• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Drop tube for loading

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 18, 2019
Messages
102
Reaction score
212
Does anyone use a drop tube for loading at the range? This is one I use most of the time for a couple of reasons: it keeps the powder clean until it gets down to where the fire lives, and it helps me remember where I am in the loading sequence.
 

Attachments

  • 1668899138475.jpeg
    1668899138475.jpeg
    3.2 MB · Views: 2
I used on a few times I found that it did not male any difference for me shooting off hand , but I know some bench shooters who will not shoot without one.
 
Made my own, the only hard part was driving to Tacoma to get the brass tube.
It was $28.
Use it for loading 45/70 at the range. Never thought of using it for the flinter.
 

Attachments

  • 20221120_075838.jpg
    20221120_075838.jpg
    294.6 KB · Views: 0
I have used one for years for long range ML shooting. Quit using it a few years ago and dont regret it and no drop in accuracy that I can tell.

The tube picks up a lot of junk being used. My last one was brass and it got really bad on the outside.

Now I use a funnel with about a 4 inch long tube.

Fleener
 
for my one and only pistol........

I use and old xx75 aluminum arrow cut to length and a 1/4" brass funnel to make sure the powder makes it down to the breech.

works for me with this specific application.

but then again, not many have old aluminum arrows laying around.



camo
 
I have read the long distance black powder shooters use the drop tube because it delivers the charge cleanly to the breach area. Without it a few grains of powder could possibly adhere to the oils and fowling on the way down in the rifling. Yes the patched ball would push that down but those adhering grains would be compromised by that oil and fowling. Thus changing the charge. Minimizing these variations helps to increase accuracy. Same as being consistent when setting the ball onto the powder. Compressing the powder differently each time can change the accuracy a bit. Is the drop tube necessary? For most no. Target shooting from a bench might be a good idea. Imho.
 
For bench rest and long range shooting, yup, it's a thing. For casual shooting, not so much. I made one from a piece of brake line covered by heat shrink tubing. I see no change in accuracy in the gun I made it for but, there are other variables still in play with that gun.
 
For bench rest and long range shooting, yup, it's a thing. For casual shooting, not so much. I made one from a piece of brake line covered by heat shrink tubing. I see no change in accuracy in the gun I made it for but, there are other variables still in play with that gun.
Agreed.

IF I was shooting a caplock in a 40 Rods Distance Match ( 220 yards ), as they did when the book The Muzzle Loading Cap-Lock Rifle was penned, I'd use one. When it comes to punching targets out to 100 yards or turning a deer into venison, nope.

LD
 
For what it's worth, I shoot competition with Civil War muskets. In my load testing, I do NOT drop tube even though I strive to control all the other variables. My reason is- in our competition, there is no time to use a drop tube. We're firing as fast as we can go with accuracy from the offhand position. I seriously doubt a drop tube would make any difference in what I'm doing. Here's a few targets that I shot with no drop tube in use.

kibler.jpg


parkerhalegroup2.jpg



phshazam.jpg
 
Agreed.

IF I was shooting a caplock in a 40 Rods Distance Match ( 220 yards ), as they did when the book The Muzzle Loading Cap-Lock Rifle was penned, I'd use one. When it comes to punching targets out to 100 yards or turning a deer into venison, nope.

LD
I do so often. Started out using a drop tube but quit using one when I had the same results using a funnel which delivered the powder to the breech in a small column and kept grains of powder from adhering to the bore, where it could rip the paper patch as the bullet is loaded.
 
Back
Top