Found a Surprise in My New Pistol

[oldracer]

On Wednesday I took the new single shot pistol I made to the range to do more testing, I.E. patch thickness, sight picture, ETC. Started at 15 yards and it would shoot 3 or 4 hits right next to each other and then a couple of flyers? Did the same thing at 25 yards and also the same with .010 and then .015 patches although I had to tap the .015 patch and ball down but could push the .010 patch and ball with a good push. I gave up and decided to go home and look in the bore with my scope and also pull the 209 adapter to see if there was a problem with it.

Pulled the barrel off and then the 209 adapter and noticed a very small hole in the powder drum? Used a pick and the material was hard as a rock? So I ran some 3-part cleaner in the muzzle and NONE ran out the powder barrel. What the hell I thought, so I pulled the clean out screw (don't usually do) and the pick wouldn't go in? Something has jammed up the fire path so I dropped a brass rod down the barrel and no clank at all so I got a rod with a screw threaded on the end and ran it in and pressed hard and could feel it biting into something. It took a fair amount of strength to pull it out and what do I find but about 75% of a cleaning patch or some such material! The powder barrel was still jammed so I used a small drill bit and it pulled out more material! Used the bore scope and it showed all was now clear to I put things back together. The only thing I can figure was I used a double patch, never caught it and the outer one stayed inside when I pulled out the cleaning rod? The 45 caliber patches I have are very thin so it is possible two could have been used but I was very surprised the pistol still shot pretty well with the plug in the breech of the barrel!
John

[dondiego]

Could it have been left over form cleaning or was it definitely a shooting patch? Glad you found, and fixed it!

[mazo kid]

John, very puzzling! So why was the pistol shooting great for 4-5 shots and then sending fliers for the next two? Possibly the stuck patch was interfering with full power ignition for those last few shots?

[mazo kid]

Duplicate post

[oldracer]

I talked this over with my mentor and he thought it was a shooting patch but it was burned pretty well. The pillow ticking is tight enough so it could have ripped going down as I can not just push it like a .010 Ox-Yoke. When cleaning I always look at the wet and or dry patches to see if they rip or any unburned powder, ETC. As big as the chunk of material was I think I would have seen the missing material, plus it was stuffed in the fire channel full and tight. As suggested I plan to check before each loading to make sure the ram rod goes clunk before putting powder in, and so on. I plan to put in a 28 grain load of powder then look down the bore with my bore scope to see if the threaded hole is covered with powder so there will be no chance of patch material snagging.
John

[725]

Hunting one day with my T/C Scout pistol and a patch (from prior cleaning) was down there and it completely stopped ignition. No joy during the hunt and found it all when I went to discharge it at the end of the day. I learned.