Show Your Vent Plus Rich Pierce Flints

[Frizzen]

Here's a chance to take a picture of your touch hole and show it. This is my pistol. Shoots like
lightning. It might be a tad slower than a caplock, but you can't tell it by shooting it.

[Frizzen]

This is the whole Becky Lock with one of Rich Pierce's Flints. Nothing more.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

These are the vents of three different rifles all of which are Chamber's White Lightning liners.  In all cases, after I load, I can see the powder inside the breech through the vent.  Ignition is simultaneous with trigger pull.  Rich's flints have just the right amount of hardness, and toughness.

[t.caster]

tAYLOR, Thats cool! Did you put a bore lite down the barrel for those shots? Looks like a "fire in the hole"!

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

No, I just shone a flashlight at the muzzle, and then wiggled around until I could see the light in the vent.  It sure shows how thin the vent wall is, doesn't it?

[Blackpowder Barbie]

Here are a few photos of some of our.

Pistol


Fowler


House Rifle


Harn Fowler


Harn Rifle


Chambers Fowler

[t.caster]

Well, here's another one from a Chambers' Marshall kit that I slapped together in 25 hours! Yeah, right! Closer to 125!
I always put a little chamfer/countersink on the outside.

[msmith]

No, I just shone a flashlight at the muzzle, and then wiggled around until I could see the light in the vent.  It sure shows how thin the vent wall is, doesn't it?

Someone must be home ,I see lights on through the vent hole.

[Top Jaw]

It might just be the photography, but some of these vents look large.  What size are the ones pictured?
Mine are at 1/16 right now with a very slight bevel on the outside.  Maybe i need to go bigger.

Top Jaw

[KLMoors]

I thought they looked big too! But I know next to nothing about flint rifles.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

  What is this,  some kind of "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours" game??     Or "mine's bigger than yours"  ?      Tom Caster's externally coned White Lightening liner is the most unique so far...

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Before I shoot a new rifle, I drill out the vent with a #50 drill - .070".  I admit that I've never tried a stock vent, or one at .0625".  I just cut to the chase.  Some day, I'll try one right out of the box.
I'd like to hear Jim and Barbie's comments on vent size.  You must make them .055" for a reason, eh?

[Larry Pletcher]

Daryl,
Here are the "small and big" from a past set of experiments.


The left is a removable that measures .055".  On the right is a vent that measures over .100" with an exterior cone.   The small pair of holes on either side of the vent are for the spanner wrench we used to exchange them.  Dan Pharris' spanner wrench idea allowed us great flexibility in swapping out vents for testing.

Regards,
Pletch

[t.caster]

uNIQUE?! Gosh, thanks, I guess. I thought from past discussions, everyone countersunk the exterior of the TH. It funnels and concentrates the flash into the charge. Right, Larry Pletcher? 
Anyway, it works for me, and I won't tolerate slow ignition!! You have to pay attention to not go too deep and compromise the bore diameter of the liner. Need to leave some straight bore for longevity purposes.

This one (shown) is the stock (and unfired at the time) WL diameter of .055/.056". I like to start small and if I have slow or hang fire ignition regularly, I will open it up to 1/16", but more is very seldom needed.

[Tim Crosby]

tAYLOR, Thats cool! Did you put a bore lite down the barrel for those shots? Looks like a "fire in the hole"!

 I thought at first it was something looking out

Tim C.

 PS: Great photography.TC

[Acer Saccharum]

I have an .078 on my offhand flinter. Great ignition. It was stock, maybe .055, and I got pretty good ignition with that, but it was fussier. An occasional hangfire, more that I liked. But with the .078, it goes off anytime there is fire in the pan. I do spray anyone to the right of me with grains of 2f more than it did with the smaller hole.

A question here: Can a vent fire out UNBURNED grains of powder? It is my belief that it can. Because the guys 20 ft down line have picked them off their jackets or out of their hair. I now put up a piece of cardboard on the shed post to catch my drift.

So if a vent passes powder, unburnt powder, that means there is less of a charge to fire the ball. How much passes thru the vent is proportional to the size of the vent and the pressure in the breech. But if the amount of gasses and powder passing thru the vent is variable, there goes accuracy. I assume it is variable, and I also assume the bigger the vent the more pressure fluctuation you'll get.

So I am of the persuasion to keep the vent as small as possible. Bring the size up until you get reliability, then stop.

Caution: flint shooting can be addicting, and there is no known cure.

[rich pierce]

In thr case of offhand shooting a shooter would have to decide whether fast and reliable ignition or best bench accuracy is more critical.  I am guessing fast and reliable ignition as one slow fire could throw a shot.

[rich pierce]

This one has a funny white flint in it too

[Acer Saccharum]

I'll bet the patent breech may prevent unburned powder being thrown from the vent.

Sounds like a test for Pletch when he gets really bored. 

Rich, I think I would go for speed of ignition for my offhand gun(large vent), and for a bench gun, I'd go for accuracy(small vent).

[Blackpowder Barbie]

We drill the white lightenin' liners to 1/16" on the outside, if we enlarge them at all.

[Roger Fisher]

I have an .078 on my offhand flinter. Great ignition. It was stock, maybe .055, and I got pretty good ignition with that, but it was fussier. An occasional hangfire, more that I liked. But with the .078, it goes off anytime there is fire in the pan. I do spray anyone to the right of me with grains of 2f more than it did with the smaller hole.

A question here: Can a vent fire out UNBURNED grains of powder? It is my belief that it can. Because the guys 20 ft down line have picked them off their jackets or out of their hair. I now put up a piece of cardboard on the shed post to catch my drift.

So if a vent passes powder, unburnt powder, that means there is less of a charge to fire the ball. How much passes thru the vent is proportional to the size of the vent and the pressure in the breech. But if the amount of gasses and powder passing thru the vent is variable, there goes accuracy. I assume it is variable, and I also assume the bigger the vent the more pressure fluctuation you'll get.

So I am of the persuasion to keep the vent as small as possible. Bring the size up until you get reliability, then stop.

Caution: flint shooting can be addicting, and there is no known cure.

Suggest you attach a brass flash guard.  Then you have one less care in the world and can concentrate better on your sight picture and the 10 ring!  And your co shooters will respect you more!               (maybe)

[Long John]

Acer,

Taht unburned powder might also be pan charging powder that is kicked out, unburned because the discharge of the gun was initiated by sparks that landed closer to the vent.

I have always made my own vent liners starting with the ones that MBS sells and drilling the inside to a true cone.  I generally drill the vent hole to .062".

Best Regards,

JMC