At our monthly muzzle loader match today I had an unusual thing happen. This was with a Lehigh kit from Muzzle Loader's Builder Supply that I assembled 8 years ago. It is a 50 caliber with a Colrain barrel 42 inches long. It has won me a dozen medals as it shoots GREAT. So good in fact I made an exact copy a year and a half ago, one is brown and one is blue. I usually shoot 80 grains of Goex FFG and have no issues. I wiped the barrel very well before snapping a couple caps and had some good soot down the barrel. After the first shot I wiped the barrel as usual with a damp patch then a dry one and noted some powder grains on the damp one. The gun went bang okay and I won the first part of the match! Each wipe had a few powder grains so I dropped to 70 grains and same thing. Swapped nipple and same thing even though the first one was new. Same powder I used last week shooting my chunk gun and no rains showed up.
Any ideas what it could be? I pulled the clean out plug on the powder drum and ran the bore scope in and there seemed to be no blockages or build up of sludge although I used my steam cleaner to make sure?
Thanks, John
Oh yeah after dropping the load I came in 3rd in the steel portion of the match!