General discussion > Black Powder Shooting

Caked Powder

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ChipK:
I had this happen today and it is about the 4th time it has happened to me and I am hoping someone has had a simular experiance and can explain it.

My wife loaded up a .40 flinter today and it would not go off.  I treated it like a dry ball and packed a bit of 4f into the touch hole and it just fizzed when I tried ot get it to og off.  When I got home and pulled the ball the powder was caked in and has to be scraped out with a tow worm.  Whn the powder came out it was like grey ash, much finer than the 3f Goex that went into the barrel a few hours before.

All I can think might be causing this is residual oil in the barrel that comtaminated the powder as I loaded it.  It was cold and humid this morning.


Any help or assistance you can offer is greatly appreciated.

chuck-ia:
It would be normal for the powder to be caked, after loading the patched round ball, I think I would check the container that the gun was loaded with. chuck

ChipK:
I used the powder straight form my horn.  Two other rifles shot all day long with it, no inconsistency there.

Daryl:
You are probably correct, Chip - residual oil in the bore. The dusty stuff that came out was ash from the contaminated oil burning.

ChipK:
The interesting thing Daryl is that that gun never went off.  I pulled a full load worth of caked powder out of the barrel and that junk was what looked grey and fine like ashes.  Nothing like normal powder - I should have tried to set some of it off to see if it would burn outside of the barrel

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