Today I shot my just finished .36 cal Kinda Sorta Southern Mountain Rifle, her name is Trouble with a capital "T." The reason for that is the gun has been a cussed thing to build mainly due to me choosing an iron hard yet dry and brittle walnut blank for stocking. There were other problems too such as my choosing a small Queen Anne lock and realizing about three-quarters through the build that it was way too small for the gun, I switched to a manton which luckily just covered the old lock mortise. Some additional chiseling and I had it in. So that's two on me, choosing old, hard, brittle wood for a stock (I was enamored of the beautiful curl in the butt area, and the small lock. But for other reasons too this gun was the build from $#*!. I won't detail any others however, on to today's shoot... Trouble and I's first date.
Trouble shot just where I hoped she would, my first shot was about an inch below the bullseye at 25 yards, sweet! Two more balls in the same general spot, I knew then she was a shooter. On the sixth shot I got the mother of all sizzles coming out the touch hole and smoke galore. A burn off, no detonation. I watched in fascination as the powder burnt out and the smoke flew.
Okay then, I'll try the old drizzle priming powder in behind the ball and shoot it out trick. Three times, each time I get the ol sizzle off, no bang. Looks like I got to go the shop and unbreech Trouble. I remove the barrel form the stock and sandwich it between a couple of copper pieces and crank down the vice handle, Troubles breech plug would not budge, and I'm thinking "surely I put anti-seize compound on that plug before I put it in?" In any case no luck after about twenty minutes and I'm about to wrench off the tang extension, so I stop and sit down to think.
Not my strong suit, sitting still. I take the barrel out of the vice and lay it on the work table, hummm... I squirt some WD-40 in the touch hole and lean the barrel upright hoping the WD-40 will drizzle in and loosen the plug, I leave it and go to supper. When I come back I laid the barrel back on the work table and thought I would use some compressed air (in a can) to blow out some of the WD-40 before trying to remove the plug. I puffed a good shot of canned air into the touch hole.
I hear a weak thud over by the cabinets, just a very quiet impact of some sort. Something had to have flown out the muzzle and I wonder what so I walk over and look around and there on the floor is my pea sized ball. "No way" I think "that little bit of air blew the ball out" Well, it had, the proof was lying on the floor. It took me a while but I finally figured out what had happened.
When that first big 40 grains of 3F black powder sizzle happened the patch was burnt off the ball, but the ball stayed in the barrel because of the powder residue, in effect it was glued in place. The reason I kept getting that sizzle result with the subsequent priming powder attempts was the ignited powder gases escaping past the ball (and out the touch hole) because the patch was gone, so no seal, no pressure build up, no explosion to propel the ball!
My blowing in that WD-40 had luckily dissolved the powder residue holding the ball in place while I was at supper, and my weak canned air shot had blown the now free ball out the muzzle.
You could have blown me over with a feather. I think I will put this one it among the other lessons Trouble has taught me.
Happy shooting y'all
dave
