Eratic flint igntion

[varsity07840]

Rifle: .54 fullstock flint hawken with early style NOCKS BREECH(standard flint plug
with bored powder chamber), White lightning liner.

Typical load: 90 gr. 3F, over powder wonderwad, .018 mink oil patch, .530 rb.

Symptoms: First few shots out of a clean, degreased bore give excellent ignition.
Powder packs up tight against the touch hole. Running a wire pick into the vent with subsequent loads indicates insufficient powder in the chamber leading to hangfires. Scraping the mouth of the chamber gives me hard fowling that falls out of the bore. Ignition returns to excellent for a few shots. THE POWDER CHAMBER IS LARGE ENOUGH TO TAKE A .50 CAL BORE
BRUSH.

The only other flint gun I gave with a patent breech is a Pedersoli Mortimer. It had a similar problem, but in that case the powder chamber was way too small and drilling it out was the cure. What could be the problem with the Hawken? Possibly
some sort of burr where the plug meets the shoulder?

Comments appreciated.

Duane

[Dphariss]

I have a true Nock breech and it will stop working in 3 shots with some brands of powder. I can shoot it all day with Swiss.



XXXI is the Nock patent breech. The other is not but was pretty common. The Nock is faster and much more reliable with good powder that does not produce a lot of flakes of powder.

Try striking the barrel with the heal of you hand after dropping the powder to see if this will fill the vent liner.

Dan

[Daryl]

Yeah- wehat Dan said about striking the side of the stock at the breech with your hand after dumping the powder.  I suspect GOEX2f would be even worse for the hangers than 3F, as 2f will sometimes give me trouble in a couple small bore rifles.

[varsity07840]

Thanks guys. I do the slap thing religiously. Doesn't help much after a couple of shots. I have some 2F Swiss on hand. I'll give it a try.

Duane

[George Sutton]

Try putting a paper clip or vent pick in the hole while loading, Sometimes fouling is pushed into the space behind the touch hole. The paper clip will keep the vent clear until you prime.

Centershot

[Dphariss]

Flakes of powder fouling are usually the culprit.
These either fall into position to keep the priming away from the main charge or are knocked loose when the powder is dropped.
PITA in any case.
In the know breech they block the passage to the antechamber and then it needs a little FFFFG or Null B in the vent to light it off.
Another reason for using FFFF for priming.

Dan

[varsity07840]

Dan:

The breech is similar to Figure XXX except that the chamber is the wide width the entire depth. I don't think  it has a champhered edge at the mouth as in Figure XXXI, because I can feel thae ramrod hit the shoulder before dropping fully into the chamber. When the problem occurs, some powder is getting down to the touch hole, but not enough so that it packs up tght to the hole when I seat the ball. If I don't get better results with the Swiss,  I'm considering pulling the breech plug to see what's what.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

Duane

[Daryl]

  I'm considering pulling the breech plug to see what's what.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

Duane

I'd say that would be a good idea, regardles.

[doug]

      I have a gun with a variation of the XXX style breach (in the above illustrations).  I find that the small hole out to the vent is too small to let powder reliably trickle into it, even with slapping the barrel.  Seems to fire more reliably if after loading, I prime and roll the gun on its side a slap a couple of times so that some powder trickles in from the outside.  Heresy by conventional wisdom, but it seems to work

cheers Doug