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Priming with 3F

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Just FYI,

It works, I am preparing for the woods walk at Ft de Chartres this November. It’s a team event and timed. Messing around with another horn or step is a waste of time. I only had one misfire after 25 balls. Dull flint, tapped it with my little hammer and on to the next shot.

That is all. 😄

RM
 
I tell y’all where my dependence on 4F comes from. I’m probably gonna get flamed for it, but here it is. I cut my teeth on a Lyman flint gun. After many, many days of frustration I finally came up with a solution. I shot that combo for 30 years! So naturally I thought it is what I had to use with the TVM…nope.
 
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Just FYI,

It works, I am preparing for the woods walk at Ft de Chartres this November. It’s a team event and timed. Messing around with another horn or step is a waste of time. I only had one misfire after 25 balls. Dull flint, tapped it with my little hammer and on to the next shot.

That is all. 😄

RM
We use reenactor grade powder that is maybe 2f for the cartridges and we sacrifice a cartridge to use as a priming cartridge after the cartridge is loaded. That nasty powder works just fine. Its dirty and the bore does get fouled. I have a wad of tow on a string that I will spit on to wipe some of that fouling out after a couple of shots.

I haven't begun to prepare for the November Woods Walk.
 
I'm gonna get blasted for this. Especially because I have never tried anything other than 4F for priming. I can see where one powder for both is convenient, and I believe those testament about it working, and I'm all for it in an emergency, but WHY NOT USE WHAT IS BEST? Why not prime with 4F? If 4F might make for faster ignition, why not use it? It certainly cannot be slower.
Okay, don't get upset, but I say further that NOT using 4F in the pan actually does slow ignition, even if not perceptible to the shooter.
"Whatever works" is a lazy man's mindset, which makes little sense because flint shooters are anything but lazy. The care they take with loading and firing is more involved than any other kind of shooting perfectionist. That care is further filtered and fueled by historical accuracy, their best and improving techniques, justification for the right and privilege of carrying and using those guns that flicker in and out of our fantasies of being born too late, the recognition of American freedom and its costs, and the gorgeous rifles of that era lost to humanity if not for us, and the thousand other facts of being "alive" in otherwise lost ages.
So, I prime with ffff. I don't reckon my 18th century persona is all that accurate. But every year I improve something toward that goal. 4F is just one of those steps toward shooting as well as possible, but still knowing those hunting our nation then probably primed with less precise granulations.
 
There was a guy that did a lot of testing with touch hole location, size, primer location, etc. , and the difference between powders in the pan was in the tenths of a second, or as he describe unperceivable with the human ear. I have the link to the site at home, I'll post it later today. BTW, I use FFG in the pan and it works just fine. Has to it's all I have.
 
Just FYI,

It works, I am preparing for the woods walk at Ft de Chartres this November. It’s a team event and timed. Messing around with another horn or step is a waste of time. I only had one misfire after 25 balls. Dull flint, tapped it with my little hammer and on to the next shot.

That is all. 😄

RM
I'm wondering if humidity conditions shouldn't play a greater role in our daily choice of priming powder granulation rather than a one size fits all approach ? My feeling is that on days with high humidity and even fog is present we would probably experience better ignition with 3 or 4 F than with say Null-B or Meal-D which is basically BP dust and provides very hot, fast prime in dry weather but tends to absorb moisture in humid conditions.
 
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I'm wondering if humidity conditions shouldn't play a greater role in our daily choice of priming powder granulation rather than a one size fits all approach ? My feeling is that on days with high humidity and even fog present we would probably experience better ignition with 3 or 4 F than with say Null-B or Meal-D which is basically BP dust.
I know 2F seems to do well in these muggy Indiana summer days lately.
 
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