Touch Hole Diameter

[Wayne Wynn]

I'm getting  terrible delay on my flintlock fowler. When I  built it a couple of years ago it seemed quick but now the delay is terrible. I think the culprit is the touch hole diameter. I installed the White Lightnin' vent liner and kept the
diameter of the existing touch hole ( what ever diameter that is!!)  In Peter Alexander's book he states the the general diameter should be the diameter of a #52 drill -----the diameter of my touchole is much smaller. What do you folks Think    Wayne

[coutios]

  I use a #51 drill, think that's .067 dia.....  Works for me... I seem to have no troubles as far as the dia... Your mileage may vary...

Regards
Dave

[Blacksmoke]

Wayne:  For a Fowler - 1/16" touch hole is not too big. keep opening it up a little at time until you are happy with the ignition time.      Hugh Toenjes

[Dale Halterman]

Pretty sure Jim stated on this site some time ago that the holes on his liners are deliberately undersized to allow builders to drill them out to the size they want.

Dale H

[Wayne Wynn]

Thanks Guys!!! I think Dale hit it on the nose !   I left the factory hole as is and never drilled it larger, thanks again .
Wayne

[Larry Pletcher]

Jim ships the liner with a .055 hole.  I like a #51 (.067) as Dave said.  I shot my latest gun with a 1/16" vent, but went to .067 because I can clean with a pipe cleaner.  I'm convinced that most delays are caused by fouling and not small vent holes.  A squeaky clean 1/16" vent worked very well in tests we did. A well-maintained 1/16" vent should be fine -- just harder to keep clean than a .067".

Regards,
Pletch

[Dphariss]

I like .060 or so.
Depends on the usage. If I were hunting Cape Buffalo or Elephant it would likely be .070 or a little bigger. But these are really rare where I live, sigh.
As previously stated fouling is the real problem.
But I virtually never pick a vent. I don't even carry a pick with me anymore. If I get a plug of fouling in the vent I use a grass stalk or some such to break it or I work some Null B in the vent. There are real advantages in using fine priming powder.
I think the Brownells gun cleaning pipe cleaners will pass a 1/16 or slightly smaller vent. At least I think thats what they are they are double length of a regular pipe cleaner.

Dan

[Roger Fisher]

I like .060 or so.
Depends on the usage. If I were hunting Cape Buffalo or Elephant it would likely be .070 or a little bigger. But these are really rare where I live, sigh.
As previously stated fouling is the real problem.
But I virtually never pick a vent. I don't even carry a pick with me anymore. If I get a plug of fouling in the vent I use a grass stalk or some such to break it or I work some Null B in the vent. There are real advantages in using fine priming powder.
I think the Brownells gun cleaning pipe cleaners will pass a 1/16 or slightly smaller vent. At least I think thats what they are they are double length of a regular pipe cleaner.

Dan

Are you ceertain that you do not have a fouling cake built up on plug face. (It gets like concrete - Hard concrete)? you must get that off the plug face...it in itself is enough to give you slow and no ignition....   If you clean with a seperate patch between shots you are shoving fouling down onto the plug face.  We are better off using the wet spit patch cleaning when you load her AND when you shoot her. Read some of Daryl's numerous posts on this very subject.  Rather shove the fouling down on the loaded patched ball than onto the plug face....

[blunderbuss]

I noticed on guns that the original owners wanted to make sure they fired the first time have large holes I worked on an original blunderbuss a while back that had a hole that you could throw a cat through. I've seen several that look like they were funneled out from the outside with a knife. Apparently they funneled the outside to catch more flame

[Dphariss]

I'm getting  terrible delay on my flintlock fowler. When I  built it a couple of years ago it seemed quick but now the delay is terrible. I think the culprit is the touch hole diameter. I installed the White Lightnin' vent liner and kept the
diameter of the existing touch hole ( what ever diameter that is!!)  In Peter Alexander's book he states the the general diameter should be the diameter of a #52 drill -----the diameter of my touchole is much smaller. What do you folks Think    Wayne

Enlarge to 1/16.
If it was OK prior and has the same liner its probably in the lock. Of you need more powder in the pan.
If its done right the vent size should be OK but the "web" of the vent liner should only be .020 or so.

It should look like this when its clean and loaded


And like this dirty and loaded.


This is not a WL its one I made. Think its got  .062 or slightly smaller. Sold it so can't double check.

Dan

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I agree with Dan, whose photos show it well...you should be able to see the charge through the vent.  Then you know you will have fast ignition.  And I agree too with Hugh...1/16" is lots.  Vents that are bigger burn out faster, and need replacing more frequently.

[doug]

      A few days ago, I went shooting with a friend and he could not get his flinter to shoot.  Turns out that he had a lot of fouling built up inside the liner (in the recess).  We scraped it clean with a dental pick and no more problems.  While I will probably stir up a lot of controversy, I think the main reason for the problem was that he only cleans with a jag and wet patches.  That does not clean the fouling from the recess of the liner and is one reason why I clean with warm water down the barrel.

cheers Doug

[Roger Fisher]

Also, save yourself some grief on down the road by not (NOT) using a drill type of pick as I see for sale, or even a roughed up steel pick.  This opens up the vent over a few less than a lot of shots (and pickings) and you'll start losing sleep and fighting with your wife til you replace the vent and again start hitting what you point at.

[LRB]

   What Roger said. I use only silver or brass. Copper would be fine also.

[bob in the woods]

And that is why I don't use inside coned liners. Can't clean them without pumping water through the barrel, and I don't do that. Haven't seen the need.

[Don Getz]

A few years ago when I was still shooting over the log, I had a white lightening liner in my rifle, and never went to any
special procedures to clean the liner.   I was cleaning with a wet patch, many of them, and in the process you are pumping
a lot of air and moisture thru the liner which, apparently, worked.  I also used a dry patch near the end, but every patch
you push down the barrel is forcing air out thru the touchhole, cleaning or drying it.  Of course, after cleaning I alway put
an oily patch down for rust......never had a problem with that.   Before I would shoot it the next time I always ran a dry
patch down the bore to get rid of the oil.   Most importantly, the gun always went off..................Don

[Daryl]

      A few days ago, I went shooting with a friend and he could not get his flinter to shoot.  Turns out that he had a lot of fouling built up inside the liner (in the recess).  We scraped it clean with a dental pick and no more problems.  While I will probably stir up a lot of controversy, I think the main reason for the problem was that he only cleans with a jag and wet patches.  That does not clean the fouling from the recess of the liner and is one reason why I clean with warm water down the barrel.

cheers Doug

Doug- as soon as I say 'fouling buildup' in your post, I said to myself, he cleans it with wet thendry patches, never flushing water into and out of the bore through the vent.  It appears Don doesn't have a fouling problem with fouling in his vents - could be the mount of liquid he uses, or merely the method.

1 thing's for certain, if you flush/pump water in and out of the bore through the vent or nipple seat, you will never get builtup fouling on the breech face in the flash channel or in a vent liner's cup.  Refuse to clean that way and you might.  I've seen guys at Hefly cleaning their guns as if they were were made of porcelin, afraid they'd break in their hands, they were so gentle in pushing the patches into and pulling them out of the bore. Patch after patch after patch, then the next day on the trail, having nothing but trouble getting the guns to fo off - caplocks and flint alike.  Powder channels filled with fouling, now wet and caked.

 A somewhat similar deal happened to me with a finter once, from oil sitting in the vent's cup when loading the next day - had a devil of a time getting it to fire - the oil soaked fouling plugging everything up badly. After that, I always store them muzzledown after cleaning.