Different powder causing hard starting balls

[No Powder]

I have always used Goex in my 54 TC Hawken. Have used .535's and .530's without having any issues with starting the balls. Now I'm playing with Scheutzen powder, and I can start the first ball with a short starter without any problem. But cannot start anymore balls in the barrel. Could the change in powders be causing this? Will be going to the range to experiment some more. I had to drop back to a .010" patch to get them to start. Always used .015" with Goex. Has anybody experienced this annoying situation?

[Winter Hawk]

I have a bunch of Scheutzen I bought when nothing else was available, now I also have Goex which I use interchangeably and have had no issues like that.  Are they both the same granulation?  I know that the Scheutzen burns dirtier than Goex so that may be what is making it harder to start repeat shots, if the powder grains are sticking to the fouling.

My $0.02, and worth every penny of it!

~Kees~

[No Powder]

 [ Invalid Attachment ]  [ Invalid Attachment ] Kees, you're right it's worth every penny of it, and I appreciate your response. This is so stupid , I wasn't going to post it. But I saw it and others with me saw it. And the only thing I changed in the loading of this rifle was the powder. Never had to use .010" patches before. I think someone mixed some alum with the powder and the barrel is puckering up.
 
These targets show how it shot using Goex, .015" patches, and the same and bigger balls before. Now I can't even get the second ball started.

[No Powder]

Sorry for the double images.

[Nessmuk]

you ARE swabbing between shots, right? with Scheutzen I HAVE to swab after each shot, with GOEX every second or third shot requires a swab.

[No Powder]

Fortunately Mark, my patch lube has never required me to swab between shots. Even using Scheutzen I've never had to. I did manage to get a few balls started, but I won't tell you what I had to do to get them started. All I can say is, I knew there was a reason for that 6x6 besides holding the building up. After I got it started in the end of the barrel, it loaded fine.

[Bigsmoke]

Tom, I don't recall if you ever mentioned what your patch lube is.
If it is something like Wonder Lube or the T/C equivalent, there is your problem.  Paste patch lube is not user friendly, to the best of my instincts.

I recall where Ox Yoke and T/C did a marketing bit of an experiment with Wonder Lubed patches.  It was done at the Ox Yoke plant in Maine several years ago.  I think they wound up shooting like 150 shots, maybe more and they boasted that they never wiped the barrel at all.  As Paul Harvey used to say,  "And now - the rest of the story."  They used squib loads of Ffffg powder.  They never actually said yes, but when I asked them about it and I gave my opinion, Stan, the sales manager just smiled and said, OK.

Upon looking at your target, I see you are using a liquid lube.
Try really saturating the patch first and see if that helps.
I am also thinking that using a 95 grain charge is more than that 1:48 barrel wants or needs.
Try dropping your charge a tad bit and see if that helps.
Or, just sell or give the remainder of the container to an unsuspecting person and go back to what works.  I think that is what I would do.
John

[No Powder]

95 grains is too much for our shoots. That's my hunting load. That would be a light load to you John. I use 65 grains at our shoots. And look at the size of the balls I used on this target. .535 balls, .015" patches and don't remember having any trouble loading. And the other day using .530's and .015" patches and couldn't get them started.  I know you are all confused. So am I. So if the weather would cooperate a little, I would be going to the range to try this out. [ Invalid Attachment ]
By the way John, our first shoot is next Sunday, and I'm looking forward to trying your card splitting advice.

[RobD]

I'll only use Swiss in 1-1/2F and 3F granulation.  In my findings it's the most powerful and cleanest burning of all brands.  Next up would be Olde Eynsford, but even that can't compare to Swiss.  For me, it is what it is.

I also never use a tight patched ball, no ball starter either - I try to duplicate what I believe was how both rifle and smoothbore loading was predominantly done for most of the 18th century.

I use Gato Feo #1 patch lube and can load without fouling control for a .540 bore and .530 ball with.015" cotton ticking patch cloth, 70 grains of 3F or 1-1/2F in the tube and pan.  The patched ball must be well tamped down on the powder charge, compressing it to the point that the ramrod will bounce.  Black powder needs a fair amount of compression no matter whether it's poured into a tube or a cartridge.  I use patch strips that are fully infused with melted-in lube.  Unless it's a really hot day, the #1 lube formula won't go sticky or gooey.  For really hot weather I just increase the ratio of beeswax over tallow and paraffin.  Sometimes I'll forgo the paraffin and make up a lube with 50/50 tallow/beeswax.

Accuracy is slightly less than If the ball was .535 and required a short starter and mallet to get it past the first 6" of the bbl ... but again, that's not how guns were loaded back in their day - there was typically a greater need to load for speed than ultimate accuracy.  Back then their prime target was a minute-of-torso that meant life or death.  Or deer or bear or whatever - not a far smaller paper bullseye or gong.  Buck 'n' ball loads were also popular, which was another reason why the predominant firelock was a smoothbore.

There sometimes will be a bbl that demands fouling control after a few shots or more.  It happens.  For such bad behaving bbls I'll resort to a moose milk swab of a patched jag that's followed by a dry patch.

[No Powder]

It's all over but the crying. Found out at the range today, it's the cast balls. Shot 12 shots using Goex, Scheutzen, and .530 Hornady swaged round balls, and the last one loaded as easy as the first one did.

[Winter Hawk]