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  1. P

    Flintlock tuning

    I have a 1978 article that gives detailed info on the angles, and relationships of the various parts to each other. If you send me you address, and a dollar to cover my costs, I will send you a copy. To understand how to maximized the life of a flint, you need to understand the "Hertzian Cone"...
  2. P

    Blanket on the ground, or I mean sheet.

    I loaded 100 grains of FFFg Goex BP in my 39" .50 cal. percussion rifle for the test. The " D" formula says the barrel will burn approx. 84+/- grains in that length of barrel, leaving about 15 grains of unburned powder to burn outside the barrel, or fall to the sheet unburned. We did not take...
  3. P

    Simple cure for Ballistol smell

    Actually, it was invented by someone in Austria, in what was then the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, before WWI.(1914-1918) It was designed to clean the mercury from the barrels of the guns, left when mercury fulminate was used as a primer mixture in the early cartridges. Mercury is highly corrosive...
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    Simple cure for Ballistol smell

    If you leave the can of Ballistol outside with the cap off, overnight, the licorice odor will diminish or evaporate all together. I have not been able to stand the smell of licorice since I was a boy-- my loss!-- so this is how to deal with it. The same odor appears in the Greek distilled...
  5. P

    conicals for .32 caliber

    Lyman makes pistol and rifle bullet molds in .32 caliber. The problem is that if you go much heavier than 115 grains, you have trouble stabilizing the bullets out of slow twist barrels. Keep the bullet length at 1.5 times the diameter of the bore for slow twist barrels. You will probably get...
  6. P

    Unburnt powder

    Yes. About 30 years ago, now- perhaps more-- The President of my local club and I did the test, shooting over a clean, white bed sheet. We tested Goex 3Fg loads in several rifles. After each shot we collected the powder off the sheet, and put it in an alum ashtray we kept at the club range for...
  7. P

    Fire starter for wet material

    You need to learn how to find dry tinder and dead wood that is not wet, even after days of rain! Learn to look for dead tree limbs and branches hanging in trees, off the ground. Same with twigs. Under thick bushes, you will find dead branches, protected from the rains by the thick growth above...
  8. P

    smoothbore barrel wall thickness

    Because buyers now are interested in choking thier shotgun barrels, either using the modern " screw-in" choke tubes( Pedersoli), or " Jug choked", barrel makers leave enough "Meat" at the muzzles to let this happen. That is one of the reasons the barrels are much thicker than 19th Century and...
  9. P

    round ball

    Keep in mind that an OUNCE of lead weighs 437.5 grains. That means that .54 cal. RB weighs slightly more than 1/2 OUNCE! That is a lot of weight hitting any game animal in N. America, and accounts for the deep and often complete penetration of deer family members, with the ball expanding to over...
  10. P

    A flash in the pan...

    To guide you in learning how to set your flint in the jaws, you need to be thinking about the GOAL you are wanting to achieve with that flint- making lots of sparks which are Thrown down into the flash pan, where, God willing, you remembered to put some powder! Think of it as " REVERSE...
  11. P

    ITX load 12ga sxs

    WADR- and I do mean that sincerely-- your information about duck and geese mortality from Lead shot is WRONG! Glen Sanderson, a grad student at the U of Illinois here at Champaign-Urbana did the original research on this issue, and his PRE-LIMINARY rsesults were seized by Ted. Kennedy, and the...
  12. P

    Need some wood advice.

    Use a brad point drill bit when cutting these holes. When the lead screw breaks thru the back of the wood, STOP. Turn the piece around and use that break-thru hole to guide the bit to cut from the backside, to finish the hole. If you can't find a properly sized brad point drill bit, THEN, do...
  13. P

    Stripping a factory GPR stock?

    "Black Walnut" is the only kind of "walnut" I can buy here, or has appeared on the dozen+ guns I have finished. I saw a piece of fancy "California" walnut on an expensive shotgun a friend owned, which was considerably lighter in color. The factory did NOT stain the wood, and left it in its...
  14. P

    Stripping a factory GPR stock?

    I found that ACETONE strips off factory finishes the fastest. Do this out of doors, and sit up wind of it. Wear gloves to protect your skin. After removing all the metal furniture from a stock, I put the butt in a shallow aluminum pan, and then start washing the stock from the front end( top)...
  15. P

    Attributes desired for the ultimate fowler

    I have a custom made fowling piece made for me as a gift. The maker is a life-long BP shooter, and gun maker. Its 20 ga.- actually closer to 19 gauge! Its an ideal caliber for both RB and shot loads given the limited range for hunting game with any smoothbore. Barrel is 1/2 round, 1/2...
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