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Posted: 7/1/2024 1:16:36 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WarDawg][Edited]
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Ok I have read and watched videos for two days. I’m going to ask a couple questions. I know a lot is opinionated . So bear with me. #1 . Black powder storage. Some say don’t put it in an ammo can. But wooden box . I thought maybe a good sealed plastic container. I’m going to order 2-3 pounds BP later today. My ammo is in my basement. It floats 50 degrees to 70 degrees on both end of the extremes. It’s a drive in car parking basement/garage. #2 lubing patches. I just ordered Hoppes black powder solvent / patch lube. A 2 in 1 product. It’s got a decent following. I also have a tube of bore butter and Ballistal in a can. I know people spit , pee and home whipped sauce for their patches. Read where some just smear light there homemade or wonder lube / bore butter on the side of patch that contacts the barrel. And some smear and then microwave there patches. I guess I’m writing this to demonstrate how wide the methods are. I’m sure they all work. #3 what do yall coat your barrel / bore with when you put it back in the safe. #4. I do not have a nipple tool yet. I’m guess I need one. How often does one take a nipple off. And why ? I guess nipples wear out ? #5 I like to get a decent hip bag for shooting these great rifles. Probably time period close enough. Leather. Point me in a direction. #6. What do yall suggest on powder charges. Y’all measure , pour each shot while at the range ? Or do you buy them little containers and put your powder load in them. Recommendations. #7. This a statement. Not a question. This is a cool hobby. Definitely a lot to learn properly. Hell didn’t realize how much I needed to buy to get started properly. Rifle should be in tomorrow. I will post pics when I get it together. I’m guessing the barrel isn’t on it. I don’t even know how to install that !!! lol. Thanks for hearing me out. Wardawg |
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Originally Posted By WarDawg: Ok I have read and watched videos for two days. I’m going to ask a couple questions. I know a lot is opinionated . So bear with me. #1 . Black powder storage. Some say don’t put it in an ammo can. But wooden box . I thought maybe a good sealed plastic container. I’m going to order 2-3 pounds BP later today. My ammo is in my basement. It floats 50 degrees to 70 degrees on both end of the extremes. It’s a drive in car parking basement/garage. #2 lubing patches. I just ordered Hoppes black powder solvent / patch lube. A 2 in 1 product. It’s got a decent following. I also have a tube of bore butter and Ballistal in a can. I know people spit , pee and home whipped sauce for their patches. Read where some just smear light there homemade or wonder lube / bore butter on the side of patch that contacts the barrel. And some smear and then microwave there patches. I guess I’m writing this to demonstrate how wide the methods are. I’m sure they all work. #3 what do yall coat your barrel / bore with when you put it back in the safe. #4. I do not have a nipple tool yet. I’m guess I need one. How often does one take a nipple off. And why ? I guess nipples wear out ? #5 I like to get a decent hip bag for shooting these great rifles. Probably time period close enough. Leather. Point me in a direction. #6. What do yall suggest on powder charges. Y’all measure , pour each shot while at the range ? Or do you buy them little containers and put your powder load in them. Recommendations. #7. This a statement. Not a question. This is a cool hobby. Definitely a lot to learn properly. Hell didn’t realize how much I needed to buy to get started properly. Rifle should be in tomorrow. I will post pics when I get it together. I’m guessing the barrel isn’t on it. I don’t even know how to install that !!! lol. Thanks for hearing me out. Wardawg #1. I see no problem with a plastic ammo can. I doubt a metal can is a problem either, they are designed to not explode with ammunition. 2-3 pounds of powder is not very much energy. #2 The first thing you have to ask is will you be shooting targets, or will you be hunting? The main difference is how long it will be loaded before being fired. If it's only going to be seconds, or minutes before firing, you will want to use a water based lube because it does a better job controlling fouling. If it will be loaded for hours, then you will want to use a grease or dry lube so that it still works when it is fired. To be perfectly honest, a lot of things work ok. Some work slightly better than others. Spit works fine for target lube, at least in the summer. In the winter windshield washer fluid does ok. The best target lube that I have ever tried is 1:1 water and dish soap. You rarely have to swab your barrel with a good water lube. For hunting lubes, a good easy, cheap option is crisco. It works better than you would think. I am not a fan of TC bore butter. It is very liquid in the summer, and rock hard in the winter. It really only works well between like 50-70F. I've tried Frontiers patch lube, it's good, and is especially good in the heat. I've tried the Track of the Wolf mink oil, it's good all around. Most of what I shoot now is bear grease, rendered black bear fat from a bear I shot. It too works good. It's a little runny on the hottest days, but it never really freezes solid in the winter. These grease type lubes do not control fouling as good, so you will have to swab your barrel from time to time. When accuracy testing, I swab every shot. #3 This is a more important question than you would think. If protection is the concern, then corrosionX is about as good as it gets. The problem I found is that if you use an oil like that, your first clean bore shot is usually a wild flier. This is not a huge concern for target shooting, but it's a HUGE issue for a hunter. I even did a test over the course of an entire day with a TC Renegade where I would take a shot, remove the barrel, and then at the range in a bucket I 100% cleaned the barrel like I would at home, and dried it on the dash of the truck over the heater, then loaded and took another shot. It was a LONG day, but I learned a lot. What I learned was that if you lube the bore with the same oil as your patch lube, your first clean bore shot will be right where it should be. If you lubed with say CorrosionX, and your patch lube was Crisco, that first shot could, and often was WAY outside the group, like 8" out at 50 yards. My advice is for a target shooter, use the best corrosion protective oil you have, and just accept the first shot flier, you are using water based lube anyway which may not have an issue. If you are a hunter, lube your bore with the same grease as you use as patch lube, at least before you go hunting. It's not the most protective, but even bear grease has proven to be good enough for my purposes, but it may not be the best for long-term storage if you are in a more humid area. #4 Yes, get a nipple wrench. I'm sorry if I missed that in the beginners list in the other thread, I'll update that. I remove my nipple EVERY SINGLE TIME. There's simply no other way you can properly clean the barrel. I take it out, set it in some water to soak, then clean the barrel. You need to flush water through that flame channel to get it clean. Yes, they do wear out, but it's usually not a huge concern. With really powerful rifles the hole in the nipple can erode until accuracy suffers, but with a 50cal with round ball, it's not an issue. In your instance the nipple cone will deform before anything, which can be filed to get some more life out of it. If you forget, or loose your wrench, you can use a midget wrench open end. Check in the bag with your regular combo wrenches. They are 1/4" I think. #5 I'm not the best person for being period correct. I always choose function first, style second. I think this is the one I have, I'm not 100% on that. I don't like to tie a bunch of stuff to mine, and I don't like a ton of pockets. The only thing I have tied is the capper, and even that is just so I can find it fast. https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/423/1/bag-free #6 There's really no good answer for this. It can also depend on the rifle and powder you use. As I know you will be using Pyrodex, be aware that all substitutes are measured by VOLUME, not by weight. There's no need for much power for target shooting, and in a 50 caliber that would be more the 50-80gr range. For big game hunting, a little more power is probably good, so more that 70-120gr range. When it comes to pure accuracy, I found powder charge was one of the lesser variables, to the point I would not even mess with it at first. Just pick a number, say 70gr and stick with it for a while. Yes, I measure every shot at the range in a volume measure. When hunting I will sometimes carry vials of powder, but not if I'm going to be taking more than 3-4 shots realistically. #6.5 You didn't ask, but one of the biggest factors in accuracy that I found is the ball and patch combo. There are a ton of combinations you can try. My standard procedure for finding accuracy in a rifle is to pick one powder charge and stick with it, and only change the ball or patch until I find the best. Some claim that a bigger ball, thinner patch is always more accuracy. I did not find this to always be true. One of my rifles liked a smaller ball and thicker patch. Some people do not want to use short starters, and that will require a looser fit of the ball and patch. Your most common combo for a 50 caliber is the .490" ball and blue pillow ticking. Generally this load needs a short starter, but it depends on the rifle. What I do is go to the fabric store, Hobby Lobby in my case, and buy small samples of fabric. The only things that really matter is that it's a natrural material (polyester burns), and that it is durable (don't use flannel). You can usually tell how tough it is just by touching it. Pillow ticking works great, you can usually find that in the normal blue kind, which is ballpark .015" uncompressed. You can also usually find a thicker version which can be blue or red, the colors do not have any correlation, that is thicker, closer to .018". It might not sound like much, but you can feel how much thicker and stiffer it is by hand. Bringing calipers can help, but thickness doesn't always tell the whole story. I have never found a fabric under about .012" that works, they all either blow out, or get cut by the rifling. You can also find other weave patterns like twill, which works just as good as pillow ticking. Some guys like denim. I like duck cotton a lot, and you can get it in a variety of thickness. If I were to recommend three patches, I would get basic pillow ticking around .015" thick, thin duck cotton around .020" thick, and a thicker duck cotton around .025" thick. That may sound thicker than some say online, but I have had very little luck with thinner patches. Any patch that cuts or blows out is wasted accuracy on the table. A .480" ball and thick patch may be better than you would think. Or maybe the pillow ticking and .490" ball is all you need. Some guys cram a .495" ball and thicker like .020" duck canvas patch down there. Also pre-cut, or cut at the muzzle patches. Both work, there's no accuracy difference between them I can find. Use whatever is more convenient to you. |
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If I missed it in the other thread, this is the best capper I have ever used. This works with pretty much anything, rifles, pistols, even cap and ball revolvers. It holds a full 100 tin of caps and is reliable and fast. Just dump the caps in, shake it a bit, and they self level. I use this for all target shooting, and even hunting sometimes. TOTW part # CAPPER-REV-B https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/1207/1/capper-rev-b For rifle hunting where I know I won't be taking many shots, I use this inline style. It's a little less handy, but it's smaller, and it doesn't rattle like having 100 caps in a tin can. TOTW part # CAPPER-P |
| Ok. I the snail cap holder dispenser on the way. I got 4 pounds of Goex FFg ordered with a can of RWS plus #11 caps. Powder valley company , I believe. I wanted to get all of it from one place. Slide it all under the hazmat fee. It cost me $200 for 4 pounds of FFg Goex and a 250 count of RWS plus #11 caps. It hurt. But I got about everything I can need to start this journey. I retire in a year & half. So this is where this all fits in. I will have TIME …..I hope the RWS plus is good to go. They was pricey, but it’s what they had in stock. What’s yall go to cap of choice ? Again thanks for the advise given to me. Wardawg |
| I haven’t gotten any spare nipples yet. Are SS better than old school style ? I honestly am waiting for the rifle to get here to see what height and style is on it. Does it matter ? I’m sure it does. But had to ask. Do you lube the nipple threads when reinstalling? Any lube or grease will do ? Wardawg |
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RWS are good caps. Look locally for caps sportsman usually has them. Back in the 90s I brought 25lbs of DuPont mix of 2ff 3fg and 4 f I also purchased 5000 cci number 11 I still have about 500 left after target shooting and hunting with a cva 12ga double barrel. owned gsp dogs hunting pheasants got boring with modern 12ga /20ga weapons. 12ga bp with number 6 11/4 loads will drop a pheasant like a brick. |
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Originally Posted By WarDawg: I haven’t gotten any spare nipples yet. Are SS better than old school style ? I honestly am waiting for the rifle to get here to see what height and style is on it. Does it matter ? I’m sure it does. But had to ask. Do you lube the nipple threads when reinstalling? Any lube or grease will do ? Wardawg You can skip the spare nipples for now, the one that comes with the rifle should be just fine. I do not keep spares, I only replace them when needed. By SS I assume you are asking about stainless steel? They probably are a little better than regular steel ones, but the differences are not gigantic. I've used both with success, but buy stainless if possible, because why not? What is most important is that the caps you use fit them well. I do not mean they have to be perfect, one of the good things about percussion guns is they are a lot more tolerant. Your hammer can be slightly off, your cap can fit a little loose or tight, and it generally works ok. All that really matters is that the priming compound in the bottom of the cap is actually sitting tight against the top of the nipple. The bad thing is there is no standard to cap sizes. #11's from different brands can be different sizes. Even #11's from the same brand can vary. A CCI #11 is ever so slightly bigger than a CCI #11 magnum, maybe. Or maybe that's just manufacturing tolerance. Sometimes the length of the skirt is different. Then there are also #10 caps which are usually smaller, but not always. I think a Remington #10 is close to a CCI #11. If you really want you can even shoot musket caps with a different nipple made for them (they are way different in size), but they are so much more expensive and so far fewer options of them. Between percussion caps, they are not gigantic differences, but they can make a difference. If you want to shoot a variety of caps, then you would want to have a looser fit on the nipple, and they should work with a bunch. I am mainly a hunter, so I want them to fit good, both so they don't fall off, but can also be removed when I don't fire a shot. If they fit a little loose, you can pinch the caps and that works great, but then they don't have a good seal from the elements. The way I do it is I screw the nipple into a nut of the correct size. All of mine are 1/4"-28 thread. I then chuck that into a cordless drill to basically make it a lathe. I then use an Arkansas stone or a fine file to take a little material off the cone a little at a time, and check fit with my caps until I get the fit I want. I want my caps to push on full with little resistance, but not to where they don't actually grab on. In your instance being a target shooter, you are probably going to want a slightly looser fit because as fouling builds up, that can make them fit tighter. I like a little looser fit on my shotguns. Alternatively you can just wipe it off every few shots. Your last question is a matter of opinion more than anything. Some do lube the threads, some do not. I do not. I have never found a reason to, nipples do not get stuck as long as you are cleaning them every time you shoot them. I doubt a small dab of anti-seize would hurt anything, |
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