Fouled bore, higher pressure

[greyhunter]

Well I shot my January targets yesterday, and jogged my memory as to why I should wipe the bore tween shots. I walked up to the neighbors range instead of driving to our club. So all things relating to shooting went in my pack, well most things. Forgot cleaning patch material, jag, palm saver, range rod, and something else, but I forget what now. Anyway half way thru the 25 yd target, the bore is getting snug, and because I didn't have a jag or thin cleaning patches, I had to use pillow ticking and a patch puller, you know the little darlings with two wires, one of which promptly broke off. Had some good shots, then things start going south, or rather north. Impact starts stringing up, as the bore is so tight I have to run the ramrod into the shanty wall to seat it. No palm saver, to get back in the chase I had to use a 6 oclock hold on the bull, otherwise the shots were steadily climbing. So I "guess" the tighter load made for more pressure and raised the point of impact on each shot? Anyway, Bill, I got some good hits, an I got some bad hits, but I will take more time now when I gather stuff to shoot! .54 cal Renegade flintlock, 80 grs ffg, .015 lubed patch, .530 Speer ball. Oh well, lessons learned long ago, and forgotten, makes for a sore ramrod hand!  

[rollingb]

Soppin' wet patches (not lubed patches) keep me shootin' for hours with out wipein' 'tween shots at the range.  

[gunmaker]

if you don't want to wipe between shots a really wet patch will do the trick, I use a felt wad over the charge in case there's time between shots, like waiting in a group on walks etc....Tom

[biliff]

I'll give you extra points for degree of difficulty when I score 'em, but I'll have to subtract points for whining. I'm guessing it will be a wash.

[pathfinder]

I've never wiped between shot's. Been doing this silly stuff over 30 years and I'm really lazy,so if i dont have to wipe extra,I wont. And I am a pretty good shot if I do say so myself. My gun's out shoot me all day. It sometimes takes FOREVER to get the proper load worked out for ultimate accuracy along with easy loading.

What I have found is that ANYTHING greasy will foul more than watery type lubes. I use grease when hunting only due to the freeze factor and if the shot placement is an inch or 2 off on a Deer because of the grease,that's aceptable. I use Auto Trans fluid for the squirrel gun in cold weather.

It just dawned on me,were you asking advice or...........................?

[greyhunter]

Well despite my ramblin on, what I really was asking ...............does fouling, which increases loading pressure, cause more velocity, ie shot stringing in the vertical As far as my score is concerned, it is what it is.  My fault for not having the equipment with me to keep the rifle loading easy and shooting at it's initial elevation. My first shot of the day offhand was a 10x, it got worse as the fouling increased and my lack of cleaning stuff prevented me from fixin it. I have always felt that cold weather increases fouling, and the stiff lubed patches did not help the loading as well as a spit patch may have. Maybe next time I will take a chrony out and check the speeds as fouling increases. Just thought someone would know yea or nay if the increased fouling increased the velocity and raised the impact?  

[pathfinder]

Short answer,no. What does happen is the patch may be thinned or a hole is "scrapped" in a spot that will allow gasses pass before they should at the muzzle,"knocking"the ball off track.

[Hanshi]

I've never wiped between shot's. Been doing this silly stuff over 30 years and I'm really lazy,so if i dont have to wipe extra,I wont. And I am a pretty good shot if I do say so myself. My gun's out shoot me all day. It sometimes takes FOREVER to get the proper load worked out for ultimate accuracy along with easy loading.

What I have found is that ANYTHING greasy will foul more than watery type lubes. I use grease when hunting only due to the freeze factor and if the shot placement is an inch or 2 off on a Deer because of the grease,that's aceptable. I use Auto Trans fluid for the squirrel gun in cold weather.

It just dawned on me,were you asking advice or...........................?

     +1

[Stormrider51]

Greyhunter,
Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a benchrest shooter at heart.  I'm never happy until I have managed to wring every bit of accuracy out of a rifle that it's capable of.  So before I go stepping on toes let me say that everything that has been said by everyone else is true.  A sopping wet patch will pretty much eliminate the need to wipe between shots, and so on.  That sopping wet patch will also contaminate the powder charge to a varying degree depending on how wet it is, what it's wetted with, and how long it remains in contact with the powder.  The old saying of "Keep yore powder dry" has more than one meaning.  I've done some extensive testing from the bench and my data showed that failure to maintain a consistent bore condition leads to variations in point of impact.  The key to getting the greatest degree of accuracy from any firearm is consistency.  Everything needs to be done the same way to the greatest extent possible for each and every shot.  I found that allowing fouling to build up in the bore does lead to vertical stringing.  I found that if I used a very wet patch that the point of impact changed depending on the factors I described above.  So no offense intended to anyone else, but what you thought was happening is correct.

John

[No Deer]

Don't know what happens in riffles, but a friend of mine that is a good shotgun shooter always fouls the barrel first, and does not do any cleaning while shooting.  He says that the fouling will build up to a degree in the barrel, creating a tighter seal on the wads, therefore less blow by and better patterns.

[greyhunter]

Thanks Stormrider, I have used spit patching at our shoots for many years and know how that works as far as less fouling goes. I also remember what it is like to shoot a muzzleloader that has a double patched ball. beau coup increase in Kick! I never pull a ball, I don't like fooling around the muzzle of a loaded rifle. I will do whatever it takes to shoot out the ball instead. On the occasion of my or someone else double patching, I use a sturdy ramrod and pound the ball onto the charge, grit my teeth and touch er off. The day I was shooting my problems were my own because I didn't have cleaning stuff with me. I was just making an observation and SR has helped confirm it. Thanks guys.