar size by smearing the lube on the pillow ticking.
Put the pillow ticking on the end of the barrel with the LUBED side towards the powder.
Start ball.
Cut excess pillow ticking off with sharp knife.
Drive ball home.

Prime and fire.

The cleaning patch on your range rod is good for about 10 shots. Replace the patch and squirt a little lube on it.

Keep on shooting.

I shot 35 balls last weekend. .530 balls and lubricated pillow ticking over 55gr of 3F Goex. Never had any fouling problems.
 
ever since I discovered the Hoppe's patch lube (really on a whim), I don't swab between shots anymore. before that I was a 3-4 shot, then swab shooter. for me, the stuff just works.
 
I shot my .45 yesterday. .440 balls, 50 grains Goex fffg and .020 spit patches. Shot at least 25 times with out ever running a patch down the bore. Would have shot more but ran out of powder. I started out with bore butter a few years back but since I switched to spit patches I have had no problems.
 
i too have one of the early cva kentucky flinters in 45. i love it, but it does require swabbing quite often. mine has shallow rifling and an extremly fast twist (about 1 twist in 13")so it builds up fouling pretty quick. i usually swab with a alcohol patch, not dripping wet, but good'n damp(the little alcohol wipes that you find in a first aid kit work great for this), then a dry patch, then a lubed patch before loading. i would reccomend trying some different lube other than bore butter. alot of people love it, but i myself have had issues with it. as mentioned, Track of the Wolf's Mink oil (not the same as Kiwi mink oil) works great, manteca lard also works really well, and a blend of bee's wax/mink oil or bee's wax/lard/olive oil works great too, it all just depends on your rifle & shooting conditions. one other thing to think about, how's the bore on yours? some of the early spanish made ones had a lousy finish on the bore/rifling, a few ive seen still had machining marks in the bore where they were milled and not polished out, and this can add to the fouling/loading problem. if thats the case i'd reccomend smoothing the bore with some finer grit valve lapping compound, followed by steel wool, followed by a scotchbrite pad, then a good cleaning. as for patching, i've had good results using a good quality, tightly woven .010" pocket drill material for patching. accuracy has been just fine out to 50yds, and loading is a snap, but since every rifle is different, your mileage may vary. good luck :thumbsup:
 
Several years ago, a friend who was moving away gave me a CVA .45 flintlock kit he had never built, so I put it together. I had a .50 Renegade Hunter caplock and that was the sum total of my muzzleloader experience. Over the years from reading this forum, I have turned the flintlock into a reliable accurate shooter.

After struggling with accuracy and fouling problems, I finally listened and tried lighter loads. I used to be of the "heavier load the better" school.

I now shoot 60 gr. of FFFg with a felt wad then a .434 Hornady ball wrapped in a TC .15 prelubed patch. This will reload many shots without difficulty or bore swabbing. It is extremely accurate. Accuracy suffers and the bore fouls more if I increase the charge. I assume that, since the ball/patch combo is not extremely tight, that increased velocity might cause the load to skip the rifling a bit.

Heavy charges leave more fouling and unburnt powder and have never worked well for me. I will be using this for my hunting load and limiting my range.
 
early spanish made ones had a lousy finish on the bore/rifling, a few ive seen still had machining marks in the bore where they were milled and not polished out,

Those of you who like the early CVAs, I'm happy for you. My first (only) was purchased in 1970 and well fit into the "junk" category. I owned a muzzle loading gun shop and refused to handle most CVA products. Those I saw and handled in that era were junk, junk, junk. Happy to acknowledge the company changed it's ways and some of it's later products are just fine.
 
IMO, one mans junk is another mans prize.
It's a matter of perspective.

I owned two CVA rifles in the 1970's and frankly the only thing I really considered to be poor was the lock.

At that time the locks tumbler was not bridled and over time the tumbler would wear out the hole in the lockplate.

The frizzens were often poorly carburized and hardened resulting in rather poor operation.

The percussion version, not having a frizzen eliminated that problem and they preformed rather well until the lockplates tumbler hole started to wear.

Aside from that I considered them to be reliable and quite accurate rifles.
 
IMO, one mans junk is another mans prize.
It's a matter of perspective.

IMO, I wish others would subscribe to this. :thumbsup:

Kinda like my early days on the forum when several members told me a TC could never become an heirloom! Well, maybe not, but than again maybe so.
 
Biggs, the difference between old junk and an heirloom are the memories. I have an heirloom set of brass knuckles that my grandfather used to carry. If that TC is being used and cared for and there are younger family members involved then it is well on the way to becoming an heirloom.

Many Klatch
 
I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just curious why some people think it's a big problem to have to swab the barrel. When I started shooting BP a long time ago, a lot of clubs I shot at required swabbing between shots. I got used to it and don't think twice about it to this day. Like some others here, my belief is that the barrel is essentially unchanged from shot to shot. If I didn't want to do it, I'd shoot CF.

So what are your reasons for wanting to shoot 3, 5, 50 shots without swabbing?
 
So we can spend more time shooting than cleaning, also, for us spend thrifts the less cleaning patches we use the better :) . I shoot about 15 to 20 times before the crud ring by the breech forces me to give it a quick swab, one wet patch followed by 2 dry patches.
 
Why I don't swab between shots:

1) Folks that swab between shots seem to have more problems with ignition. That is probably because they pushed a lot of crud in front of the touch hole.

2) I came to shoot not clean. Almost all of my shooting is offhand at gongs and targets. If I swabbed between shots I'd be the slowest shooter on the line.

3) I get the accuracy I want without swabbing so why mess with it.

4) All my shooting is done by loading out of a pouch. If I have a shooting box with extra patches and solvent it is back at camp or in the truck. Who wants to carry all that extra stuff in a pouch or haversack.

Many Klatch
 
Geraldo said:
So what are your reasons for wanting to shoot 3, 5, 50 shots without swabbing?

When you shoot from the pouch it's a nuisance to try and fish out the jag, pull out the rammer and attach it, fish out a patch, stick it on your tongue, attach the jag while supporting the rifle, run the patch down, remove and disgard (litter), remove the jag and put back in pouch, replace rammer in thimbles, etc., etc.

MUCH easier to shoot, load from the horn, push in a pre-patched ball from the block around your neck or on the horn strap, prime and shoot again. Less wear and tear on the muzzle, as well.

And since shooting is hunting practice I use the same gear and methods as I do when hunting.
 
I guess it's what you get used to. I should have said I loaded from the pouch and swabbed between shots without much delay. I just left the jag on the rod and didn't find it any harder to support the rifle while swabbing than I did while loading.

Thanks for explaining your reasons.
 
Try a different lube. It's been my experience that bore butter doesn't work for me. I use Balistol, Lehigh Valley, or moose milk. These work very good. I also use a soft beeswax/oliveoil paste lube.
 

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