1842 Springfield - Happy Fathers Day

I remove the barrel from my old rifles to clean them to protect the wood.
At the range, after I load the gun, before I cap it, I turn it over and give it a spank to set the powder as low as it can go.
If it still doesn't shoot, I remove the nipple and pour some powder into the flashhole, replace the nipple and it should fire.
I use Goex FFG. FFFG is too hot. Pryodex is tough to ignite (in my old guns at least).
 
Pyrodex works fine in my P53 Enfield.

100_3552.jpg
 
Still having issues igniting the powder charge. I have measured the flash hole and it should be just about in the middle of a 60 grain charge. The musket is clean as best I can tell. Lots of boiling water, Hoppes solvent, brush, and scraper until nothing comes out. I dry the bore after cleaning to make sure I haven't left any solvent or oil in it. Although I won't exclude an issue with the firearm, I expect inexperience is playing a role here. This is the first time I have tried anything with a black powder firearm. I am using Pyrodex FFg, musket nipple, CCI musket caps. I am compressing the powder as much as I can under a patch. I find that a 100 grain patch load (no ball) is easier to ignite than the 60 grain load. I can only imagine it is because there is more powder in front of the flash hole. But even the 100 grain load only ignites 2 out of 5 times. What does help with either the 60 or 100 grain load is to drop a pinch of powder in front of the patch. I believe that was 100% successful. But that doesn't help really. Is there something basic I'm not thinking of?

I have not tried to load a ball yet and won't until I can reliably ignite the charge.
 
Put on a cap and fire it at a leaf or blade of grass to make sure the nipple is clear. Dump a 60 grain charge down the bore. Keep it pointed up and fire it off, No compressing the powder, no ball, no patch, no nothing, just loose powder. If that fires off then try loading a patched/compressed blank. If that works then try a real load. If the nipple is clear and the loose powder doesn't ignite that's probably oil contamination. You may have to repeat the process a few times till you get a charge to fire.
 
I have a "modern" Hawkins .50, as does my son. The Hawkins love Pryodex. I have not been able to shoot Pryodex in my antique Belgian .50 - not once would it ignite.
When you run water down the barrel (with the nipple removed) does the water flow easily out of the flashhole?
Have you tried some powder in the flashhole?
 
The flash hole is clear. Water runs freely and it can be fired by putting powder below the nipple. I will try firing uncompressed powder after I clean one more time. I am beginning to think this may be oil related. This morning while cleaning the firearm I scraped out quite a bit of burned powder residue. I didn't think to measure it. But I bet it was 10-15 grains of powder residue that wouldn't burn when exposed to a flame. even though it is clean I think I will clean again with boiling soap and water and maybe some denatured alcohol. I may be able to accomplish that and try again this evening. I will report back.

Thanks for alll of your help.
 
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Success! Thanks to each of you for helping. It's funny but it was very much like starting my 1970 Plymouth Duster on a cold morning. It seemed like I had to 'warm it up'. Once I got the powder igniting reliably it shot very well and went bang each time. I did take a couple of uncompressed 'blanks' to get it started this morning. but once that was done it fired each time it was loaded and the trigger pulled. After the blank loads, I moved on to compressed loads as Hawg suggested. I also rolled the rifle over before the charge was compressed like Pohill suggested. Maybe some powder entered the nipple and helped. I really don't know, but rolling the firearm over with that intent will be standard procedure for this rifle. Once a ball was added I found that it must be patched very tight or the result is somewhat disappointing. I am still learning. With a tightly patched .65 ball and 70 grains of Pyrodex the result is below.

Now before you rag me about the look on my face after firing it. I do have another video but it is about 5 minutes long and the shot is at the very end. I don't have my video editing software on any computer right now. So go easy on the look on my face. As far as that goofy look on my face, however goofy it is, it pretty much depicts how I felt.

Waxing nostalgic some things come to mind. Here I am, it's 2012. I have powder, patch and ball and I am doing what troopers did with this very gun starting 161 years ago and almost certainly an event that occurred countless times during the Civil War.

Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60323943@N07/7433246132/in/photostream

This was fun.
 
I couldn't view the video - they said it was "private".
How accurate was the gun (or the shooter?) When mine was a smoothbore, it was literally hit or miss at 50 yds. Relined with rifling makes all the difference for accuracy.
The bottom one is the Belgian .50, the one that needs a good spanking before it'll shoot (probably made in 1842).
The top one is an 1868 Springfield 50-70.
So, what's next on the Black Powder Wish List? A handgun?
DSCF3413.jpg
 
well if we patch the ball correctly it was hitting a man sized Cholla at around 75 yards. today was function test day. I will bring it to the range next weekend. it functioned flawlessly when we rolled the musket with the intent to get dome powder in the nipple area.

I will go check on the video. I didn't intend it to be private. it will be viewable here in an hour or so. still cleaning it from this evenings outing. Took the wife and 18 year old daughter to shoot it. It doesn't get much better.
 
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The video has been fixed.

We have some additional video from this evening's outing and I will post when the daughter gets done with the home computer (sometime towards the end of July I figure).
 
Yep, the video works fine. One of the only places you can go in public and grin like that and not have a net dropped over you is a shooting range.
AZ sure is wide open country (I shoot in NH)
 
Here is a target at 25 yards. I had several targets at 50 yards, but at that point I was having issues with the patches I was using and none of those were representitive of the firearm. Just the shooter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60323943@N07/7495414152/in/photostream

That is around 3" in both directions and considering there is no rear sight and the front sight is attached to the upper band and moves 3/16" I figure that is about as good as it is going to get.

As far as the patches are concerned, I do have some pitting in the barrel and the patches were sized for .60-.69 so just came to the equator of the round ball. It seems the pitting would sometimes 'grab' the patch and the round ball would fall to the bottom above the patch. Accuracy is pretty miserable when that happens.

I did try both the .648 and .662 round balls with two different sized patches of .010 and .018. The .018 works pretty well with the .648 round ball but is subject to the above issue. The .010 and .662 was still a little too tight for easy ramming. In order to use the .010 and the .648 round balls, I had to double up the .010 patches. This actually was easier to load as I could spread them apart and the issue of the ball falling below the patch was easier to deal with with the two patches. This combination was actuall pretty tight. I think I'm going to test with a square patch of .018 thickness that allows the patch to extend over the top of the round ball.
 
I wouldn't reline this one. I like it too much and, to me, there is too much history. At some point I will have to decide either to buy a reproduction barrel or a complete reproduction for shooting. In the end, this one won't be shot that often. The reproduction rifled barrel interests me and that may be in the future. But I'm not at that point yet.
 
I finally figured a round ball patch combination that appears to work. Tight fit but doesn't blister my fingers ramming the ball/patch. I can keep a group at 25 yards

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60323943@N07/7567854088/in/photostream/lightbox/

But 50 yards isn't really a group. More like a general gathering. I can't rule out operator error. I don't have an experienced black powder shooter to help me along. What I think is a tight fit for ball and patch might be too loose. The musket isn't in that great of shape. I can tell the barrel 'opens up' a tad towards the breach end (chamber?). When ramming a ball/patch the resistance decreases slightly as it reaches the breach end of the barrel. Here is a 50 yard gathering:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60323943@N07/7567856812/in/photostream/lightbox/

The round at 10 o'clock was my friend shooting the last shot offhand. But several other 50 yard targets look very much the same as this one.
 
Thanks MK. I would like to be better. I may have to rely on black powder this year for deer. That won't be with this musket though.
 
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