AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: adkmountainken on April 29, 2019, 05:49:33 AM
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just got my Club But Fowler today. touch hole is a bit small, just under 1/16. the gun is a 10 guage with a Bess barrel. have not shot it yet as i have not had time. from all i have read most suggest a touch hole of 1/16 or larger. was wondering if i shouldn't save myself the hassle and drill out to 1 /16 before i even fire it?
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Try it first, you can always drill it but you can't put it back.
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Don't fix what ain't broken. It might love that size touch hole.
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Do you have a touch hole liner? If you do, most folks find 1/16” to be about right. If you are shooting 1F powder, you might want to go larger than 1/16".
My 10 bore has a straight hole, so I had to open the touch hole up to 0.082” (#45) to get consistent ignition.
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I have always used White Lightenin'liners, which are slightly less than 1/16". I used to start with that, but always drilled to 1/16". Now I drill the liner at installation.
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If the rifle does not have a liner, the vent hole will have to be larger.
With a WL liner, which runs about .052"(seems to me) , I usually open it to 1/16" (.062").
Once that burns out to over .077", it's time for a new liner, unless you are using very coarse powder.
The larger the hole, the more of your fine(3F) powder gets blasted out the vent hole as you push the ball down
the bore. At over .070" that could be considerable)
This variable loss of powder simply adds to the shot to shot velocity variation as the amount lost is not consistent.
Consistency is very important for accuracy.