to drill or not to drill out touch hole????

just got my Club But Fowler today. touch hole is a bit small, just under 1/16. the gun is a 10 guage with a Bess barrel. have not shot it yet as i have not had time. from all i have read most suggest a touch hole of 1/16 or larger. was wondering if i shouldn't save myself the hassle and drill out to 1 /16 before i even fire it?

Touch hole in a liner? If so, try shooting it. Then, after a dozen shots, drill it. Another 10 shots go over 1/16 and see if you like any of it.
If you wish you had not drilled it you can get another liner for four bucks.


If you have no liner definitely shoot it first.

I have 1/16" touch holes in my .40 and .32, 5/64" in my .54 and 12 ga. The 12 with 1F was a little slow until I drilled it out. I have a .44 that has a huge touch hole, the gun was a gift from a friend so I left it as is, it is the fastest flintlock I have but it has a Roller lock on it as well.

Most all the liners have undersized holes. I usually go right to 1/16". Get a set of numbered drill bits. There are four sizes between 1/16" and 5/64". You can try the 1/16" then work up. 2F will work but 3F will try to run out if the hole gets too big. Then you have to plug the hole to load, and maybe add a little powder to make up for the pressure loss, but a little pressure loss in a 10ga. fowler isn't a big deal. The little dental brushes are good for plugging the hole. They stop the powder and let the air out. With a 10ga. you could even try 1F and a larger hole.

I would say try it as is.
If it needs drilling just a tiny amount at a time.
One of my guns would not fire until I got the touchhole bigger. But then when using 3f the charge powder would blow out when loading. I load it with a vent pick in the touchhole.

old ugly said:

I would say try it as is.
If it needs drilling just a tiny amount at a time.

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LD

Shoot it first and see. Howsomever I just put in a touchhole liner and drilled it before shooting. I find 1/16 perfect.
You e got noting to loose but a few min to test it out first. If it works it works.

old ugly said:

I would say try it as is.

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^^^ That. Metal don't grow back and you just got a shiny new piece - why wear it out on purpose if it doesn't need it.

Ditto on the "try first" advice. Might be just fine for you but, if needed, drill out a bit at a time.
And don't worry about 3Fg blowing out. Doesn't happen.

I have had 3F blow out happen to me. I was shooting in a match and started seeing powder on the targets laying on the ground under my loading bench. For a while I was puzzled then I realized the vent was too big. When I replaced the liner, I saw that the liner wasn't installed deep enough. The builder didn't cut the threads all the way through causing the liner to sit up a little. So, when he filed off the liner's lug he barely got into the coned part of the liner which made the hole bigger than it should have been. The rifle now has a properly installed liner.

For a balky touch hole I use one of those little bitty rat tail pointy round files.
When it stops being balky it's been opened up enough.

EC121 said:

I have had 3F blow out happen to me. I was shooting in a match and started seeing powder on the targets laying on the ground under my loading bench. For a while I was puzzled then I realized the vent was too big. When I replaced the liner, I saw that the liner wasn't installed deep enough. The builder didn't cut the threads all the way through causing the liner to sit up a little. So, when he filed off the liner's lug he barely got into the coned part of the liner which made the hole bigger than it should have been. The rifle now has a properly installed liner.

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OK. I maybe should have been more specific. With a properly drilled th or properly installed and properly drilled vent liner, you won't get powder blow-out. However, your observation of powder on the targets indicates you were thinking and concerned about safety. That is not, unfortunately, true for everyone on the ranges.

An easy test is to put a piece of tape over the pan with the sticky side down while loading.

Every gun I own has the vent drilled out to 1/16" and reliability is absolute.