white lightning liner

[jeager58]

just got a white lightning liner in the mail.  it barely has a pin hole in it. were they made to open up to a desired size or is this the way you use them...phil

[Larry Pletcher]

I think Jim sends them out drilled to .055".   One sixteenth (.0625) is often used.  Some like larger.  I'm a fan of .067. I forget the number of that bit size.

Regards,
Pletch

[bonron]

Pletch: I have a chambers white lightning in my .40 flinter and it's fast!!!!!!  The hole is still .055. I'll leave it there til it don't shoot and then enlarge the hole.

[StevenV]

Somebody told me about the difference between these and the standard touch hole liner. I found it hard to believe there was a difference but I tried the white lightening touch hole liner. I have since changed 6 of my flintlocks to white lightening. They are hands down the fasted flintlock ignition liner anywhere. I have opened some to .070 and some I left at .053, ignition is just as fast with both. I will leave them at .053 from now on.    

[Blackpowder Barbie]

Pletch: I have a chambers white lightning in my .40 flinter and it's fast!!!!!!  The hole is still .055. I'll leave it there til it don't shoot and then enlarge the hole.

Thanks Ron, this is correct.  At times (i.e. putting a 5/16" liner in a 62 cal. barrel) we will go ahead and enlarge the hole to a 1/16th, but most of the time we do as Ron mentioned above.

Thanks for the complements, but the credit goes to the forefathers who did this a long time ago.   

[Larry Pletcher]

Ron, Barbie,
My reason for liking .067 isn't because I think it may be faster.  It's because I'm a fan of clean.  I can get a pipe cleaner through it. 

I'm not sure how fast the flame spread is from a igniting pan, but it may travel through various holes at the same speed.  (To my knowledge no one has looked into this.)  There may be a greater amount traveling through a larger diameter, but likely at the same speed.   (This is unproven speculation.)   BTW a Russian test showed a flame front in BP that was supersonic.  I don't know if this was uniform throughout their tests.

Regards,
Pletch

[nchunter]

Try it as-is; you will probably be pleasantly surprised.  I used the White Lightning liner in my 20 gauge smoothbore.  Didn't open the hole up at all, and ignition is very reliable - and very fast!