touch hole size for small caliber....

[woodboxmaker]

hello all, happy thanksgiving.....ive been building flintlocks off and on for 28 years, but ive never built a flint rifle in 32 caliber. Thats just what im doing. I generally drill 45 caliber through 68 with a 1/16" drill, then slightly coned from the outside. This has produced excellent results, but I would think the small bore might be more consistent with a smaller hole? Dont know how small I can go, or so to say proper size torch hole for 32....any feedback would be helpful

[mattdog]

My personal rule of thumb:  Don't drill the touch hole any smller than what you can keep clean so a 1/16" is minimum.  Regardless of the caliber.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

I just built a .36 with a WL Liner that I opened up to 1/16" .  I don't know why the vent would want to be smaller, it is still the same amout of fire in the pan to ignite the main charge and it still has to go through 1/4" more or less of steel barrel wall to ignite the main charge.

I say make the vent hole the same as all your other flintlocks.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[Dennis Glazener]

hello all, happy thanksgiving.....ive been building flintlocks off and on for 28 years, but ive never built a flint rifle in 32 caliber. Thats just what im doing. I generally drill 45 caliber through 68 with a 1/16" drill, then slightly coned from the outside. This has produced excellent results, but I would think the small bore might be more consistent with a smaller hole? Dont know how small I can go, or so to say proper size torch hole for 32....any feedback would be helpful

Welcome to ALR Woodboxmaker. Hope you enjoy your stay here on ALR.

Regarding the touchhole, I use a 1/16" touchhole in my 32, just naturally drill out the Chambers White Lighting vent hole. I wish I had tried it with the smaller hole that it comes with but I didn't even think about it. No problems with the 1/16th but it may have been fine with the .055 hole that the liner comes with.
Dennis

[woodboxmaker]

Liners are o.k. , I just dont care for them, location being much more critical. Traditional drilled 1/16" hole, then coned with a 3/16" ball nosed end mill about a third the barrel wall seems to work good. Takes a while to burn out, then I replace with either a stainless or mild steel bushing with a new torch hole, but not removable. I assumed a slightly smaller hole might make velocity more consistent in the small bore....thank you gentlemen

[Pete G.]

I have tried the White Lightning liner as is in a couple of builds. As long as the flint is scalpel sharp and prime is positioned evenly it works fine, but within a few shots I started to get a shot here and there that just seemed a little off, just a very slight hesitation sort of. Almost always a pulled shot low. Drilling the vent to 1/16" did away with all of that. Now I always drill them out without even testing first.

[Mark Elliott]

My personal experience is that nothing smaller than 1/16" will work reliably.   It is just too easy for a smaller hole to become clogged or blocked, particularly in high humidity.  I always use a Chambers White Lightning and I always drill it out to 1/16".