Lesson For The Newcomer #8

Lesson For Newcomers @8 Revised
At first as you fire your rifle a coat of soft residue will coat the internal surface of the barrel. Each following shot will add another coat and bake on the preceding coat creating a progressively smaller bore. After the third of fourth shot it will become increasingly difficult to load without the use of a mallet.. The usual practice is to do athourough cleaning to restore the barrel to its original size and then repeating the process until you load only with difficulty.
One answer to this is to wipe the bore with a dampened wiping patch to remove that soft layer of residue and prevent the baked on build up.

As you gain experience you may discover how some riflemen avoid this buildup and fire repeatedly without the wipe.


Dutch Schoultz

There Gumpa, does that answer your probably justifiable complaint?

Dutch Schoultz said:

After the third of fourth shot it will become increasingly difficult to load without the use of a mallet..

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I keep thinking the old boys knew stuff we haven't figured out yet.

J. Audubon, Fort Union on the Yellowstone, 1843.

"And now a kind of sham Buffalo hunt was proposed, accompanied by a bet of a suit of clothes, to be given to the rider who would load and fire the greatest number of shots in a given distance, the horses were mounted.... Mr. Culbertson ....joined the riders, started with his gun empty, loaded in a trice, and fired the first shot; then the three riders came on at full speed, loading and firing first on one side, then on the other of the horse, as if after Buffaloes. Mr. C. fired eleven times before he reached the fort, and within less than half a mile’s run; the others fired one less, each. We were all delighted to see the facts. No one was thrown off, though the bridles hung loose, and the horses under full gallop all the time."

I doubt they wiped between shots. :haha:

Spence

Did they patch all them balls? Did they measure all those charges? Or did they do some unsafe things?
Reading some of the ol’ boys experiences I think there were some tricks they pulled that wasn’t best practice. And sometimes they paid the price.
I don’t think I would charge in th a bear cave to thump a sleeping bear with a ram rod. I don’t think I would prime a gun from the cartridge before loading these days (I’ve done it before). I don’t think I would try to load from a galloping horse back ( in fact if I was on a galloping horse today I would ge holding on with both hands and knees and offering up a prayer for safety).

What I would do for rapid reload in the face of hostiles trying to kill me and what I would do at a target match are two entirely different worlds. So many people say it does not matter. And for them it may not. If all that matters is minute of deer ( or the torso of a man) it is entirely different than sufficient accuracy to repeatedly cut a string at 100 yds. Apples and oranges.

That’s the truth, one foot groups at fifty yards won’t win a ribbon but would fill an empty belly or drop a hostile.

tenngun said:

Did they patch all them balls? Did they measure all those charges? Or did they do some unsafe things?

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Who knows? Who cares? My point was that they fired 10 shots in rapid succession, which in today's world would probably make any ball hard to load because if fouling buildup, as Dutch was discussing, but it didn't seem a problem for them. Why not?

Spence

I have long been aware that there are some lubricants , that used with a generous hand will keep that resiue layer soft, shot after hot.
The mental problem that seems to create for me is that all this lubrication would make a slick situation where the patch and ball would be long gone before the powder had done its thing, resulting, in my experience, with wide open group.
If these eighty round no wiping, riflemen get good groups, I would be willing to go back to school.

Dutch, greatly mystified

Dutch Schoultz said:

The mental problem that seems to create for me is that all this lubrication would make a slick situation where the patch and ball would be long gone before the powder had done its thing, resulting, in my experience, with wide open group.

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Yeah, I know, Dutch. I remember that the "too slick bore" is the foundation of your system. I've never been able to get my head around that idea, but what do I know. :grin:

Spence

Did I ever tell you about the time I use to cheat at stake shoots by shooting an unpatched ball?....I still managed to shoot more accurately than most....and much faster... :haha:

It was a speed competition.. I was amazed to see guys hand lubing patches, using loading blocks, and wiping between shots....Not to mention struggling with tight patch/ball combinations... :youcrazy:

BTW....I never lost a stake shoot either... :haha:

George said:

tenngun said:

Did they patch all them balls? Did they measure all those charges? Or did they do some unsafe things?

Click to expand...

Who knows? Who cares? My point was that they fired 10 shots in rapid succession, which in today's world would probably make any ball hard to load because if fouling buildup, as Dutch was discussing, but it didn't seem a problem for them. Why not?

Spence

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It depends on what they were doing. A rider pouring powder from a horn,spiting a ball in to his palm and dropping it down the bore, and a tap on the saddle and a wish it seated will not to be compared with loading a ball for an accurate shot.
However, even muskets became so fouled they had to stop and clean, or at least swab.
Shooting contest were often one shot, so a shooter often had plenty of time to reload for the next contest. While hunting again a a hunter too most of the time has more then enough time to swab.
A lot of factors adjust how quick the fouling builds up.
At the Midwest musket frolic in defiance mo in 1985 I got 10 shots in 3 min and forty five seconds. The winner got thirteen. Ted Spring who was running the shoot didn’t complete but did a demo and got twenty two, and had run out of cartridges in his belly box, loading the last three shots from cartridges tossed to him by some friends. He was ramming the twentythird shot home when time was called.

Some folk who want a quick reload have prepared a short wood panel with a number of holes drilled in it, in which they have preloaded patched balls.. Their reloading involved dumping the powder down the barrel, placing one of the preloaded holes over the muzzle and seating the ball in the breech. Then capping or charging the pan..

Handy for Woodswalks.

Dutch Schoultz

Kentucky, The too slick bore is not the foundation of my System..
The exact fitting patch would be a better description. Like an exact fitting piston ring might be called the foundation of a mechanic's system which I am sure you can understand..

Dutch

Advice buy Dutch's System, it will save you money in long run. Before Dutch don't sell them any longer.

I am still trying to figure out how they got the pan primed whilst being jostled around on the saddle of a galloping horse?

Well I hate to admit I’ve done a few stupid things with front stuffers. One of them was inlarging the touch hole. You snap the frozen shut charge an drop a ball down. Thump the butt a time or two and it will fill the pan.
Don’t try this at home boys and girls it’s stupid thing , but I’ve done it. And shot fast.

Dutch Schoultz said:

Some folk who want a quick reload have prepared a short wood panel with a number of holes drilled in it, in which they have preloaded patched balls.. Their reloading involved dumping the powder down the barrel, placing one of the preloaded holes over the muzzle and seating the ball in the breech. Then capping or charging the pan..

Handy for Woodswalks.
Dutch Schoultz

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Dutch, I think that a piece of wood with holes in it goes back a long way. I’ve made and bought a few over the years and don’t think they are out of place in an historic outfit. However, there is zero evidence of their existence before the middle of the nineteenth century.
Light a camp fire, pass the jug and I will argue they could be in a longhunters or revolutionary rifelmans kit all night long. In the end there is one question I can’t argue against : absolutely zero evidence they were used. Loading mallets/ ball starters are easier to argue, and few hard core accept those. Most find a ball board a bridge to far.

Akapennypincher,
Funny you should say that.
I have a countdown running and when that number of days goes by without a sale of the System it will prove to me that my time and value has passed andI intend to discontinue selling the System and butting in to everybody here on the forum. Damn near made the cut off last month.
I get early every day and check the computer. Then about every 3 hours till 11:39 pm.
To do this day after day begins to make its pint when there are no sales.

The other pennypincheers are waiting for me to reveal it all on the Forum. Too complex to explain something easy and so that won't happen.

I may try to reinvent my leather Powder and ball flasks.

Everybody on the Forum who wanted it has long ago been on board. I don't expect any other sales from there.

Dutch Schoultz