Thin barrel touch hole liner

[BobT]

I'm gathering parts for a new squirrel rifle built around a 3/4" .40 caliber barrel and was wondering if I should use a touch hole liner or just drill the touch hole due to the thin barrel wall ?

[Dennis Glazener]

I would try it with no liner, just like the old timers did. If the rifle shows sign of slow ignition you can always put a liner in. You have a thin wall thickness of about .175".

I used to never put liners in but after running into several thick walled barrels I started putting them in. I still HATE the looks of modern stainless steel liners in a flintlock but to get good ignition on some rifles I had to.
Dennis

[Roger Fisher]

An Ozarks boy eh!!  Welcome lots of fun here.

Sure, take the easy path first.  A drilled hole (try the 1/16 first) If that seems slow you can open her a tad.  If still slow (shouldn't be slow with that thin wall) then take a leap to the liner (white lightning for certain)!

[BJH]

On a thin barrel like that I'd use a 1/4 32 Chambers liner, if I used any liner at all.  Before I would put in a liner, I would try a .070 dia  drilled touch hole. Just don't brown or blue your barrel before you do a bit of test fireing. That way you dont have to worry about refinishing the barrel if you find you need  to use a liner.

[Dphariss]

Put in a longer breech plug and run the vent liner into the plug with a cupped breech face to get the powder back to the vent.
I put a vent liner in a 7/8 x 50 cal no sweat and its seated on a shoulder. 4 threads is all that is needed as this one is 10x32 thread. If properly done the pressure applied to the vent is not that great. As the liners diameter increases so does the pressure applied as the surface area increases.
Dan