Black Powder .50 Cal Lesson

Picked a couple of old TC .50 cal percussion rifles up at an auction awhile back. Finally got to messin with them. The nicer one, I checked it over swabbed it out cleaned it up, and but a cap on and cracked it off against some grass and the bore was good. So gave her 70grs of goex FFg and fired her no ball. That was good. Gave her 80 grs. goex and a .490 RB and she cracked off good made a big old hole in a tree. Then cleaned her up, swabbed her with bore butter, And started on the other one. Put a 70 gr charge of the same powder and a patch down, put a cap on and nothing. Pulled the nipple and it was clean. Did it again and nothin. So took the ram rod and measured from the nipple to end of the barrel marked the ramrod. Then put the ramrod down the pipe hit bottom marked the ramrod. And found I was a couple of inches short of the breech plug.
Oh Oh. Somebody left a ball stuck. So I pulled the nipple, dumped some solvent down the pipe and let it drain, it washed out the charge. And I went after the ball with the ram rod and a worm. Nothing. I consulted a few old boys, one suggested pumping grease through the nipple hole and push the ball out that way.
I gave it a try, nothing. Just a well greased gun. I did not have a breech plug wrench. And everyone said oh never remove the breech plug only a gunsmith can do that. I never said anything as I have always done all my own gunsmithing, mostly little things. So I says what would Daniel Boone do. Ask the bear to wait while he went to town for 1 month to the gunsmith.
I made my own breech plug wrench, and removed the breech plug. I found the previous owner had broken off a brass bristle brush in the breech plug hole and left a ball and charge in there. I drove out the ball with a brass rod, I had for knife handle rivets. I make the odd knife in my forge.
Then proceeded to get the brush out of the breech plug.
Anyways big lesson here. Be careful with these old guns you buy at sales, all clear the bore before you blaze away. Luckily I only used a loose charge to test fire. If both charges would have ignited with 2 balls down the spout it might have got interesting.

 

Yeah! Most people have forget to take the plug out! Glad you are ok!

 

Ha, Muzzle loadin ain't for sissies! Nothin like a front stuffer to put the smoke and fire on the mountain!

 

Your firing a cap at some grass to see that the barrel was clear reminded me of an inexperienced black powder shooter at the range. I had recommended that he snap a couple caps toward the grass at the edge of the concrete to be sure the breech was dry. It was dry enough. The big chunk he shot off the edge of the concrete let us know that the rifle functioned just fine, and had been put away loaded.

That's an ugly one you had there. Pulling the breech plug may have been the only way to clear that out. I hope it turns out to be a good shooter for you.

 

I was reading an old article somewhere, don't recall where. Anyways both the wifes family and mine fought in the War of Independence. So we take an interest in such things. In the historical article by some authority on these matters. He claimed that the American sharpshooters could load and fire 3.9 rounds per minute from a flintlock. I was astounded.
Probably takes me 5 minutes. Last time, as I always put the cap on last, I put the cap on and raised my rifle and the dang cap fell off somehow.

 

In my younger days, with lots and lots of experience, I could load and fire 3 well aimed shots at incredible distances, and I can tell you, that takes a LOT of time and practice to be able to do! My little secret, 2 ram rods and a long starter on a lanyard on my right wrist grieve!
Now days, I use a "Repeater" Circa 1865 Colt Frontiersmen Carbine MK-IV, 6 precise shots in less then 10 seconds, and reloads in under 8 seconds, as many as six in a bandoleer! Range varies with the wind and weather, and what I ate for breakfast, but 600 meters isn't out of reach for several of the rifles, and the BIg Booma, can reach 800 plus on a good day! BTW, these are all .44 cal black powder percussion arms!

 

Had a squib load fire off in a pistol I'd bought and the owner threw in hand loads.

I heard the round go off as another person was plinking with the 45.

Stopped him just in time as he was about to crank off another shot.

Pounded out the slug from the front, dumped the hand loads in the creek.

Stay safe, always stay alert to what is around you.

 

Back in my Civil War re-enacting days I had 4-50 grain black powder blank charges go off in my Enfield all at once. It knocked me on my ass!

 

Military muskets and rifled muskets when not excessively fouled and loaded the way that the soldiers of their time loaded them are so easy loading that three rounds a minute isn't so hard. Prepared paper cartridges, using the same powder in the charge and as the priming charge (or with a big, fumble reducing top hat musket cap) save seconds. With heavy steel ram rods, little to no effort is required to ram the load home, and the ferrule at the end of many of the older muskets was funnel shaped to speed things up even further. Having a line of men facing you and doing the same loading drill with you in mind as a target will also speed keep your loading speed up.

Without anybody shooting back they're great fun to shoot, but you have to be in the right mood to clean them properly. It's a whole day thing for me usually.

 

Yes many folks under rate the power of black powder, some of those old rifles could reach out pretty good.

 

Yes the clean up is very important when finished shooting. Sometimes it seems that the patch is never going to come clean. But if your life depended on that sometimes one shot you had incentive to be disciplined and do it right.

 

The wife's older brother did this for a few years, him and his wife enjoyed it a lot.

 

One other note, your speed would probably increase if you saw the surgeon getting his saw and instruments of torture all laid out for the days work. The wounds from these old rifles during the wars were reportedly very, very bad.

 

For speed, nothing like the M1 Garand of its day, 56-56 Spencer. Not a front stuffer though.

 

The biggest issue in the Revolution and Mountain Man era with accuracy, was that they had not invented the adjustable sight yet!

 

Kentucky windage.

 

Your comment made me look up the Spencer. Very much a breakthrough for it's time. 7-Shot Wonder: The Spencer Repeating Rifle - Guns and Ammo

 

There's a .44 Evans for sale in the shop. 28 rounds in a helical magazine. Not an attractive rifle, but for an 1873
design, it was really something.

 

OK boys he is all out, let's rush him. Yikes he must have one of those new Evans 28 shots.

 

In the field we usually just removed the nipple and pored a canteen of water down the barrel. Then we allowed it to drip dry, ran several dry patches down the barrel and finished off with an oily patch. Also cleaned the nipple and vent with a nipple pick. The next day we would pop a few caps and be good to go. Sunday nights was when you smelled up the house when you cleaned the rifle in the kitchen sink or bath tub using lots of hot soapy water. Good times!