Pre-Hunt Fouling Barrel???

[Deleted]

Curious what your feeling are about fouling bbl before taking ML out hunting??

I swab mine throughly with alcohol patch, dry to get all the oil out and then snap 2 209 primers to provide lite fouling plus blow any grease that might be in breech plugs fire channel. It seems that first shot is then on the money.

[flintlock28]

I do it with both my inline and flintlocks....................

Flintlock28

[zimmerstutzen]

For fine target accuracy, it makes a difference, for minute of deer, i don't think it means anything.

[dougell]

I run a wet patch followed by a dry patch every time I shoot a balckpowder.If I have a clean load down the barrel and hunt for the day without shooting,I keep the gun in my garage until the next time I hunt.If I foul a barrel,it means I have to clean it that night,which I'd rather not do unless I have to.When I had an inline,I used blackhorn 209 and it shot just as good with a fouled barrel as it did with a clean one.

[Deleted]

Mar 11, 2013 13:27:41 GMT -5 zimmerstutzen said:

For fine target accuracy, it makes a difference, for minute of deer, i don't think it means anything.

Zimmie...you really got to get out & do more shooting/hunting...as per my experience pending on gun/load it indeed does make a measurable difference I don't wunt to risk in hunting!

[davetm]

It doesn't make a difference in my flint long gun (Green Mt. barrel) or my flint pistol (DeHass barrel) and I believe it's because both of these barrels have deep cut rifling. Now, when I shot my factory T\C flint barrel it made a big difference and the barrel had to be clean to get consistent good grouping.

From my T\C inline shooting BH-209, it doesn't seem to matter if shot clean or dirty.

Not that it was ask, but from my rifles, I take all of 'em out with fouled bores as it makes a difference in every one.....except the 45-70.....but I foul it up too....just 'cause it makes me feel better!!

Dave

[Deleted]

Spot on Dave.....i experienced a measurable difference in most TC bbls(fouled vs unfouled)...especially in my TC Pro Hunter. No way id go in the deer woods with an unfouled bbl with it for sure.

[dougell]

I had a renegade and now have a RMC.They both shoot better clean so I start out with a clean barrel and clean them between each shot.The renegade showed more than a noticeable difference between a clean and fouled barrel.I just sold my inline.When I used 777,there was a noticeable difference between a clean and fouled bore,When I switched to bh209,there was no difference.In fact,the 10th shot went down the barrel easier than the first.In my experience,that propellent was by far the best black powder substitute for inlines.

[Deleted]

Amen on the consistency of BH209!! If they could just refine some of dat charcoal based stuff to be comparable!! Per shooting a multitude of powders Swiss BP is the cleanest ive found whereby the fouling bbl differenial is less.

[zimmerstutzen]

From shooting my trapdoor with Black powder loads, I know that the first cold shot from a clean barrel is about 4 inches low and left from where it hits dirty, At 100 yds! I have never experienced that big a change with a round ball from a muzzle loader at that distance.

With some guns, there is a difference between where a gun hits cold and where it hits when the barrel is warmed up in match shooting. Pacing shots so the barrel stays relatively the same becomes important. I found this with long slender barrels having barrel bands such as old black powder military rifles.

[Deleted]

Good point there Zimmie.

I know when I was dabbling with the Savage Smokeless ML-II for a few years learned whut a hot barrel will do. After 6-7 shots the bbl really started to heat-up(specially in warm weather) and groups were lucky to be in a 6" range @100yds plus sometimes sabots blew which when that happen...lucky to hit the target. Between these problems plus the ML-II's breechplug liner detrioration...im 100% smoke again! ;D