Primer for Shooting Black Powder

[Von Hayek]

I used to shoot and compete quite a bit with my father when I was a boy and I am looking to getting back into shooting black powder but it has been 30 years. I still have my .54 CVA rifle and I have my father's Thompson Center guns with Green Mountain barrels. I think I remember the ins and outs, but is there a primer around with which I can brush up? The gist I remember is powder, patch, ball fire. Clean with a with a wet patch. Dry patch. Repeat. Wash the barrel in a bucket of hot water at home.

[Bill in Md]

You have a good rifle to begin with....I slayed many a deer with the TC's back in the day....Your GM barrel should be a slow twist that handles a ball well....Start with a .530 and a .20 patch with about 60 grains of 2f black powder as a practice load to get you on the board and go from there....Look for your patches. They tell the story. If you have a good patch and ball combo your patches will look as though they could be shot again.

There are many roads to Rome....You will get sound advice here among these fellows. Take a pinch from here and there and make your own recipe.....

[Standing Bear]

Good memory Sir.  That’ll certainly get you shooting. I’ve modified that regimen over the last 50 years and when necessary only wipe between shots with a damp patch in and out no drying needed. If it’s still damp I turn that patch and use it on the following wipe. Dampened by laying a cleaning patch on my tongue not wet.

Welcome back.

PS:  I noticed that all of the cleaning concoctions are mostly water. Now I clean w water only.

[smylee grouch]

Welcome back to the sport. You will learn as you go and being a club member will help. I dont use hot or even warm water to clean, just room temp water and it works just fine with no flash rusting.

[Von Hayek]

Good memory Sir.  That’ll certainly get you shooting. I’ve modified that regimen over the last 50 years and when necessary only wipe between shots with a damp patch in and out no drying needed. If it’s still damp I turn that patch and use it on the following wipe. Dampened by laying a cleaning patch on my tongue not wet.

Welcome back.

PS:  I noticed that all of the cleaning concoctions are mostly water. Now I clean w water only.

Thanks.

[Von Hayek]

Welcome back to the sport. You will learn as you go and being a club member will help. I dont use hot or even warm water to clean, just room temp water and it works just fine with no flash rusting.

Thanks.

[Von Hayek]

When checked with a ramrod to see if it was loaded, it sure seemed like it with the ramrod dropping with a dull thud, stopping well short of the nipple. However, I ran a scope down the barrel and sure doesn't look like a ball. Is it possible this is a terribly corroded ball?

[Daryl]

Yes! Ball screw will be necessary. Track sells them. Need a steel rod and a place to hold/clamp the rod into, or a strong friend.
I would first spray WD 40 down the bore and give it some time (days) replenishing it a few times, to help work between the ball/patch and bore.
If there is a ball, there is likely a charge of powder as well. That needs to be reduced to a sludge Pull the nipple and repeat the WD40, spraying it into the nipple seat.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Sure looks like a ball to me.  Here's what I'd do...plug the nipple with a tooth pick, stand the rifle up on its butt, squirt a bunch of WD 40 down the bore and let it sit for a day.  Now put a ball screw on a range rod, and run it down into the ball.  You'll know instantly if it's lead...the screw will bite into the lead.  When you've got it in good, pull the ball out.  You may need a friend to hold the rifle, or put into a padded vise...it'll take two hands and some determination to remove the ball.  Then clean the rifle well.  I concur with smylee grouch..use water that is comfortable to your skin, definitely not hot water.  Shoot only real Holy Black Powder - not alternative fake powder no matter what the sales people tell you.  Welcome back and enjoy the sport.
I see Daryl has beaten me to it...oh well, like minds...

[Von Hayek]

I suppose I shouldn't try and fire it out?

[Eric Krewson]

If you have an air compressor you could remove the nipple and use the rubber tipped nozzle stuck in the nipple hole to see if it will blow out. Of course, oil in the bore is first to lube the wad. Point the barrel in a safe direction, sometimes a blown-out ball exits with some authority.

I would try to shoot it out on the chance that someone loaded it with smokeless powder, which is unlikely considering the guns history.

[Von Hayek]

Well, I got a little more information from my father that makes sense--he removed a ball from that barrel but the powder still remains. I suppose I just need to twist a jag in it then flush it out.

[Daryl]

A WORM is needed. Track sells them. A ball screw in the end of the rod or a rod, will also break up the powder
and allow you to pour it out.
https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/121/1

[Von Hayek]

A WORM is needed. Track sells them. A ball screw in the end of the rod or a rod, will also break up the powder
and allow you to pour it out.
https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/121/1

Very good. Thanks. It's also nice to be exposed to that website. Looks like the go-to place.

[Jeff Murray]

Some boiling water poured down the barrel should help soften the powder if that is all that is there.  Let it soak for a while and then pour it out to see what comes out of the barrel.

[Von Hayek]

Some boiling water poured down the barrel should help soften the powder if that is all that is there.  Let it soak for a while and then pour it out to see what comes out of the barrel.

Good advice. It shall be done.

[Daryl]

If you haven't done it yet, please do not pour boiling hot water down the bore.
Cold or room temp water will suffice.
On caked powder or caked powder fouling, according to the UK's Holland and Holland, boiling hot water will cake the powder or fouling.
They were making black powder guns 80 to 90 years before ANYONE on this forum were born.

[Von Hayek]

If you haven't done it yet, please do not pour boiling hot water down the bore.
Cold or room temp water will suffice.
On caked powder or caked powder fouling, according to the UK's Holland and Holland, boiling hot water will cake the powder or fouling.
They were making black powder guns 80 to 90 years before ANYONE on this forum were born.

I just ran a worm at the bottom of the barrel and then some lukewarm water. All good now.

[Daryl]

Great!

[Dphariss]

Never, EVER use boiling water. Heating the barrel will cause instant flash rust as teh water is dumped and quickly evaproates.  I never use anything more than warm and generally tepid at best.

Use ONLY BLACKPOWDER. REAL blackpowder not the other stuff.
Some “substitutes” are horribly corrosive compared to black.
Some are designed for inlines and are ever harder to light off than their corrosive brothers. And are designed to run higher pressures and give high velocities with conicals.

[Daryl]

Never, EVER use boiling water. Heating the barrel will cause instant flash rust as teh water is dumped and quickly evaproates.  I never use anything more than warm and generally tepid at best.

Use ONLY BLACKPOWDER. REAL blackpowder not the other stuff.
Some “substitutes” are horribly corrosive compared to black.
Some are designed for inlines and are ever harder to light off than their corrosive brothers. And are designed to run higher pressures and give high velocities with conicals.

Not only good, but VITAL info, Dan.  So many barrels have been ruined with the use of phony BP's.

[Von Hayek]

Never, EVER use boiling water. Heating the barrel will cause instant flash rust as teh water is dumped and quickly evaproates.  I never use anything more than warm and generally tepid at best.

Use ONLY BLACKPOWDER. REAL blackpowder not the other stuff.
Some “substitutes” are horribly corrosive compared to black.
Some are designed for inlines and are ever harder to light off than their corrosive brothers. And are designed to run higher pressures and give high velocities with conicals.

Still have a couple cans of GOEX but they have to be many decades old. We'll see if it still burns.

Not only good, but VITAL info, Dan.  So many barrels have been ruined with the use of phony BP's.