droptube flint

[irishtoo]

i was thinking(always scary). when your pouring blackpowder down a barrel, is that not the same as using a droptube? just a throught.

[nhrifle]

Yes it is. Some of the old target shooters even went so far as to put a weighted rod on top of the powder for even compression.

[country gent]

Watched a guy testing the compression thery at the club he would stand the rifle on a bathroom scales add the weight to the reading and compress to that weight with the rod then seat ball/bullet. He was getting some good groups at it.

[johnson1942]

i have had the habit of bounching the gun on its butt 10 times every time i load. settles the powder the same every time. i may try the weighted ram rod as suggested above on my one target rifle. also as i had posted many months ago and got many pro and many con coments,i have a tiny vent hole into the combustion chamber also on my side locks. settleing the powder, and fast complete ignition makes for good accracy. thanks nhrifle, im going to make a weighted range rod. how much weight do you suggest on the rod? i love those tight tight groups.

[GARD72977]

If this gun is to be used front he bench then you may consider a real drop tube. The fouling in the barrel will keep the barrel from acting as a real drop tube.

[Maven]

irishtwo, Don't you accomplish the same thing when you seat the patched RB, i.e., apply consistent pressure to the projectile atop the powder charge? (The operative phrase being "consistent pressure.")

[GARD72977]

I don't think it works that way. I had a 40-90 and if you dropped the powder through the tube you could get about 15gr more that if you compressed it. Some how it stacks much tighter that you can compress it.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Yes it is. Some of the old target shooters even went so far as to put a weighted rod on top of the powder for even compression.

N0. A drop tube is and was used, especially by many Whitworth type rifle shooters so not a grain of powder sticks to the barrel to be pushed down by the seating of a bullet. BvT

[DIRT Farmer]

There have been tests on using a drop tube verses pouring powder down the barrel in chunk guns (Bevel Bros published in Muzzle Blasts). In their tests there was no benifit.

In paper patch loads in long range rifles drop tubes are used so that no powder grains are there to damage the patch from what I have been told so I use one loading my Gibbs.