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Posted: 5/25/2010 2:22:22 PM EDT
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Just bought a .50 Great Plains rifle, Lyman. Installed a new Perfect Nipple. Shooting 777 with ball & patch, #11 Remington caps. First 5 caps did not ignite the powder. #6 had a delayed shot, then the next 2 rounds fired first time, then it took 4-5 caps to set it off. Do they make hotter primers? I am very sure the port from nipple to chamber is very clean. Any advise to a BP newbie would be great, as well as tips on how tight to pack it. Fun stuff! About how many rounds can I shoot before needing to swab it out? If the patch is pre-lubed, do I still want a bit of bore butter?
Thanks, Tim |
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Do they make hotter primers? Yes. There are magnum percussion caps available.
How many rounds can I shoot before needing to swab it out? Depends on your individual rifle/ball/grease/bore fit.
You might get 2 or 3 shots before you need to swab. Ideally you should swab after each round. If the patch is pre-lubed, do I still want a bit of bore butter? Again it depends on your rifle/ball/patch fit. Use enough lube to keep the ball easy to ram and fouling soft.
No hard rule about it if you want extra lube try it out and see what happens. 777 and the other blackpowder subs are hard to ignite sometimes. Try a different brand of caps and powder. You may have to go back to Holy Black to get the rifle to work correctly. A firm push down on the ram rod should pack the powder firm enough.Don't go hammering on or banging the ram rod up and down. All that does is screw up the bullet. Load the rifle normally, push down the bullet firmly. Then take a felt tip marker and draw a line on the ramrod where it meets the muzzle. This can then be used as a gauge to check the barrel for correct bullet seating as well as if its loaded or not. |
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The 777 is your problem. It's more useful when lit by at least a musket cap or preferably in an inline with a 209 primer.
To get your rifle working the way God intended it, you will have to switch to the One True Holy Black. Musket nipples, maybe a switch to regular pyrodex, and little tricks like unscrewing the nipple after loading your charge and dropping a few grains down below the nipple before firing will help you in the mean time, but you will be pleasantly surprised when you make the switch to Goex or Swiss. Consistency, long shelf life, easy ignition, and lower cost are the benefits of real black. Anybody who tells you that pyrodex or 777 are less corrosive is either a fool or a liar. They all need cleaned out sooner rather than later. Windex works well. |
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Quoted:
The 777 is your problem. It's more useful when lit by at least a musket cap or preferably in an inline with a 209 primer. To get your rifle working the way God intended it, you will have to switch to the One True Holy Black. Musket nipples, maybe a switch to regular pyrodex, and little tricks like unscrewing the nipple after loading your charge and dropping a few grains down below the nipple before firing will help you in the mean time, but you will be pleasantly surprised when you make the switch to Goex or Swiss. Consistency, long shelf life, easy ignition, and lower cost are the benefits of real black. Anybody who tells you that pyrodex or 777 are less corrosive is either a fool or a liar. They all need cleaned out sooner rather than later. Windex works well. this,,, an you won't need a musket nipple,,, hot water and some dish soap works gret for cleaning, the oil her up when she's dry |
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Did you pop a few caps on an empty barrel?? If not, then next time you should. Small bits of crud will block the flash channel and snapping a few caps will blow out any accumulated crud, making the chance of the first shot lighting off very good.
Oh yeah, get some real black powder. Lower ignition temperature. |
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I'll add to the comments about BP and Pyrodex or 777.
You can get the best of both worlds to some extent Use 10grs of Goex FFg or FFFg poured down the barrel first as a kicker charge for a main charge of loose Pyrodex or 777. Reduce the Pyrodex charge accordingly (80gr load of Pyrodex should be changed to 10gr FFg and 70grs of Pyrodex for example). This is commonly done for those like me who like to anger the muzzleloader gods by running pyrodex in flintlocks. I run this arrangement in a Lyman GPR flintlock. Of course with 777,you give up your corrosion free shooting if you do this. That said, a musket nipple costs very little,and the cost of caps is not that much higher,particularly if you have Civil War reenactor friends who buy them in bulk. |
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Had problems with loose 777 in my sons inline even with musket caps.
Woudln't have a problem on the range, but carry the gun all day in the woods and go to discharge it in the evening and it would take 3 or 4 caps to ignite. Switched to pyrodex and it worked fine. |
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