.
FWIW, back around the late 60's I made a front stuffer pistol from an 8" section of rifle (round) barrel from a .444 I shortened to 16".
Not knowing any better back then, I just tapped the rear of the barrel cutoff for an unknown steel bolt, to which I welded a tang, then grafted the assembly to a 10"x14"x2" slab of black walnut I had come across a year or two earlier.
Cutting to the chase, after I got 'er done, I shot it with PRB's for several years before I sold it - none the worse for wear or other issues.
While I rounded the bolt head of my build to match the barrel, the flats alignment suggestion above are skookum.
Please take some pics, and let us know how you make out.
IIRC, small caliber (.22) muzzleloaders tend to foul quicker than larger bores, but the smaller caliber IS interesting.
I've personally never owned anything smaller than a .32 cal, and as Pete mentioned, it required a lot of wiping, even with mild loads.
But, that little .32 was likely the MOST fun gun I have ever owned! Period!
Another reason I was doing so much wiping could have very well been due to the load I was using, which was always a bit more than the MAX listed for that gun.
IIRC the MAX load should have been around 32gr and, the gun should have
never been fed a steady diet of even that much, but suffice to say I did use more than the recommended maximum load for several years because that gun really liked those "hot" loads.....In fact, it shot every bit as well as a center-fire in a similar caliber.
Back in that time frame, early to mid 1970's, there was an old axiom that you "loaded 'em till they cracked".....
At the time I was young enough, and foolish enough, to do just that. Fortunately I'm still around to tell the story.
And, fortunately, others who was shooting BP in those days remember all to well what I'm saying and they too seem to have made it OK.
Nowadays I'm very adamant about
NEVER DO THAT, stick with the recommended loads!
If ya have to wipe a bit more with the smaller calibers, so be it.
That's all a part of owning and shooting one of these little jewels.
Never try to "shoot 'em clean", and never take any short cuts......short cuts, and other such madness never seems to end well.
Good luck with these small bore projects, they sound like a lot of fun.
Uncle Russ..
Topic: Custom size breech plug help (Read 2050 times)