Drop tube for loading

William Sublette said:

How does any powder not make it to the breech with a tight fitting patch and ball?

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The powder falls like shards, the shards go north and south and compact evenly.
Thats why we do it with BP cartridges.

All of my ML rifles have a built in drop tube, some over 40" long!

Rarely see drop tubes being used in long range muzzle loading matches here in the UK (out to 1200 yards), and I have seen few used in international long range matches. If used, they need to be short enough to leave space for the powder to fall out. They need to be used very carefully and checked to ensure that all the charge has fallen through. Very difficult to use in wet weather as any hint of water in them will result in powder sticking in the tube - if you’re shooting a match you have to accept what the weather throws at you. Unless suitably protected they’re something else to add wear to the muzzle.

David

Nope.

Drop tubes were much more popular here in the USA a few years ago. Most today do not use them as well.

Fleener

As stated I use a drop tube for BP cartridges it gives a even drop and helps with the charge settling in the cartridge case wich equals a more situated load before the wadding and bullet seating. As to hunting nope straight throw from the measure.

appalichian hunter said:

As stated I use a drop tube for BP cartridges it gives a even drop and helps with the charge settling in the cartridge case …

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The barrel of a muzzle loader is a perfectly adequate drop tube, and achieves the same as loading cartridge cases.

David

perhaps, but all the research I have done which is a lot says to use a drop tube for BP cartridges, different animals there between a cartridge load and a regular BP rifle load.

I use a drop tube with one rifle, a .50 with a 42” Goodien barrel, but not with any others. I can’t tell that it has made any difference in my shooting or the rifle’s performance. Nobody else in my club does it. I have a sequence: I fire, swab with a damp then a dry patch, drop in the tube, pour powder, pick up a ball and patch, pull out the tube and immediately short start, then ram it home, walk to the line and prime. It’s just something I do with that rifle.

No doubt that the drop tube works great for BPCR and I use one for my rifles.

Fleener

If you make a ram rod out of brass tube with rightly designed interchangeable tips (doubles as a drop tube) then having one can be a bit more convenient. However, the barrel itself serves adequately as a drop tube to settle the charge for most shooters, depending upon the bore diameter, how you trickle in the powder and of course, how well you clean between shots. The real biggy though is what kind of bullet you're shooting and whether some powder stuck to the side wall will make a difference. With paper patched some stuck powder can ruin the shot. Sometimes it's better to insert a card wad that sweeps the bore as part of your loading sequence but as always, it's what you find that works.

I won’t advocate for or against a drop tube (except for BPCR) but I have to think that a drop tube delivers clean powder to the fire chamber. If part of the powder sticks to the barrel, the fowling residue is pushed and mixed with it by the patched ball. I don’t know the physics of burning powder, but it would seem that we wouldn’t want trash in our powder. Is this enough to make an appreciable difference? Probably not. I raced sailboats for years and we did everything within the rules to get the last ounce of speed out of the boat. Some shooters do the same thing. It’s what makes this enjoyable!