She's finally here!! (Advice needed)

[Bluegrass]

I got my Cabela's .36 Blue Ridge flinter yesterday and I love it!! The fit and finish is pretty nice (Except for one part that I'll talk about later.) and the lock makes a good spark. I think this was my best choice for a first flinter.

Now back to the fit and finish. After I got the grease cleaned out of her, I shined a flash light in the vent liner hole and the bore looks kind of rough. :shocking: I noticed as I was cleaning the bore with a patch that they were coming out full of holes. I also noticed that certain parts of the bore just felt rough as I pushed the patch through.

I've heard of putting rubbing compound on a patch and running it through the bore a few hundred times to smooth it up. Is that what I need to do, or should I shoot it and just see what happens?

 

Did rust come out or is it just rough as in rough from cutting, scoring, gouging, ripping metal, etc?
: Try steelwool, 4-ought as in 0000 on a jag with amny strokes to try to smooth it out.
: I'm not sure this was a good buy.- you aren't joking, are you?
; By all means try to smooth it up before shooting. It will only foul badly and disappoint you as to it's accuracy. Cutting patches just running them up and down the barrel means it will cut the patches when you fire it and that will cause excess fouling and innacuracy.

 

[Rebel]

Bluegrass, the bore shouldn't be so rough that it is cutting cleaning patches. One thing good about Cabela's is they stand behind there stuff. If for any reason you aren't satisfied just send it back and they will send you another one. I have had them send me another one by charging it on a card before i ship the other one back to them so i dont' have to wait as long for the new one to get to me. Then when they receive the first one back, they put a credit on your card so you aren't out anything . If you talk to them they will even send you a return shipping label so you don't even have to pay to ship it back.

 

My Pedersoli frontier rifle(same thing as Cabela's blue Ridge rifle) had a fairly rough barrel when it first arrived . I spent most of the first night polishing the bore, even after that it still took twice as long to clean the barrel after each shooting then it should have. Now that I've had around 400 PRB it has straightened up (being no harder to clean then a GPR with 4000 plus rounds through it).

 

[Bluegrass]

Well I just shot about 20 rounds through it. Afterwards, I cleaned it good enough that I can push a patch in, and pull it back out just as clean as it was before I put it in. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif It seems to be very noticeably smoother than before. It still cuts cleaning patches, but it takes many more strokes than it used to. I'm still going to put some rubbing compound on a patch and run it through the bore a couple hundred times. I also took it to my 'smith and he claims it will shoot 1 1/2" at 100 yds! :bull: Maybe it's possible? :winking: He knows a lot more about gun barrels than me, and he says that it's not a rough bore, but real hard fouling or light rust.

Now for a small range report. I didn't adjust the sights because I'm still flinching from the flash in the pan! Ignition was very fast, it sounds a lot like a cap lock. You hear the flint hit the frizzen and BOOM!! Swabbing between shots made loading real easy. I only had one misfire because I forgot to clean the touch hole every now and then. Over all I'm pretty satisfied so far. I'm sure I'll be real satisfied after I adjust the sights, lap the bore, and stop flinching!

Oh yeah. I thought I read here that a barrel can be lapped with rubing compound on a patch. Am I crazy or something, because now I cant find that post worth a darn. :curse:

 

[Zonie]

Bluegrass: That's why they call um a Flinchlock. You will overcome it with enough practice. Oh and wear a hat and of course shooting glasses.
My subconcious still gets in an arguement with my concious when I shoot a Flinter because 34 years ago I shot my first Flinter without a hat on. The little burning embers tried to burn little holes in my forehead. It really wasn't bad, just uncomfortable.
That subconcious mind that doesn't know why I got up and walked the length of the house to get something still remembers the little embers and yells "ITS GOING TO BURN YOU AGAIN!!!! DON'T DO IT!!!!" Then my concious mind says "SHUT UP DUMMY" and I can fire the shot.

As for lapping the bore there are a number of mild abrasives that you can use. The safest ones are the #000 or #0000 steel wool.

If it's cutting your cleaning patch it may be that your cleaning jag is a little too big. The real proof of the pudding is What do the Patches you Fired at the range look like? If they are not cut, I would suspect a oversize jag.
If they are cut, then some vigorous lapping is in order.

 

Absolutely- Zonie is spot-on. Check your fired patches as they are the only ones that are important. When smacking against the breech-plug with a jag and cleaning patch, cutting the patch is normal. If the patch is cut from the rifling, that's another problem.
: You can use any manner of valve grinding compoud, but the wool will remove the whiskers commonly left when cut-riflng barrels without lapping afterwords. Some mfg'rs will, most don't. That you might have to do it is a moot point, but it should be done. Custom centre-fire barrels are lapped after rifling, even those that are button rifled. this is to reduce fouling and to improve accuracy, reducing the 'break-in' time.

 

[Doc Arroyo]

I think that you need to check for rough edges on that cleaning jag too. They will also cut though the cleaning patch!

As for your flinch, try this for a training method. Cut a hardwood replacement for the flint, and dryfire the rifle for say, 50 shots a night for a week. Watch your sights, and if you aren't flinching the replace the flint.

Again 50 dryfires a night - watch sights. When you are no longer flinching from the spark, then it is time for step three.

Dryfire with priming in the pan. You woon't get 50 shots a night because you need to schedule in the cleaning time every night! But trust me, this will train your eye to stay on the sights, and lessen the primal fear that your mind has of fire so damned close to the eye!

Good luck, and safe shooting!

 

[Bluegrass]

Thanks for the suggestions yall! I just lapped it with the rubbing compound and it looks pretty nice. The cleaning patches cut even more slowly now than they did last night(Which was pretty slow.) when I cleaned it. I did notice that the patches I shot yesterday were real nice. The edges were not frayed the middle was not burned or cut very much at all. I was using a .350 round ball patched with some spit lubed pillow ticking. I was just using 30 grains of powder, how far down can I safely go before there's the danger of the ball gettin' stuck? The balls rammed easy enough so that I didn't need to use the hole in the side of my ball starter on the ram rod.

I can't wait to get out and sight her in! :winking:

 

[musketman]

As for your flinch, try this for a training method. Cut a hardwood replacement for the flint, and dryfire the rifle for say, 50 shots a night for a week. Watch your sights, and if you aren't flinching the replace the flint.

Wooden flints...

 

[Stumpkiller]

I was just using 30 grains of powder, how far down can I safely go before there's the danger of the ball gettin' stuck?

This is by no means scientific, but you can probably go as low as 10 or 15 gr. and still eject the ball. BUT, it is possible that the shape of the breech-plug and distance of the vent from the breech face could limit you. If the patch blocks the vent hole no amount of powder will matter - the priming flash won't reach it. Quite a bit of pressure is lost to the gasses escaping back out the vent. You should easily go to 20 gr in a .36 and still spit 'em out faster than you can out run 'em.

 

My standard load for 36's for 30 years has been 20 grs. of FFFg. It's worked and worked well in every 36 I've owned and that numbers to 6 or 7.....I can't remember...must be an age issue!

Vic

 

[leadball]

I have the blueridge in .50 cal flintlock. I havent seen any cut up patches after shooting. It says on the video that comes with it that pedersoli laps all barrels after rifling. As long as we are talking blue ridges, I see that the barrel isnt held in the stock with pins but screws. Is it ok the to remove the barrel everytime i need to clean it? I know your not supposed to do that to often with a pinned barrel like my traditions kentucky has(which my father in law now owns)

 

[GobblerKnob]

I take mine out of the stock every time I clean it. The Blueridge, that is. I never remove a pinned barrel to clean it.

 

I have always -removed my pinned barrel every time to clean it.
; I now have the cleaning apparatus from Track but haven't had an opportunity to try it yet. Unless we get rain & it cools down, I won't be trying it soon, either.