BlackPowderMag.com

Tag: Black powder

Cleaning Your Gun by Wayne Stormer

Wayne Stormer is an experienced muzzleloader who posted this on FaceBook. It is reproduced here with his permission. He retains all publishing rights. Wayne and I are both interested in seeing newer black powder shooters get a good start.

CLEANING YOUR GUN

It keeps popping up on other sites off and on all the time. I see all sorts of concoctions and magical spells being used by novice and seasoned black powder shooters alike. Everyone looking to make the elusive magical patch lube and how to magically clean their guns. Lets dis-spell a few ideas and look at some basics here while avoiding debates.Remember there are new shooters to this sight as well and this is mainly geared towards them.

You’ve wiped your bore dry, loaded you new gun up, and you’ve fired it. You’ve wiped between shots, and are done for the day. You’ve got fouling in your bore, and it is time to clean things up and go home. That’s right. I’m talking about cleaning up right in the field or at the firing range after a shooting session. Maybe you choose to clean when you get home, but I like to clean my gun then and there.

The fouling residue in the gun has salts, carbon, and acids. Any internal combustion device will produce acids. That is just the way it is. It is time to neutralize and clean the gun. Your gun will smell good and so will you thus keeping the missus happy when you get home……especially if you are late to dinner again.

Everyone has their magical mystical way of doing things but, for the old boys, it gets down to the basics. Water, alcohol, and oil/grease to get the job done.
1- The water softens and removes the salts, acids, and grime.
2- The alcohol helps remove excess water and moisture.
3- The oil/grease neutralizes any remaining minute traces of salts
and gives a protective coating to the bore of the gun preventing
rust.

Want to use a modern wonder lube or cleaner? Be my guest and best of luck to you in your endeavors sincerely. For me, I got into shooting black powder in a more traditional sense to a point. I take a bottle of water, 70-90% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol with Wintergreen and Methyl Salicylate in it, followed with either WD40 or use an oiled/greased shooting patch. That is how I clean my bore and lock. Simple.

But what about these commercial wonder lubricants and cleaners? Do you need them? No and yes. Yet if they work for you, and you are routinely cleaning your gun, then I say go with it! Cleaning that gun is what matters. However, lets look at the basis of these things for a moment.

Whether it is crude oil from organic matter that has been in the ground, or the pitch & crude oil made from coniferous trees, all these “new” and improved things are the products of numerous distillations with things added and subtracted to attain various characteristics sought to do the things we want them to do. Pine oil, and other items made from such, is nothing new. The ancients and Appalachian folk new about such things. Trust me, Americans love to distillate things! For purely medicinal purposes only, don’t you know……..

What is behind these modern wonder lubes and cleaners? The same things that were used before through time. They made pine beers, soaps, oils, emulsifiers, inks and so much more. Anyhow, this distillation process of coniferous trees is where Tall Oil comes from which is a main ingredient in those magical lubes and cleaners. They are a pine detergent, and pine oil, added to mixed alcohol, with a non-polar solvent to keep them mixed as a single entity for use. Sometimes a little citrus oil thrown it as well. Nothing new under the sun. People have been making their own similar concoctions for some time but finally some folk saw there wasn’t a patent for such and obtained one for their concoction. Hey, free enterprise.

As for the distillates from crude pitch/asphaltus/crude oil from the ground, mankind has been using such for thousands of years where available as well. It too has brought about many distillates that we use. This brings us to Ballistol and WD40 products. Yes, they are distillate products blended with others to do specific jobs they were intended for. Ballistol is pretty well know and works, but WD40 has a mystery to it having been first brought about in 1953 by Norm Larsen with his Rocket Chemistry Company in San Diego, California and Ken East was set to work improving and creating different variation of it until he came up with Water Displacement formula 40. I guess you could say it is rocket science after all.

WD40 isn’t fish oil either boys and girls.That is what I heard as well before but it just isn’t so. Here is what it contains:
50% aliphatic hydrocarbons (long term non-volatile viscous oil)
<25% petroleum base oil distillate (light lubricating mineral oil)
12-15% low vapor pressure aliphatic hydrocarbon (evaporator)
2-3% carbon dioxide (propellant) if in a spray can

This gives you a product that has penetrating anti-corrosion ingredients, with water displacement in even the tiniest minute crevices (like the area where the breech plug with threads connect with the barrel threads), and soil removal, leaving a rust inhibitor on the metal. It is a low viscosity oil easy to remove and not a heavy oil. Night and day items with different properties and characteristics.

Don’t forget that your iron barrel guns are similar but different critters from yesterday’s evolving carbon steel barrels and today’s high carbon, molybdenum, and chromium molybdenum steel barrels being made. Different properties and characteristics. You might have to season iron barrels, but you have to coat and protect your steel barrels because most steels rust quickly. Therefore you must be on top of the game with your steel barrels to prevent rust getting any toe hold on your gun. That means cleaning and oiling your gun as soon as you can as humidity and moisture are your enemies in an unclean gun.

Please, we aren’t going to have debates over how long one’s gun can go before cleaning either. Not everyone lives in a low humidity area and home or in a high humidity region. You may not see it but your bore is being affected ever so slightly when you leave fouling in it. Things can culminate over time.

There you have it. Cleaning your gun is important and is fun with the right attitude. Maintenance is a part of life. It can also be an enjoyment while inspecting your gun for things needing attention before they become a problem too.

As long as you clean your gun and oil it WHICH EVER WAY YOU PREFER (emphasizing only), it’ll do well and so will you. Just be sure to wipe the bore dry, and clean the touch hole or percussion ignition pathway, before loading and you’re all set to go. It is and isn’t rocket science.

Wayne, thank you for your contribution.

Larry Pletcher, editor

December 6, 2016
Flint Elk Rifle

The history of this rifle began years ago when my friend Rick Shellenberger in Colorado cleaned out an old muzzleloading shop. Among other items, he brought home 2 Sharon .58 caliber rifle barrels. Both were rifled at 1 turn in 72 inches. These barrels have eight lands and grooves. Rick kept one barrel and gave the other one to me.

Back in Indiana, years passed until I began collecting parts to complete the rifle. My friend Steve Chapman gave me hard maple rifle stock. It was a half stock with a 1 inch barrel channel and a mortice cut for an L&R lock. Steve suggested we look for an L&R lock that matched the mortice, and both of us like Davis triggers. I bought parts at the Friendship spring shoot, and Steve took them back to his shop.

Steve knew that time wasn’t a factor, and had a number of other gun-making projects to finish ahead of mine. When he began to work on the gun, a couple decisions were made. One decision was to use Tom Snyder’s vent coning tool to make the vent. This process consists of drilling a 1/16″ hole, inserting Tom’s threaded pin, and installing the cutter through the open breech. We used a cordless drill to cut the internal cavity. The cavity is very similar to Jim Chamber’s vent liners.

The barrel was shortened to 32 inches as stock proportions were considered. Considerable wood was removed to give the rifle much better lines. Steve poured a very nice pewter nose cap. A removable aperture rear sight was used to help a pair of 70 year old eyes.

Here you can see the .58 caliber hole and the crown Steve cut.

Final shaping of cheek piece (Photo S Chapman)

Lock installed, wrist shaped (Photo S Chapman)

Barrel Lugs (Photo S Chapman)

The finish used on the stock was a mixture of stains that Steve likes, and I like the way the stock turned out. I didn’t quiz Steve on the exact mixture, but I know that it was a mixture of Homer Dangler’s stains.

Cheek piece (Photo S Chapman)

Pewter nose cap (Photo S Chapman)

Forearm and nose cap (Photo L Pletcher)

Lock area (Photo L Pletcher)

When the rifle was finished, we went to the Stones Trace range to sight it in. With the rifle shooting to point of aim, we played with powder charges. A Swiss load of 90 grains of fffg gave us almost 1700 feet/second. I expect that a load of ffg may be found that will give similar velocities with less pressure. At this writing, I expect to experiment with different powder brands and grain sizes. Right now it is a potent rifle at both ends.

Rifle by the hearth Stones Trace Historical Society (Photo L Pletcher)

As we finished up our chronograph session, Steve said, “ Since this gun puts the ball at the top of the front blade, you could head shoot squirrels with it, or bark them.”

I said, “Well maybe not with 90 gr. of Swiss fffg.”

“Yah,” Steve said. “Wonder what it would do with a squib load, like maybe 30 gr.”

So, we chronographed a 30 gr. Swiss load of fffg. This load drove the 280 grain ball an average of 870 fps. Maybe we need to think lower for a squib. On a whim, we also clocked a load of 30 gr of Goex. It averaged less than 500 fps. This does seem more squib-like.

As a side bar, my friend Rick in Colorado stocked a rifle with the other .58 barrel that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Rick wanted to recover a ball to see how much it expanded. During my time visiting him, we filled a garbage can with water and fired a 90 gr ffg load down into the can. The garbage can split down the side, but we did recover the ball. We taped the can together as best we could and fired a .58 cal. mini ball. Below is a pic of the expanded ball with the mini ball before and after. These rifles will make a big hole in about anything in North America. If my health and physical condition permitted, this would be the gun I’d use for elk.

Left is the .570 ball before and after recovery. On right is a mini ball for comparison

Rifle by the hearth (photo L Pletcher)

Back here in Indiana, Steve and I will need to do some form of Rick’s water experiment. We haven’t decided what we want to destroy, but it will be something filled with water.

Steve Chapman is a close friend with rifle-making and machinist skills. We have worked on many projects and experiments together. Whenever a project needs more hands, Steve is the person who helps. He usually pulls the trigger in any test that measures accuracy. While we both fired this gun for accuracy, Steve’s shooting skills have been necessary in many of our experiments. Steve’s many skills have been a benefit in many of these experimental articles.

Future tests, thoughts,etc

Thought: We might learn more from a different water test. We’re thinking of a row of milk jugs filled with water. A .308 is caught in the fifth jug. We think the .58 will do better.

Also: Build a water box to hold 1 gallon plastic bags. With this setup we could repeat tests and compare different calibers and loads. Compare the 90gr ffg Goex load and the 90 gr fffg Swiss load.

September 28, 2016
Two Hole Vent Test

This test is a long time coming. A couple years ago at CLA, Steve Chapman and I were looking over a flint gun made by Allan Sandy. The vent Allan used had two smaller holes located horizontally. Allan said the vent was internally coned but used two .052″ holes. Allan said he didn’t know whether it was faster or slower than a normal vent. My reply was that I could time it. Allan offered to provide me a vent, and on the way home, Steve and I planned how the vent would be tested.

Time passed with many interruptions in the way. In the meantime Fred Stutzenberger entered the picture. I believe Fred saw the “double-hole vent” on Sandy’s table at the same show that we did. Fred however, was more prompt than we were and published an article on the vent in the August 2014 issue of MuzzleBlasts.

Without great detail, Fred’s article compared Allan’s double-hole vent with a single-hole vent that had the same area as the sum of the two smaller vents. His findings showed that shots fired with the double-hole vent had slightly higher velocities than the single-hole vent even, though the vent area was the same. The “choked-flow principle” (comparing circumference to area) is the likely cause. Fred explains this better than I do; please read the article.

Our testing focused only on ignition speeds. We compared ignition time of the double-hole vent (two .052″ holes) and the single-hole vent (.073″) Both vents have the same area, but vary in their circumferences.

The main question I have is, “If the choked flow principle tends to restrict flow leaving the vent, might it also restrict flow entering the vent, causing slower ignition?”

We used a 10″ barrel stub with a small Siler flint. The test used a double-hole vent with .052 holes and a single-hole vent with a .073 hole. We did 10 trials each and lit the pan with a red hot copper wire. Our reason for this was to prevent a changing flint edge from entering into the test. The single .073 vent was better both in speed and consistency.

Before finishing, we ran 5 trials each in which the pan was ignited by the small Siler. In those trials the single-hole vent was better, but by a smaller margin. None of the trials sounded abnormal to the ear. No matter the range from high to low, human senses could not tell the difference. In fact, Steve tried to guess and was invariably wrong.

Here you see the shield that prevented both photocells from triggering when the pan flashed

Interpreting the results can sometimes be misleading. In this case, I like the single-hole vent. However, I do have two doubts. (1) I have questions about the reliability of a vent as small as .052”. A double-hole vent with larger holes might alter the result. (2) I wonder if the shape of vent’s exterior would change the result.

The included photos show the fixture and the position of the photo cells used in the timing. The photo cell at the pan trigger the start, while the photo cell and the muzzle triggers the stop.

The last pic is a close up of the vent. These holes are .052″. BTW, the stock is a heavily mutilated factory second supplied by Jim Chambers. It was important because it allowed the sear to be struck from below by the plunger. It also allowed us to use a small Siler lock for an earlier test. At that time it allowed three different locks to be tested using the same lock mortice.

To conclude, I’d like to thank Allan Sandy for the chance to time his vent. I feel that this vent type is well worth studying. I’d like to repeat this with a .055” 2 hole vent.

My thanks also to Steve Chapman and Mike Coggeshall for their assistance in the testing.

Of course every experimenter needs a furry assistant

Larry Pletcher, editor

September 21, 2016
Bucks County Hunting Gear

A Bucks County rifle and accouterments article has been on my mind for a number of years. The motivation for this came from three different people. First, Samuel Pletcher was my great, great, great grandfather. He lived in Lancaster County until he was about 40, then took his family by wagon to the Howard area in north central Pennsylvania around 1790. I’ve been interested in stories, tools, and possessions that would have been a part of his life.

Gary Brumfield was another influence. Gary was important to me and to others who study flintlocks. One area I appreciated was his knowledge of regional styles.   Gary went through some of the factors that assisted in the evolving of these styles. I was intrigued by these factors as they applied to the region of Samuel Pletcher.

Gary , doing a carving demo at Bowling green.

Since the area of interest is SE Pennsylvania, it is probably logical that Allen Martin would play a part in a Bucks County project.   Allen is among a very talented group of Pennsylvania gun makers, and one who is widely respected in his study and making of the guns of this area. It would be difficult to mention Bucks Co, Berks Co, or Lehigh Valley guns with out mentioning Allen.

Allen and I have discussed the architecture of these guns at the annual CLA show. I handled a wonderful Bucks County Schimmel and decided to have Allen make one for me. We discussed the typical ageing health and eye problems, and he assured me that the schimmel would meet all my health issues. He was certainly correct.

Allen Martin Schimmel

I received the schimmel at the 2014 Spring Shoot at Friendship. It is a delicate little .40 caliber: long and slim, with wonderful balance. It may not weigh 7 pounds. It is slightly aged, but not distressed. The stock is dark maple with very nice curl. The beauty of this rifle comes from the architecture.   As Allen told me, “Architecture is everything.”

The Bucks County Kit now needs a bag and horn. Frank Willis was my next stop. At CLA Frank had an original bag found in lower Bucks County. I bought a copy that Frank made from this original. There are some unique features about this bag, perhaps unique only to the original maker. These features are discussed in Frank’s article.

The old bag and Frank’s copy.

A rifle this fine and a proper original bag needs a proper horn. With many horners at CLA and many horns, the one that caught my eye was at P ete Hutton’s table. Pete makes screw-tip horns of various regional styles. One of the prettiest ones there happened to be a Bucks County screw-tip.   I figured it would look just fine with the Martin schimmel and the Willis bag, so it came home with me.

It is worth noting that horners have been studying and making screw-tip horns for many years. It was Art DeCamp who put the information on regional styles together. After years of careful research, he published a book detailing these styles called Pennsylvania “Horns of the Trade” Screw-tip Powder Horns and Their Architecture. It has become the definitive work on Pennsylvania screw-tip horns.

A Bucks County screw tip horn made by Pete Hutton

When I studied the Bucks County section of Art’s book, I looked for the characteristics that Frank incorporated in his screw-tip. Frank’s is quite similar to #36 on page 128-129. Art describes this horn as an early horn, probably Bucks/Chester county just north of Philadelphia. The collar and tip show a Philadelphia influence. Art mentioned that Bucks County horns were “less refined and of a coarser nature than Philadelphia horns.” Frank’s horn, however, is finely finished, second to none in workmanship.

Bucks County Gear: Martin Schimmel, Willis Bag, Hutton Horn

The schimmel, bag, and horn make a great combination. Besides equipping me for Indiana’s squirrel season, it serves as a reminder of three very talented makers whose work deserves recognition. We should also remember the study of Gary Brumfield, Art DeCamp, and many others have advanced our knowledge of Pennsylvania firearms history. I hope you will take the time to explore the links above.

Bucks County Gear: Martin Schimmel, Willis Bag, Hutton Horn #3

The links associated with names in the text above take you to the artist’s page on this site. The links below take you to their own site.

Gary Brumfield

Allen Martin

Frank Willis

Pete Hutton: powderhorn1@consolidated.net

Art DeCamp

Larry Pletcher, editor: www.blackpowdermag.com

August 31, 2014
Stones Trace Regulators

The Stones Trace Tavern is the location of perhaps the best muzzle loading rifle range in northern Indiana.

The historic Stones Trace Tavern is located at the corner of In 5 and US 33 south of Ligonier.

Stones Trace Tavern

Engraved stone at the entrance

Stones Trace Regulators target shack

Covered firing line

Target positions are located at 25, 50, and 100 Yards.

Loading benches

Loading benches

At the bench rest position

Recent addition

The roof is finished and the cabin is ready for chinking.

July 11, 2014
Projects to Come

This is an informal list of future project ideas. Nothing cast in stone here; just a place to keep notes on ideas.

1. Vent shape experiments — this will include an exterior tool made by Tom Snyder, a friend who also makes an interior vent coning tool, as well as other tools for the gun maker.

2. A before and after test of Jim Chambers‘ late Ketland lock. We’ll time various combinations of the current and new parts.

3. Find an elapsed time for a double set trigger. This will pretty subjective, and we’re not sure of a methodology. Lowell Gard and I are brain-storming on this.

4. Slow motion video session with Olympus Industrial. I have a few friends with original English locks that we’ll want to video tape. We will also tape locks of any shooters who would like a video tape of their lock.

5. Because of missing a chance to get an interview with Gary Brumfield, I’d like to collect thoughts from his many friends. This is just in planning stages, I want to make sure this gets done.

6. A photo session done at the Seminar in Bowling Green.

7. Continue doing video interviews.

8. Add two more lubes to the lube test.

9. Jim’s experiment with golden age tumblers.

June 17, 2014
Blackpowdermag Gets a Facelift

It’s been a long time coming, but Blackpowdermag has a new look!

For some time we have considered revamping Blackpowdermag, and when a group of files were corrupted, we changed to a WordPress authoring system. The result is a new, fresh-looking format that reads well on smart phones and tablets, as well as computers. We are especially pleased with this improvement that was made possible by WordPress.

We also will connect with a Blackpowdermag Facebook page. We envision notifications on Facebook with the appearance of new articles and photos on blackpowdermag.com.

Dealing with the damaged files and articles presented some challenges. Upper most in my mind was to prevent the loss of important experiments and the articles that reported the findings. Since the site’s materials came from a variety of sources, different solutions were used. The result is that all the MuzzleBlasts articles are back, looking better than ever. Other experiments have been saved as well. The slow-motion videos of 80+ flintlocks are back. Photo galleries are organized with material from Friendship, Conner Prairie, CLA, and Dixon’s Gun Fair. And, as I write this, the taped interviews of gun makers are being finished up.

Much of the credit for the new, revised Blackpowdermag belongs to my son, Kevin. Kevin has extensive experience in internet commerce, currently employed by Bloomreach, a premier Internet technology company. Without his help, I’m afraid this site would have simply faded away.

June 9, 2014
Part 1 — Black Powder Ignition Characteristics

Black powder ignition in a flintlock pan is different than inside the barrel. Here we look at black powder ignition in open air.

(Powder on sheets)

This phase of testing was suggested to me by Mr. Bill Knight. He has been a valued advisor for many years. I poured a measured amount of black powder on a sheet of paper. The powder was ignited by a red hot copper wire in different locations around the pile of powder – center, right, and left. My result was the same as Mr. Knight described. When ignited in the center the burn traveled in all directions equally. In those where the powder was ignited on the edge of the powder, the fire traveled from the ignition point toward the farthest side, away from the starting point. Included here are photos showing this.

Photo 1 — The burn radiates from the center as we would expect.

Photo 2 — Burn marks indicate the strongest direction is to the left, away from the ignition point on the right.

Photo 3 — Burn marks indicate the strongest direction is to the right, away from the ignition point on the left.

The burns marks above extended well past the area where the powder was placed. In the photos where the pile was ignited to the side, the burn marks extended considerably farther than marks left on the center ignition photo. This test was done with fffg (shown here), ffg, and ffffg powder. Each size left similar burn marks. When testing the ffg powder, I laid out all three sheets of paper side by side, thinking that I would then ignite them one at a time. When I ignited the sheet with the right side ignition, the fire moving to the left was strong enough to jump to the next sheet.

This test caused me to reconsider the long-held advice to place priming powder at the opposite end from the vent hole. This thought has been around for much longer than I have been involved in black powder. My concern is that if powder is near the outer edge of the pan, it is likely that sparks will land inboard of the powder. The experiment we just did caused me to think that the strongest part of the flame would be from the sparks across the powder- the opposite direction we want. What we desire is for the strongest flame to be at the vent end of the pan.

Pan Vent Experiments — Introduction

Part 2 — Initial Pan Experiments

Part 3 — Photography Through the Muzzle

Part 4 — Priming Powder Amount by Weight

Part 5 — Timing Powder locations in Pan

Part 6 — High and Low Vent Experiments

April 14, 2008
Part 3 — Photography through the Muzzle

Comparing the strength of the black powder burn by looking through the barrel muzzle. Here we see that where the black powder is placed in a flintlock pan is crucial.

In this phase I used a digital camera to photograph the fire coming through the vent. The barrel is mounted on a fixture and the camera installed on the tripod. Height was adjusted until the camera looked directly into the muzzle. In this position the barrel in centered in the camera and the pan is to the left. On the right side of the barrel directly opposite the vent is a cleanout hole. (The cleanout is important as you view the photos.)

The pan was primed with .5 grain of Swiss Null B priming powder in three pan positions: banked to the outside, close to the vent, and as close as possible without blocking the vent. The pan powder was carefully positioned using a pencil with a round eraser. Since the eraser was the same shape as the pan bottom, this worked very well.

The camera was set to have the shutter open for 4 seconds. Once the pan was primed, the procedure was to fire the camera and then ignite the pan. The pan was ignited as earlier with a red hot copper wire. (There is NO barrel powder used until the last phase.)

Photo 1 shows the muzzle shot taken with .5 gr of Swiss Null B priming powder banked away from the vent.

Photo 2 shows the muzzle shot taken with .5 gr of Swiss Null B priming powder positioned close to the vent.

Photo 3 shows the muzzle shot taken with .5 gr of Swiss Null B priming powder positioned as close to the vent as possible without covering it.

Examination of the photos add evidence for stronger ignition with closer placement of the pan powder. Comparing the photos showing the close position and the “banked away” position shows a clearly stronger fire in the barrel and also traveling through the cleanout hole on the far side. While evidence continues to support a close priming of the pan, only timing of the positions will provide conclusive proof. That comes next.

Pan Vent Experiments — Introduction

Part 1 — Black Powder Ignition Characteristics

Part 2 — Initial Pan Experiments

Part 4 — Priming Powder Amount by Weight

Part 5 — Timing Powder locations in Pan

Part 6 — High and Low Vent Experiments

April 8, 2008