crud ring

[smokinbuck]

Agree with Rich 100% I also thought it was a fouling ring near the breech.
Mark

[Daryl]

SRY - I did not read carefully enough - a stain?
Smooth patch - no grabby - no pits - no roughness - stain - No Problem- stop using lib balm lubed patches. An
accuracy shooting who is UP on most things pertaining to guns and loading, took up BL shooting in a ML. He noted
almost right off the bat, that the OxYoke and TC lubes were building up in his bore and destroying accuracy. We got him
onto straight mink or Neetsfoot Oils for patching as he didn't want to use anything related to water (someone convinced him
he'd rot his bore in one day) so mink or neestfoot solved his problems. Right off the bat, we got his ,muzzle crowned nicely (I
hesitated to use the word PROPERLY) & him into using a ball onlyh .005" under bore side and a 10oz denim patch. He then proceeded
to put up 1/2" 5-shot groups at 50 yards with his Lyman GPR cap gun.

Mountains vs gopher hills - or something like that when mere stains are concerned. 
I'd use a bit of WD40, a Scotch Brite patch over a tight fitting jag - run it breech to muzzle about 30 times and to shooting.

[Jimbows]

That was my question weather or not I needed to be concerned about it or if it was somewhat normal. I am going to try your method one of these days Daryl,I have a bunch of 490 balls to shoot up first. I truly appreciate everyones advice and no more lip balm lube. I have some tracks mink oil,I will get some neetsfoot oil and some denim and try that. Thanks again, Jim

[Daryl]

Jim - using mink oil lubed patches my .32, (the calibre which many people seem to think fouls badly), my 50th shot of the day loaded easier than the first one with

no wiping at any time.  I did not need a short starter, either.  I was using a .311" ball that day, with a .022" denim patch. Worked a treat. I did have to increase my

powder charge 5gr. to get the balls hitting to the sights. In order to start the ball, I choked up on the rod and simply pushed the patched ball into the muzzle. Small

diameter balls are very easy loading as their small size means there is very little lead that has to be moved to conform to the rifling in the bore, thus easy loading.

WWWF=+a bit of neetsfoot oil also works well for target shooting.  No good for hunting as if left in a bore, it will cause rust due to the water content.

[Jimbows]

Thanks for the info Daryl,Im going to round up all the stuff you talk about and give it a try. Im hoping to try this out this weekend, suppose to be real hot here.

[Mike_StL]

If you don't feel any drag with a wet patch, then you have gotten the bulk of the burnt on fouling out.  To clean up the stain at the muzzle, wrap a small amount of 0000 steel wool around the jag and work on that area 3/4" above the breech.  You will have done about all that you can do without going to a lead lap. 

Now be sure to remember to wipe the bore with a patch dampened with rubbing alcohol before loading.

After cleaning, store the rifle with the muzzle down.

[Hungry Horse]

If you are really running short of things to worry about, you might worry about what you were doing probing around in the breech of your gun if there wasn’t a rough spot, or some other problem. IMO, if there isn’t a potential problem in the breech of the gun, I’d never pull the touch hole liner, or breech plug. If it’s not rough, snagging patches, or leaking, I leave it alone.

  Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

A nicely polished crown with no sharp machined edges makes for smooth, easy seating of the ball and patch into the muzzle.
The 'crown' in this muzzle, one of Taylor's rifles, is very smooth and too about 15 to 20 seconds on the lathe to complete.  You
can do this with your thumb and emery, in about 2 minutes. Rotate the barrel periodically with WILL ensure even 'smoothing'
of the machine cut angles.

[bgf]

Trust me you want to get rid of it.  Even if it's a thin "stain", it will act as a formation site for a hard fouling ring.  I used several recommended oils in my patch lubes that caused this problem, for example the Napa water soluble oil where they changed the formula .  Loading would get difficult and accuracy suffered when the crud ring tore patches and roughness advanced up the bore.  Scrubbing with green pads would smoothe it out, but it wasn't right until I took a wild guess that it was basically baked on grease and cleaned the barrel with heavy duty oven cleaner (the kind with lye).  After it sat in the barrel for a few minutes, the first  patch brought out a number of tiny slivers about 1/4" long and the width of the grooves.  Scrubbed a few times with green pads and water, then cleaned and dried normally.  Problem solved, accuracy and ease of loading restored.  I have also used lye and water with similar results.  Be careful with lye in any form!

In the case of the slivers, the bore was sparkling except at the place where the ball sits, where it was black, but a tight patch went down without any resistance, and the barrel would load and shoot normally for a few shots.

Also, I have become religious about wiping any oil out of bore before shooting and use only water as my patch lube for range use.

[Jimbows]

I know your not suppose to pull the liner, that was the first time I had it out, just wanted to check things out in there. Daryl, how much neatsfoot oil do you ad to your wwwf when you mix it up? I'm going to polish the muzzle and try your lube. The oven cleaner stuff scares me a little, I'm going to leave this alone for now. Thank You

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

When you are shooting on the target line, or along the trail, a water soluable patch lube works best for me.  This last weekend, I used a water/Ballistol concoction in the 7:1 ratio, and it loaded so easily all weekend long.  My load in my Pennsylvania fowler smoothie was 86 gr. FFg GOEX, .020" denim patch pre-cut and soaked to the point of dripping with w/b 7:1.  The ball is from a Lee mold .603" pure lead.

[Daryl]

I put about 1oz oil to 10 ounces WWWF. The only reason I put oil in, is I use this 'lube' in freezing weather right up to 100F heat, thus the

 alcohol prevents freezing and the oil reduces the rate of evapouration.  This 'stuff' shoots just fine, without the oil - so does spit - licking the

surface of the patch is NOT using spit as a lube.  The patch has to be saturated with it. If you aren't producing enough spit- then use a concoction.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

If you are using enough lube and a starter, there will be a band of stain on your shirt at muzzle level, at the end of the day.