Blown patches!

[Sharpsman]

I shoot a .54 GRRW Hawken using the Hornady .530 roundball and am using 90-100 grs. KIK 2F powder. The target below has two shots at the very top which are the 100 gr. load and the other 5 shots are at center using the 90 gr. load. This fired from 60 yards. Bull is what I cut from a 100 yard .22 smallbore rifle comp target which I have plenty of. Ten ring measures 2" diameter. I'm using for patching material pillow ticking measuring .025" thickness and Virgin Olive Oil for patch lube with patches soaked through and wet! I cut patches at the muzzle. It seems I can't eliminate blown patches and the crown of the rifle appears very smooth. I'm at a loss!

Untitled by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

[Hungry Horse]

 Thats a pretty tight patch ball combo. How old is your ticking? Thats pretty heavy ticking for pillow ticking. Sounds more like mattress ticking. If cotton ticking is left laying around for a few years it starts to lose it integrity, and often will start to separate during loading a real tight load. When this happens the patches blow out when firing.

   Hungry horse

[bob in the woods]

How long have you had the rifle ?  If it's a new barrel, the patches may be getting damaged from sharp edged lands rather than being blown. 

[Sharpsman]

Thanks guys!

Only had the rifle a couple weeks! Have run about 80 balls through it so far! Has fairly deep grooves but muzzle appears quite smooth!

Untitled by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

[Mike Brooks]

First off, that's a whole lot of powder, in my opinion.  If this is a never before been shot gun the corners of the lands may be sharp. You might try some brake lapping compound on a patch and jag a couple dozen or more strokes to dull them up a bit. I have had to do this before and the lapping solved the problem.

[RichG]

1st you need to determine if the patches are blown our are being cut while loading. you could try starting a couple patched balls and pulling them. if they're cut from loading try smoothing the crown and/or a thinner patch ,smaller ball. I shoot a .526rb with .018 ticking mink oil and 100gr 3fin my 54. No blown patches.(colerane C wgt 54) 015 patches blow out about 30% of shots. doesn't take much of a change sometimes. I don't think 100gr 2f is too heavy for a hunting load in a 54. might be a little hard on the shoulder for a trail walk load.

[Daryl]

Even though the muzzle looks smooth to you, it appears sharp to me.  here are a few crowns I've 'smoothed' up using the end of my thumb and emery.  Push a patch down the bore an inch or so to catch the stone from the paper or emery cloth and any metal 'grindings' are removed from the crown.  To smooth the crown to eliminate the cutting when loading, rotate your hand pressing in with your thumb. Rotate the gun now and then to make sure you have a symmetrical crown. I hope this explains the process OK.

[Sharpsman]

Daryl

What about using a round ball atop the emery cloth to help maintain concentricity?

[conquerordie]

I used Daryls trick with the round end of a plastic screwdriver handle and fine grit emery cloth. Worked very well. Just go slow and even.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I use Daryl's method and prefer it to using a hard substitute for the thumb.  The thumb, being somewhat less rigid, catches the tips of each side of the lands and gently and evenly removes that sharp corner.  It's those corners of the lands that is stretching the patch material past it's ability to keep from cutting.  If the patch material is jeopardized going into the bore, how can it be expected to withstand that trip back out of the bore under unfathomable pressure and speed.  (UNFATHOMABLE:  unable for me to get my head around, yet able to be measured scientifically)

[JoeG]

GRRW used to recommend using  a .526 RB in their .54 cal barrels
You might try giving that a try

[Sharpsman]

GRRW used to recommend using  a .526 RB in their .54 cal barrels
You might try giving that a try

Thanks fellows for the info and the .526 RB is a possibility! I'm going to Auto Zone this morning and pick up some emery cloth and give this muzzle a work-over. I'm going to try to stay with the .530 RB a bit more as this rifle seems to like it.  Shot these three shots this afternoon from 200 yards but dark-thirty caught me so that's all I fired.  This .54 Hawken with 34" barrel shoots a lot flatter than I was expecting! I took it to the 200 yard line and found out just how to hold to get POI toward center. The AR500 plate you're looking at below is 28" depth and about same width. I fired 3 shots initially....no hits! I suspected that I was holding too high so using the same placement of the front sight into the rear notch that I use at 100 yards I held the top of the front sight at the upper right hand corner of this plate and got the 3 hits you can see! The wind was blowing around 5 mph from 4 o/clock so I used SWAG for the amount of hold-off to use. Drift wasn't as much as I expected either! This was using .530 Hornady RB and 100 grs. KIK 2F powder. Didn't fire any more as I was losing light but I left the range with a grin on my face!

Untitled by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Untitled by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

[Daryl]

Mighty fine shooting indeed!

The guys up here shooting .54's pretty much all use .535" balls and the .022" denim patch.

The target I aiming at, is 200yards distance and is the same height as my rifle - note the rather flat sighting. Not a lot of elevation is needed to the sights.  You're doing very well, Sharpsman.

[Sharpsman]

Daryl

"Doing very well"....to me means whether or not I can consistently make the rifle perform at it's optimum capability. I'm basically a hunter and a 'home shooter'. I've shot enough competition (non ML) over the past years to last two lifetimes and now....I enjoy the solitude of the rolling hills of Kansas when I get to go and the use of my own range here at home!

I got me some emery paper this morning and worked over the muzzle of this Hawken so if not raining this afternoon I'll see how the work done might show up on the fired patches!

Thanks!

[Daryl]

Excellent - with a smoother-edged crown, you should also be able to load a tight combination if you wish.
If patches are cutting only with only a few burnt 'lines' & not turned into charred strips, it is usually cutting at the muzzle when loading.
Good luck.