Shooting percussion for first time

[mthornto]

I just got my Whitney Militia rifle from James River the other day, and hope to take it out to the range this weekend. I've been shooting flintlocks for about a year now and have a few questions about percussion. I should say that the only shooting I've ever done is over the last year, so please forgive some newbie questions on marksmanship.

1) Is the cleaning routine pretty much the same? Anything special about cleaning the nipple and vent? What am I going to not know to do?

2) I've been shooting a Brown Bess, so I am pretty excited about having an actual gunsight. The Whitney has the 1855 long range rear sight - How do I use this? I understand the basics of aiming the gun, but how are the increments in elevation used? Any idea what distances these might correspond to? I assume the rear sight is intended to flip up for very long range shots. Correct? In the upright position the horizontal slider does not seem to stay in place. Is this normal?

-- thanks guys ...

 

[renovato]

The cleaning routine is pretty much the same as you're already familiar with, so no worries there. I usually pull the barrel, remove the nipple and set the breech end in a bucket of warm soapy water. Scrubbing the bore brings the water through the nipple hole, etc. I dunk the nipple a few times and give it a scrub with a brush and pipe cleaner as best as I can.

The easiest way is with a nipple adapter and hose. You don't need to pull the barrel that way. Just remove nipple, attach hose, submerge hose in water and go to work. I have one, but I don't use it much. Old habit, I guess.

Before you shoot, you might pop a couple of caps to clear any debris or oil out of the flash channel. Also, it's wise to pick the nipple hole before you reload each time, like you'd pick the vent of a flinter.

As for the sight. I assume you mean the thingy (how's that for a technical term?) that carries the sight aperature? I'm not familiar with that particular model, but the few long range sights I've played with worked pretty much the same way. You would turn the aperature to loosen it so you could adjust the elevation, then you would turn it the other direction to tighten it in place. For windage, there might be a screw to tighten to keep it from drifting.

Good luck and happy shooting!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

if the 'snail' or 'drum' has a clean-out screw it will help to run a pipe cleaner into say every 20 shots. crud builds up in there.
as to the sights I'm not familiar with that rifle but the basics should apply.
good to have you on the Forum :hatsoff:

 

[Jerry Coffee]

Track-OF-The-Wolf has a nice nipple adapter which includes a length of 3/16" clear plastic hose for flushing the breech and the lower 8" of the bore. I haven't taken the barrel and breech plug off my Enfield so I must clean it the easy way. First, I loosen the fouling on breech face with a brass fouling scraper adapter and the fouling in the breech area with a bore brush both of which have 10-32 steel threads, attached to a 10-32 steel T-handle range rod. Install the flushing adapter to the nipple threads, push the plastic tube on the nipple adapter with the other end in a coffee can full of your favorite solvent mixture. Use a bore swab to pump the solvent in and out the breech and bottom 6" - 8" of the bore, changing the solvent to hot water and a tablespoon full of liquid dish water detergent until the soapy water is clear. Then dry and swab with Ballistol and dry again. Clean and swab the upper part of the barrel in the usual manner with a bore brush and cotton swab with soap and water or solvent and then dry and swab with Ballistol. Track-Of-The-Wolf has nipple adapters with a rubber O-ring gasket in various thread sizes. Order the appropriate thread size nipple adapter for the size of nipple threads in your Whitney. Track-Of-The-Wolf also has cotton pipe cleaners with brass bristles for cleaning the and cotton cleaners d

I have only been shooting a percussion rifle in good weather since last fall and it works for me.

 

[MAP]

I have a James River M1841 Varient E rifle with the M1855 sight. There are numbers stamped on the sight for range in yards. All the way down was for 100 yards. The sight base has notches that are marked for 200, 300, and 400 yards. Move the slider towards the muzzle so that it will lay on the notch you want to use. That effectively raises the notch in the sight slider. Longer distances, you lift the ladder up vertical and there are range numbers that will be visible then for longggg distance.

Keep in mind that JRA puts a tall sight blade on the front sight so you can adjust your aim for your load and sight picture. It's also dove tailed to adjust for windage, if you're happy with where it is you can solder in place.

 

[Jerry Coffee]

My mistake...

A pack of 50 bronze bristle/cotton pipe cleaners that The Possible Shop calls "Breech Plug Cleaners" cost $3.95. They have stiff bronze bristles and can be purchased at The Possible Shop, item AC-1615. They are 4" long and you can cut them in half because all you will need to clean the vent hole is a 2" bronze bristle/cotton pipe cleaner. The bronze bristles break up the fouling so it will wash away when you pump solvent through the breech. Sorry, the vent hole cleaners are not available from Track-Of-The-Wolf.
http://www.possibleshop.com