Traditional Muzzleloading Association
Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons => General Interest => Topic started by: Winter Hawk on May 25, 2019, 10:10:46 PM
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A quick critique of the barrel I bought from Mr. Hoyt. Not anything detrimental or trying to nit-pick as I am pickled tink to have it, but just a couple of things someone else may want to discuss with him if they have him build something for them.
1) The under rib is flat on the top to match a bottom flat of an octagonal barrel. I would have specified one with a dished top to match the round portion of the barrel. As it is, it works but there is a small gap along each edge.
2) The front of the under rib is not rounded off. Not a big deal as a few minutes with a file fixed it. Maybe that is considered normal for an in-the-white barrel?
3) No touch hole liner. The touch hole was drilled into the barrel. This may be a blessing as I believe it is too low, almost even with the bottom of the pan. Installing a liner would allow the larger hole to be drilled even with the top of the pan and would remove the hole that is there now.
4) Again not a big deal, but I believe the turtle front sight is soldered on backwards. At least the head is pointing towards the rear of the gun, but what do I know? That may be how the old trade guns were made.
All in all it turned out very nice at a super good price. I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet as there have been some issues which have kept me close to home. I do have over powder and over shot wads for it and a bag of #5 shot. My 70 grain powder measure gives me one ounce of that shot so that may be my "square load" whenever I get the chance to put it through its paces. I also bought a box of 25, .61 diameter balls for it to try before I get carried away buying a mold.
Photos are in the pictures forum.
~Kees~
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Figured today was a good day to shoot my May postal shoot target before I ran out of May. Took the T-C and brought along the new barrel which I tried first. Okay, I probably should have remembered Mr. Hoyt saying the bore was actually .615" as I tried to run a patched .610 ball down and couldn't get it properly into the muzzle, where it was stuck. I thumped the butt on the floor to settle the powder, primed and shot it out. It wasn't in far enough to build up any pressure or I wouldn't have done so. A "pop" and it was out.
Things went south from there. I ran an over-powder wad down, dropped a ball on that and finished with an over-shot wad but forgot the powder! I was able to get the o-s wad and ball out by bumping the muzzle on a piece of 2 x 4 but the o-p wad was a different story. But I now know that the touch hole allows fire to get to the charge! Oh, I did get the wad out at home.
~Kees~