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Muzzleloading 101

blake

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Muzzleloading Safety & Shooting Information Guide


This post is for those of you who may be thinking about taking up muzzleoading. Or perhaps you have some questions about muzzleoading.

Hopefully this post will also be a good reminder for some of us who have been shooting them for many years. :)

You experience guys feel free to share you thoughts and tips with all of us please.

Make sure the gun is unloaded:
First we must determine if a muzzleloader is empty or loaded. Take the ramrod and insert it full length into the barrel. Mark the spot on the rod where the muzzle is, and then withdraw the rod. Lay the rod along side the barrel with the mark even with the muzzle, then look to see where the tip is positioned.

If the rifle is unloaded, the tip should be about one half inch ahead of the joint of the barrel and the breech plug. If it is one to two inches ahead of that, the rifle is probably loaded. If it is further up the barrel than that, there is probably a ball stuck in the barrel that will need to be removed.


Clear the ignition passage of oil or grease:
When preparing to load your muzzleloading rifle make sure to clear the ignition passage of oil or grease; then wipe the bore with a clean patch until all the lubricant from storing your muzzleloader is cleaned out of the barrel.

Next, go to the firing line and find some loose dirt or even blades of grass. Put a cap on the rifle with the barrel empty of powder and point the muzzle at the surface, holding it an inch or so away, then pull the trigger. You should see a reaction: the dust will scatter, or the grass will deflect from the cap blast.

If you do not get this reaction, try it again and again, until you do. You should hear a crisp, clear report after the first cap, and not a muffled one. If this will not happen after two or three caps being fired, the ignition passage is clogged.

Remove the nipple and look through it. If you cannot see a point of light, it is clogged. Run a nipple pick through the small orifice in the nipple to clear the fouling from it. If it is not the nipple, then the passage from the nipple to the barrel is clogged and needs to be cleared.

If you have a cleanout screw in the breech or the drum, remove it and run a small wire through the passage. If not, then the wire will have to be fed in through the nipple hole to clean the passage. Once this is accomplished, replace the cleanout screw and the nipple, pop 2-3 more caps through the firearm.


Powder
Unless you are shooting a Savage Model 10 Muzzleloader, do not put smokeless powder in a muzzleloading firearm.

There are typically four granulations for black powder:

1F: is used in small cannons and in large bore shotguns and rifles over 12 bore (.72 caliber).

2F: is used in bore sizes over .50 caliber.

3F: is used in rifles up to .45 cal. and in cap and ball revolvers.

4F: is used as priming powder for flintlocks.

Charging the barrel with powder
Powder should always be loaded into the barrel by the use of a separate powder measure. DON'T EVER load your firearm directly from a powder container of any sort. Why you ask? The reason is a spark to be lingering in the fouling and when the powder charge is dropped down the barrel, it could ignite. If the charge just were poured from a powder measure, it wouldn't be too bad. But if one was holding a full powder horn or powder flask to the muzzle of the rifle……………… :mad:

We have all seen it done in the movies, and on certain shooting ranges, but I advise everyone to NOT blow down the barrel. Wipe the bore with a damp cleaning patch!

To load your firearm drop a measured charge of powder down the barrel, then tap the rifle on the side to settle the powder, and get out a projectile.

We have three choices here, a patched round ball, a conical bullet or a sabot.

Patched round ball: Center a lubricated, pre-cut patch on the muzzle and set a round ball on top of it. Using the short leg of the starting tool, start the ball down the barrel, then set deeper with the long leg of the tool.

Conical Bullets: With the nose of the bullet pointing up, engrave the rifling onto the bullet by starting it into the muzzle using the long leg of the starting tool.

Sabots: Making sure the bullet is securely down in the sabot, start it into the barrel with a short starter. Do not attempt to load a saboted bullet in two pieces. It will not work, taking the ramrod, push the projectile down the barrel until it seats upon the powder charge. I recommend using shorter strokes with the rod, instead of trying to push it down in one fell swoop. This is a safety measure, as it is possible to break a wooden rod when pushing the bullet down all the way at one time.

The rod should have about 35 pounds of pressure placed on it when seating the bullet. Do not bounce the rod, as all that does is further deform the ball and creates uneven pressure on the powder charge from loading to loading. After the rifle has been loaded, the rifle may be pointed in a safe direction (down range) and capped or primed. A few other thoughts on loading the rifle:

If at all possible, the under barrel ramrod should be used only for hunting purposes. Use a brass range rod for all target work and for cleaning and maintenance purposes. The reasons are obvious; the range rod is a heavier it will not break, and when loading a dirty barrel, it will work, where an under barrel rod will not have the leverage to successfully seat the ball. For cleaning, the brass rod is impervious to solvents and oils, where a wooden rod can be adversely affected.

The short starter should be suitable for the projectiles being loaded. For round ball, use a starter closest in size as possible to the ball. For example, a 5/16" starter should be used with .32 and .36 caliber; a 3/8" starter with .45 caliber; a 7/16" with .50 caliber and a ½" starter with .54 and larger. The brass tip should have a plain, concave surface. For sabots and conical bullets, starters are made that have a conical recess in the tip to keep from deforming the bullet nose. For hollow point bullets, starters are made with tips that fit into the hollow point. The less you deform the face of the projectile, the better the accuracy will be.

When shooting patched round ball, better accuracy will be achieved by cutting the patch material at the muzzle than by using pre-cut patches. Cut the patch at the muzzle by starting the ball into a wet portion of the patching, then slicing the patch material with a patch knife cutting away from yourself. How much lube should you put on the patch? I pour lube onto the patch until it is thoroughly wet, then squeeze out the excess.

If you should load a ball without powder, or if you didn't clear the ignition passage before loading, or if it just won't go off, there are three ways to rectify the problem:

Remove the nipple, pour a little bit of fine (ffffg) powder into the ignition passage, then replace the nipple, cap and fire.

Using a CO2 device, expel the ball (and charge). Note, the ball must be all the way down on the powder or against the breech plug, and the firearm must be pointed in a safe direction. The ball will be expelled with some force. This is the safest procedure for removing a stuck ball.

Using a ball puller on a ramrod, pull the ball out the barrel.

A few other safety rules for muzzleloading firearms that should be followed are:

Do not load while smoking or around any open fire source.

Keep the powder container closed except when dispensing powder.

Having the stopper tied onto the powder horn strap will keep from loosing it, but...it promotes not putting the stopper back into the horn after pouring powder.

Do not mix granulations of powder.

Conical bullets can migrate part way down the barrel when carrying the rifle in the field, especially when the muzzle is carried down. Periodically check the position of the bullet. A bullet that has moved becomes a bore obstruction.

It may take some time to develop a load for the firearm you are using, but remember:

Accuracy is far more desirable than High Velocity.

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PM
Ron Wyllie
Southwest Iowa IBA Area Representative
[email protected]
 
Last edited:
All great points Ron! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">If you should load a ball without powder, or if you didn't clear the ignition passage before loading, or if it just won't go off, there are three ways to rectify the problem:

Remove the nipple, pour a little bit of fine (ffffg) powder into the ignition passage, then replace the nipple, cap and fire.

Using a CO2 device, expel the ball (and charge). Note, the ball must be all the way down on the powder or against the breech plug, and the firearm must be pointed in a safe direction. The ball will be expelled with some force. This is the safest procedure for removing a stuck ball.

Using a ball puller on a ramrod, pull the ball out the barrel. </div></div>


<span style="color: #FF0000">I will add that a ball puller is one of the nastiest things to use. For me, too much of a chance to be off center and damage the rifling.
There is a fourth option. You can unbreach the barrel. Not as bad a job as one thinks. All breachplugs are threaded with normal threading...IE, turn left to loosen. Clamp barrel in a vise protecting the barrel from the jaws with leather. The plug will be tight! But it will come out. Make sure that if your barrel has a drum bolster to remove it first. They sometimes lock the breech plug in.</span>
 
#1 safety tip I can offer to aspiring muzzleloader users is to beware of hangfires! I have personally experienced or witnessed this on multiple occasions and the delay from ignition to discharge can be up to several seconds under the right (or wrong) set of circumstances. If the load doesn't discharge <u>PLEASE be sure </u> to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction for an extended period of time! This can happen on modern inline rifles as well.
 
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