Patch lube for hunting hot weather

[Tom W.]

The lube I stuck in the bottom was mostly to help keep the fouling soft as I did a lot of target shooting and didn't want to be cleaning my barrel every three or so shots. For weekend hunting if I didn't have to shoot I knew that the powder wasn't going to be fouled by lubricant, and I could leave the rifle loaded for the next day. Sunday evening I would discharge the rifle and clean with extremely hot water with Ivory soap. I didn't have anyone to teach me how to do it, no internet back then, just studying the muzzleloader magazines and trial and error. I still have my TC rifle, although I haven't fired it in a coon's age. It's in the safe at my son's house right now.

[megasupermagnum]

It turns out an over powder wad does wonders for a round ball load, I never would have thought to try it. Using a 1/8" 28 gauge real wool felt wad under a patched round ball and pillow ticking. Before my best load was 60 grains of FF powder and it shot about 3" at 50 yards. That same load shoots about 2" now with a felt wad, however, the cool thing is 90 grains now shoots just as well. Without a wad, my patches start to get a hole in the center around 70 grains at least with washer fluid for lube, about 90 with a grease, which is a story for another day. I even shot a couple at 120 grains, and wouldn't you know, the patch was in great condition.

Another lesson learned, measure your round balls. I've been swapping back and forth between .530" and .535" molds. Somewhere along the line I cast with 20-1 alloy, which is a good thing. The problem is my .535" balls are actually measuring .537", and are a bear to load without a mallet. The .530" mold is casting .533", which assuming they shoot just as well, is what I'm going to standardize on.

[Boerrancher]

First off my advice is stay away from the plastic wads. They are good for one or two shots and then you end up with one stuck halfway while trying to load it. The fouling becomes too hard to push them past. Lastly accuracy just plain sucks compared to a properly lubed patch.

I hunt with muzzle loaders all the time. My favorite squirrel rifle is a 32 cal cap lock, wish it was a flinter but oh well it is what it is. My first patch is always a bear grease patch with any of my round ball shooters. If I don’t shoot it I pull the cap off and flag it as loaded by leaving the rod in the bore, and use it again the next day. If I do shoot it it is spit patches the rest of the day until I can clean it in the creek or whenever good water source I have.

My flint locks I never leave loaded. Many people will tell you if the pan is empty it is unloaded. NOT TRUE. A well tuned flintlock will fire 10-15% of the time with an empty pan. It doesn’t take a lot of time to clean one anyway so I fire them and clean them every night.

[megasupermagnum]

I don't know much about flintlocks, and have never owned one. I've heard a lot of guys stick a tooth pick in the flash hole. I would think that would be fairly safe if the cover, sorry frizzen, was kept up. For that matter, can't you just take the flint out, or is that asking for trouble the next day?

[Boerrancher]

I don't know much about flintlocks, and have never owned one. I've heard a lot of guys stick a tooth pick in the flash hole. I would think that would be fairly safe if the cover, sorry frizzen, was kept up. For that matter, can't you just take the flint out, or is that asking for trouble the next day?

I don’t like to take the flint out until It is cleaning time, or replacement time. The reason being, you have to dry fire it to make sure you have the alignment correct, and considering it will go bang at least 1 in ten pulls of the trigger with a dry pan and loaded chamber, I don’t want to risk it. I also don’t want a monster buck to walk out 20 yds from me and when I pull the trigger it goes click, because I didn’t get it aligned right.

[rfd]

flint always stays in until it needs replacing or the lock is being cleaned.

with a loaded tube - hammer down on the pan, hammer steel (frizzen) flipped open, toothpick or quill in the touch hole, leather boot on the hammer steel. that's how you safe a loaded flint lock.

[Boerrancher]

flint always stays in until it needs replacing or the lock is being cleaned.

with a loaded tube - hammer down on the pan, hammer steel (frizzen) flipped open, toothpick or quill in the touch hole, leather boot on the hammer steel. that's how you safe a loaded flint lock.

Thank you for posting this. I knew it but never practiced it because for a long time I had small children and it was easier to just shoot the thing and clean it before returning it to the rack, instead of having to wonder was one of my 5 small children going to see the quill or boot on the frizzen and try to climb up there to see what is new about the untouchables. I took this precaution for so long, it became habit. Now that the kids are all grown and moved on, I may revisit this technique, come deer season.