Pedersoli Bess Touch hole

[pcrum]

Hi,
I was giving my old Bess a very long overdue thorough cleaning/inspection this morning and got to looking at the touch hole. I've recently been working on my Jaeger and installed a white lightning vent on it, and been working on my son's pedersoli pennsylvania. In Comparison, the hole on my bess is HUGE. It's had many hundreds of rounds fired, and even more blanks. The touch hole is perfectly round, so I don't think it's eroded, but a 3/32 drill bit falls right in, but a 7/64 won't fit. Does anyone have a Bess they could check its hole on and see if it is similar sized? For a test, I poured some 2f over the hole, and a decent amount of it fell right through into the bore. I use this gun for both large and small game, and will sometimes use 3f when shooting shot. Should I put a liner in, or leave it as is?
Thanks!
Pat

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have a .50 caliber rifle that would insist on mis-firing until I enlarged the vent hole to 5/64" pursuant to the recommendations of my gunsmith. I tried 1/16" first, and while it improved the ignition, I got misfires( flash in the pan) even with that large hole. I have not had a flash in the pan misfire since I opened my vent to 5/64". Now, that is only 1/64" smaller than your existing hole, so I don't think you are having lots of problems leaving it as is. I am sure there is some loss of velocity, simply because of what I found as I openned my vent to cure my misfire problems.

Unless you run your rounds over a chronograph, and are seeking a specific velocity to find the " Sweet spot" in barrel harmonics, I don't think there is much of any reason to replace the current sized hole in a Brown Bess with a vent liner. Some histories say that these guns were designed with large touch holes, so that POWDER would fall out the vent hole to fill the pan. You loaded the gun with the hammer at half-cock, and the frizzen closed. I don't know how accurate those accounts may be. It may have been done, but my reading of old military manuals that list all the steps called out by the Sergeant to have his company load their pieces by the numbers, does not mention this method of priming. Instead, the pan was primed from the paper cartridge first, the frizzen closed, and then the powder and ball were put down the barrel.

Personally, I don't care what they did in the military back then, but to re-enactors, who are the majority of people who buy and own Brown Bess replicas, this is a big deal. To each his own.

If I owned your gun, I would close the frizzen during the loading of the main charge, or, if that was not permitted by range safety rules, I would have a toothpick ready to block the vent during loading of the barrel.

I still would check the pan and add more powder for prime if needed, before shooting, and I still would make sure that there is a good hole poked into the main charge with my vent pick, before priming further, whether there is powder in the pan when I open the frizzen or not.

 

[Many Klatch]

My Bess has a touch hole about the same size. After a shot or two the fouling closes up the hole a bit and the amount of powder that comes out is reduced.

As an old gunmaker once told me. The touch hole is too big if the ball rolls out.

Many Klatch

 

[pcrum]

Thanks Paul.

As another test, I poured a charge down the barrel, and checked to see if any poured out through the touch hole- some did, but not a lot. Without seating a ball or wad on top of the charge, I shook the barrel and more came out. I guess it's no big deal though, considering the nature of the firearm. If a rifle was doing that,I guess I'd be concerned about it fusing and hang firing.
I don't really reenact as much as I used to, and when I do, I'm not a line troop, so I reload however I see fit. When using cartridges, I always prime first, close the frizzen then charge the barrel anyway.
My main concern with this gun is for safe and reliable hunting nowadays.
I appreciate the reassurance- My suspicion is that it's always been this way- I just never really paid attention. I imagine that the larger touch hole is less prone to getting plugged with fouling anyway.
Cheers,
Pat

 

[pcrum]

As an old gunmaker once told me. The touch hole is too big if the ball rolls out.

Many Klatch

:thumbsup: Cheers Klatch.
Pat

 

[Steve Blancard]

FWIW, I just checked my Japanese made Bess. A 1/16" (.062") drill bit fits in the hole losely. A 5/64" (.078") will not go in. I would estimate the hole at around .070" -.075".

 

[Swampman]

I had an old Bess that the touch hole was so big, the entire FFF powder charge would leak out during a hunt. The lock was a poor fit, as was the pan. I installed a touchhole liner in it. I agree with others that many flintlocks have touchholes that are too small. The fact that I use FFF for all my shooting, means I have to be careful about the hole being too big.

 

[J.D.]

The TH in my Ped bess mics .103, so yours is right in the ballpark. I have to insert a priming wire into the TH and close the pan to prevent losing much of my chargewhen loading. The frizzenstall is in place when the pan is closed, BTW, especially if I am loading.

I am seriously thinking about installing a liner and drilling it to .070 as a starting point.

 

[riarcher]

A 0.099 numbered drill just goes into mine. So it sounds about equal.
With 3Fg, it's "self priming". :hmm: Powder does leak into the pan.
However, it shoots much better with 2Fg anyways and is not a issue with leakage.
I'm really wanting to try 1Fg though.

 

[mike alexandre]

What Paul said is bang on. I've known several Besses continue to give good service with the TH almost a 1/8".

 

[J.D.]

I'm really wanting to try 1Fg though.

I tried FG in both GOEX and Elephant in my Pedersoli bess. I could see the ball going down range when fired with 80 gr of Elephant, but not with GOEX. Ignition was ok with both and both fouled heavily. Accuracy was ok, but I had to increase the charge weight considerably, especially with Elephant. All in all, FFG performs better and burns cleaner. For the price of a pound of powder and the considerable increase in charge weight, I wouldn't even think about swithching to FG.

 

[riarcher]

:thumbsup:

 

[Swampman]

FFF leaves almost no fouling and you get the same velocity with a lot less powder. I've used 90 grains of FFF in all the Bess' I've owned.

 

[54mountain]

when I switched my Tennesee rifle over to flint I installed a 5/64 vent liner and found it is pretty much self priming using fffg powder, with ffg I just get a few grains in the pan.
it shoots great with 70g ffg or 80g ffg but I think it goes off better with a ffg main charge and ffffg primer.

I have'nt had a missfire since I installed the bigger vent. :thumbsup:

 

[riarcher]

3Fg gives me one god awful crud ring that's hard as cement.