pan priming

[Firewalker]

I don't use much primer, but I'm usually just sitting at a bench, not bouncing around the woods. I think for traveling I would fill the pan in order to avoid having it shift to the wrong place.
On a gun rest, on a bench, not moving, one squirt from one of those brass push valves works in my 2 rifles, two in my trade gun.

BTW I was kidding about drilling it out and using a fuse.
As Capt. said, enlarging the vent is most often counterproductive.

[mark davidson]

Capt.Jas, thanks for the links. Those are indeed the tests I read. To some degree they do seem to dispell several notions about priming and vent hole placement.

[Gordon H.Kemp]

Shooter , I don"t think there are but a very few folks that grind their own prime , nothing wrong with it as long as its done as you do , in small amounts . There used to be a mortar and pestel made from ceramics , You could order from an add in the Muzzle Blasts Mag ?  I"ve never done it myself , but may just give it a try sometime . I used to turn some wood ones out on the lathe for grinding herbs and I think theres still a few kicking around here .

[greyhunter]

Well, now two pushes on my primer tip is not quite half the pan. If I use my small priming horn, it overflows the pan then I gotta brush some out, an if a buck is coming at me I don't have a clue how many pushes I do, but it's a lot.  The main thing is, ta holt yer damn sight piture til the dern thing goes boom! I don't know how many grains I use, I don't count the little critters. I use 4f if I have it, otherwise 3f goes poof too. Some here use 2f. Just be sure it and the pan are dry. An if that's too complicated fer ya I hear they have a newfangled riffle that you just push a brass shell up the riffles butt, close the butt and pull the trigger, amazing.....

[shootrj2003]

Greyhunter,
  I had got one a them ,I figured to dry snap it to make sure i'd get spark,before i loaded it never did get none so I give to a flatlander -traded for a good knife-he never did catch on,last i seen he was smilin' an'waving bye!I
  I picked that mortar up at a yard sale for 10 Cents like new.

[Captchee]

here is my oppenion on the test .pFFFFTttttttt LOL
 if banking it works for you go for it .
 if a fullpan works , 2 thumbs up
 id spitting in the pan and dusting it works , ha more power to ya

 if its not broke , dont try and fix it  

[Quartermaster James]

I use about 3-5 grains of 4f powder.
Close the frizzen/pancover, and give her a knock to level her out. Pan's by no means full.
When, into a day of shooting, I get a hangfire or flash-in-the-pan then I pick the vent hole and all is fine again.

What I've learned is that it's a spark from the prime jumping through the flash hole that fires the gun, not building a fuse to the flash hole out of primer.

That said, I second what Captchee wrote.

[Firewalker]

Well, now two pushes on my primer tip is not quite half the pan. If I use my small priming horn, it overflows the pan then I gotta brush some out, an if a buck is coming at me I don't have a clue how many pushes I do, but it's a lot. The main thing is, ta holt yer damn sight piture til the dern thing goes boom! I don't know how many grains I use, I don't count the little critters. I use 4f if I have it, otherwise 3f goes poof too. Some here use 2f. Just be sure it and the pan are dry. An if that's too complicated fer ya I hear they have a newfangled riffle that you just push a brass shell up the riffles butt, close the butt and pull the trigger, amazing..... :lol:

[Kermit]

Underhammer flintlocks. There were originals, not just some new millenium's dream. Discussion here currently:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/ind ... ic=13223.0

Think of these. They go "bang." Gravity being what it is, the prime is pretty much going to be anywhere but against the vent--unless you shoot it in a pretty unusual position!

[Uncle Russ]

here is my oppenion on the test .pFFFFTttttttt LOL
 if banking it works for you go for it .
 if a fullpan works , 2 thumbs up
 id spitting in the pan and dusting it works , ha more power to ya

 if its not broke , dont try and fix it  

When I lived on the "other side of the mountain" ...it seems that in this state exactly which side of the mountain you're living on has importance....anyway, when I lived in Shelton, WA there was this old guy named Doc Grass. I think his real last name may have been Pendergrass and he was indeed a real doctor, but having spent years in California... I think you get the picture.
However, rumor has it that is exactly how he picked up the  handle of "Grass" but you know how rumors go.

This fella was an oldtimer, for sure, being well into his eighties but still very active and still very much the shooter.

He was always at the range, he was extremely knowledgeable, very well spoken, very polite, and did something that makes everyone call you a liar if you repeat it.
He was a Flinter shooter and he owned q bunch of 'em, most he built and sold, but many he held on to for himself.
All really super nice guns.

When he was on the line shooting, after each firing, he would wipe the pan with a small rag he kept hanging outside his shooting bag, load the ball, open the frizzen, lick his thumb, wipe the pan with that same thumb he just licked, pour in a charge and then dump it out on the ground, then close the frizzen and shoot again!

Always, when questioned about this, his simply reply was "you don't need a lot of powder in the pan, and if you're shooting right then and there the powder stays just where it should and doesn't get wet".........

I have tried this time and again, and I just can't get it right.
I get as many, if not more, misfires as actual shots, and to me it is just an unneeded aggravation with no real benefits. as the object is to have a sure-fire rifle each and every time.  
I have often thought it must have something to do with the design and shape of the pan he prefers, and none of my flinters have that design....but what would that design be, and what would I know?

So, there is the story of "spittin in the pan"....a strange story at best, but one that myself and many others have witnessed on many many occasions.
As a side note; I'm not absolutely sure of this, but I think Beaverman, and quite possibly Puffer and Sir Michael know this guy as he used to sell a lot of his guns at the Monroe Show every year.
I'm almost positive that Beaverman knows the guy I'm talking about and when he gets back on the forum again perhaps he can give us the straight skinny on this weird story.

Uncle Russ...

[Kermit]

Russ--in your trials, did you control for the composition of the spit? Might have had something to do with his choice of smoking herbs.

[Uncle Russ]

Russ--in your trials, did you control for the composition of the spit? Might have had something to do with his choice of smoking herbs. :rotf

You may well be onto something there..I never gave it much thought, since my only choice of poison is Red man.

Uncle Russ...

[Dphariss]

There is a post in caplocks about nipple charging  and the subject came up about  pan priming,I had stated that I had a problem with hangfires in my blue ridge .36 and found out that upon using only a pinch of priming powder my hangfire problem has disappeared and I have good,consistant ignition now ,another poster stated that that subject could fill a forum,Please,I am not trying to step on toes here but the subject was compelling enough to ask ''What have others experienced as as priming a pan is concerned,does your flint gobble or just sip?

If there is a hang fire problem with a full pan there is something wrong that you have not found yet.

I have shot flintlock for over 40 years and have never been able to see a change in speed related to powder in the pan unless it was flashes in the pan from not using enough. I have seen at least one instance in which a rifle I had shot extensively and really liked a lot was purchased by a "minimal primer" type and he had chronic flashes. But "knowing" that a thin layer was best he attacked the vent liner and hogged it out. All he had to do was fill the pan...

If you are shooting on the range it does not matter much. Unless they call a miss fire or flash in the pan a score shot. Then a miss fire is a little more irritating since it really hammers the score.

Hunting I fill the pan, on the range maybe 2/3 to 1/2. Hunting I might really need  it to go off.
Actual timing has shown that powder piled on or near the vent is actually faster than away from the vent.
So folks who bank away from the vent or use just a thin layer in the pan cause its faster are likely kidding themselves. Light priming is also less reliable. Area of the pan covered with powder for the sparks to fall in. More fire, more heat, more heat more reliable ignition. This may not be THAT apparent  in use but its simple physics.


See  http://www.blackpowdermag.com/featured- ... post-2.php

Finding and reading all the articles on vent/pan/lock timing is very enlightening.
Electronic timing is more accurate than timing by ear.

Dan

[Mustang]

Just some musings I have seen. You fellows that bank powder away from the touch hole are you careful to hold the gun steady and level. Because if you don't I bet the powder has leveled itself out in the pan as you walk to the deer stand or firing line. And if it did I suppose you could just slap the side of the rifle and re-bank it. But on second thought if banking really worked well why not make a pan and inch longer and bank if farther away? Would it be even faster?
I have read all Larry Pletcher's tests and done some of my own. I guess this is why I use a half pan full and level in the pan. I also use 4f.

[Trois Castors]

We've all read on here that not all guns work the same.....one
of my Flintlocks only works with a full pan (preferably 4f)