Temp Inversion & Flintlocks

[Top Jaw]

A buddy and I made our first historical treck back in early October.  We had planned to supplement our diet with a few bushy tails, but had a terrible time with flashes in the pan.  There was a big temperature inversion from day to night.  (70 deg to 37 deg).  We loaded new every morning, and the gun barrels always had a little damp feel to them.  Anyone else ever deal with this when hunting & camping?  How do you counteract it?

Top Jaw

[Daryl]

Never had that problem, Top Jaw.  At Hefley Creek Rondy, it can go from 80F in the daytime to freezing just before day-break, but I've never heard anyone complaining of igniton trouble. We've also had rain for several days running, again no complaints - maybe they just don't complain much?

[Ezra]

Never had that problem.  Was it particularly humid?

Ez

[alex e.]

Did you swab the nights moisture out before loading fresh?Clean out your touch hole/vent? If you were camping/trekking ground moisture can do some wierd stuff, Your powder might have even gotten damp enough to hamper ignition. 

Just some thoghts,Alex

[Dphariss]

Temp changes such as this should not cause a problem. So look elsewhere for the cause.
The barrel has to be well cleaned if fired since the fouling will suck up water like a sponge.
If sleeping in the open the gun needs to be protected from dew and from possible condensation if inside your blankets/bed roll. In a tent or even a lean-to just keeping it off the ground should be enough.
A greased cover of buckskin or spit cowhide prevents many problems. Good tight weave wool cover is a good second choice. Washing and shrinking will tighten the weave then cut and sew.

Dan

[Daryl]

All responses sound good. Dan may have hit the problem with the rifle not being 'ultra clean'.  On the other hand, I've been too lazy to clean my rifle, only patching it out the next day - no problems, but it was quite dry and it was stored in the truck overnight.   When camping in the primitive section, the rifle lays on the 'cooler's' blankets in the open - properly cleaned and ready for loading for the next day's events. By then, it's warmed up from freezing to the 60's or so - sometimes into the 80's by the time we get moving. That's a big temp raise without problems.  Rifle always goes off perfectly on the 'fouling' target.

[northmn]

When we were allowed to duck hunt with lead I did have a similar problem.  If the gun were fired and the barrel reloaded and left loaded over night, it would often misfire while the other barrel with the unfired load would not.  This was percussion however.  If we removed the nipple and poured in some 4f it tended to work but maybe with a slight hang.  As Dan stated, once fired they draw moisture.  I tried just wiping the barrels during hunting season with no dry firing and had excellent results.  Used to load about 10 grains, with no ball to "burn out the oil"  After reading comments on this site I tried dry wiping and have had the flinters go off after three days of storage. 

DP

[lew wetzel]

once out trekking i left my rifle leaning on a tree and awoke to a misfire and had to pull the load.now i sleep with my rifle and a fresh charge in the pan and she's ready for business.