loading issue

I was shooting yesterday with a friend with a newly obtained .50 cal custom poorboy style rifle. This rifle was built in the 80's by Charlie McChandless, in MO. The touch hole liner was just installed, made from a SS 1/4 bolt, with a 3/64 hole and coned on the inside, flush fitted on the inside of the barrel.
On loading, the pan is filled with FFF Goex powder blowing thru the touch hole, 2 to 5 gr. She shot a nice 20 shot group, using 60 grains of FFF, .010 muslin, spit lubed and cut with a patch knife, and Speer .495 balls. Loading was smooth for the 20 shots, no swabbing till the string was finished, and no stoppages until the 15th shot, then the flint was changed.
I am a flint novice and wondered how common powder backing thru the touch hole is. I realize the patched ball acts as a piston compressing the chamber, but never heard of powder lost into the pan. I have never heard of a self primer either. If this is common, it would seem to be more an issue with smooth bores with tite wads.
Yall's experiences in this area would be appreciated.

HOSS

A 3/64" touch hole should not be allowing any FFFg powder into the pan. Most touchholes are drilled at 1/16" to start and they generally don't leak much if any FFFg. If you're losing a pan full of powder then your touch hole is way too big.

And I also hope you're not loading with the frizzen
closed. It should be open and hammer all the way down.

Make sure you're load powder isn't FFFFg.

There was a guy on here a few years back I remember recommending 5/64 diameter so something tells me your hole is bigger than 3/64, assuming you're not using 4-F.

Could the hole be 3/32 instead of 3/64?

Easiest solution may be to try FFg.

The loading was done with an open frizzen and the hammer on half cock. I will propose using FF as a solution. One of our best shooters at last Saturdays match was using 1.5 F in his .50 cal so I witnessed that it can be effective. Indeed his best shots were on our longest range target, a steel 16" square @ 140 yards regestering only a hit or miss.
I was only guessing at the touch hole drill size, as I only know they drilled it 1 size smaller than 1/16.

HOSS

I was only guessing at the touch hole drill size, as I only know they drilled it 1 size smaller than 1/16.

Click to expand...

The touch hole liner was just installed, made from a SS 1/4 bolt, with a 3/64 hole and coned on the inside, flush fitted ...

Click to expand...

I would seriously question the integrity of the liner. If everything was done as stated then it's eroding way too fast. Might want to install a commercial liner ( i.e. White lightning or similar). The alternative is the hole was not drilled as stated, in which case a new liner is still probably called for.

Hoss said:

The touch hole liner was just installed, made from a SS 1/4 bolt, with a 3/64 hole and coned on the inside, flush fitted on the inside of the barrel.
On loading, the pan is filled with FFF Goex powder blowing thru the touch hole, 2 to 5 gr.

I am a flint novice and wondered how common powder backing thru the touch hole is. I realize the patched ball acts as a piston compressing the chamber, but never heard of powder lost into the pan. I have never heard of a self primer either. If this is common, it would seem to be more an issue with smooth bores with tite wads.
Yall's experiences in this area would be appreciated.

HOSS

Click to expand...

If your rifle is self priming, then the touch hole is larger than the powder that you are using.
If you can use a set of drill bits to measure the touch hole, you will find that the touch hole is closer to 3/32 than 3/64. While I know of many builders that make their own touch hole lines from a stainless steel bolt, it is all too easy for the touch hole to get too large in a hurry. I know this because it happened to me. When you have a self priming pan, I find accuracy goes by the wayside.

Self priming was often done for military applications to speed up reloading. No need for separate priming. Self priming can happen with rifles as well as smoothbores.

Change the touch hole liner.

Bakeoven Bill said:

A 3/64" touch hole should not be allowing any FFFg powder into the pan. Most touchholes are drilled at 1/16" to start and they generally don't leak much if any FFFg. If you're losing a pan full of powder then your touch hole is way too big.

Click to expand...

Yeppers. Double check the size of the touch hole.

This happens on my rifle with 3F powder. I usually just shoot it anyway and enjoy skipping the priming step. I guess I'll have to look into a new liner...

A #54 sized drill bit is half way between 1/16" and 3/64". When I was going to gun building class back in the 80's we were told to start out with a #54 drill for the touch hole.

If you indeed have a 3/64" TH which I doubt, a .048 dia TH is too small for reliable ignition. 3/64"=.o48".

So...measure again and give us the actual dia. Even w/ the .067 {#51 drill} TH dias I install in all my builds, self priming doesn't occur.

Are you sure you're not using 4F?

Until an ACTUAL neasurement of the TH is made, it's purely a guessing game.....Fred

Most black powder cans have some "fines" in there. It looks like dust really. It may be squirting out a little bit, and look like a lot, but the actual amount may in fact be fairly negligible. How much powder is actually coming through the TH? And, with the gun in a vertical position for loading, and with the frizzen open, how are you measurng the amount?

I discussed this priming issue with my friend today and determined he had indeed used the touch hole liner which was 1 size OVER the 1/16 rather than the smaller sized one as I was told. This does account for some of the dust escaping into the pan, which was I was simply guessing at the quanity as most was spilled. We will be shooting on this coming Wednesday, we'll try the smaller liner and some shots with the FF also. Many thanks for all the help. It is fun seaching for the right loading for each gun, and a real learning experience.

HOSS

The dental section at the drug store has some little brushes that are for cleaning between the teeth. They make excellent plugs for the hole while loading. Lets the air out and blocks the powder. Might give that a try.

Agree using the Dental thingys. They work great.

My semicustom long rifle was drilled to 5/64 and has very consistent ignition but at times I do notice a bit of powder that squires into the pan. I leave the pan open when loading and don't worry about it. I AM MORE CONCERNED WITH THE GUN GOING OFF EVERY TIME THAN LOSING A LITTLE POWDER. just my two cents worth. Galen.