A bit of mongrel mojo on the west coast

[hotfxr]

A little word of caution when using brass balls. Unlike lead, brass balls bounce. (Visions of the tigger dance come to mind?) At a friends ranch yesterday, shooting at wood targets, (against my advice, I might add) our host shot at a metal target he had set up. Bawoom went the gun, tink went the target, and ouch went the shooter as it bounced back and hit him in the shin. Fortunately it was only a glancing blow and did not even mark his jeans, but it could have been a lot worse. Something to keep in mind when I go to the Rondy out here in April. All the targets on the shooting trail are metal. A few of them round. Lead balls will be the ammo de jour for that trip.

[gunmaker]

Have a care--always---I broke my left ring finger with an 1858 clone.  10 yd. 20 gr. hit a "Hard" stump and whacked me right good, still can see the scar.  1984 maybe saw a guy shoot out the rear window of his new pick-up...same thing.   This ain't no game.     ...Tom

[hotfxr]

Have a care--always---I broke my left ring finger with an 1858 clone.  10 yd. 20 gr. hit a "Hard" stump and whacked me right good, still can see the scar.  1984 maybe saw a guy shoot out the rear window of his new pick-up...same thing.   This ain't no game.     ...Tom

I used to do a lot of pistol shooting at an indoor range, at metal targets. A lot of tactical shoot/don't shoot situations with knock down black & white & pendulum steel plates. I have had holes put in clothes, cuts & scrapes and bruises from ricochets. Nowadays I don't shoot at metal targets less than 100 yards away. And I always wear safety gear, now that I am a lot older and it hurts more.

[beowulf]

I`ll quit shooting before I`ll use brass , copper would be bad enough but at least it will mushroom a bit and is soft enough that with the right jag you could pull a dry ball ! but what twists my tail the most is cost ! I`ll be d*mned and double dipped in sheep cr*p before I`ll pay $34.oo for a hundred round balls ! there`s a nice warm place where all these left wing lunatics can go !

[CampbellClan]

oops....not sure how I missed that one.  Thanks red Badger!

ACTUALLY that question wasn't answered...Let me ask it this way.. IF one doesn't have a patent breech and dry balls with a brass ball...then what? Assuming the ball gets pushed far enough, your screwed right??

[hotfxr]

oops....not sure how I missed that one.  Thanks red Badger!

ACTUALLY that question wasn't answered...Let me ask it this way.. IF one doesn't have a patent breech and dry balls with a brass ball...then what? Assuming the ball gets pushed far enough, your screwed right??

If your rod is properly marked for ball depth, you would never set the ball too deep.     Ahem, what I meant to say was I would be removing the vent/drum and be practicing creative uses of probes and wires to work it out past the hole. I also have a lllooonnng drill bit with a variety of bushings that I used a couple of times before I discovered those handy ball/screw/remover thingys. Most likely not the recommeded or proper method, but I never said I was that bright. 

[CampbellClan]

Gotcha, BUT who normally looks at the ramrod WHILE driving it downward to seat ball and powder? I do after the fact and after the fact would for sure be too late. At least you have a solution to the problem to the "dray ball of a brass ball"...but sounds like a long and aggravating job. That does answer my question though. BTW, Im not trying to be difficult...I was just curious is all.
Thanks!

[hotfxr]

Gotcha, BUT who normally looks at the ramrod WHILE driving it downward to seat ball and powder? I do after the fact and after the fact would for sure be too late. At least you have a solution to the problem to the "dray ball of a brass ball"...but sounds like a long and aggravating job. That does answer my question though. BTW, Im not trying to be difficult...I was just curious is all.
Thanks!

You're not being difficult, I'm just funnin you. (And no offense intended.)  I had a similar problem last month and the imperious self proclaimed leader of the shoot I was at used that exact phrase on me in such a snarky tone of voice that I almost fell over laughing at him. Needless to say, I will most likely not be invited to join that group again. One of the rifles I got last year had most of a ball wedged deep in the breech (It looked like someone had used a ball remover and just tore it up) and I did indeed get it out by taking off the drum and picking at it for about half an hour. Not pretty, but I was going to refinish the barrel anyway.

[mongrel]

I've seen CO2 used to discharge a dryball from a barrel. It will also work to force a few grains of powder in behind the ball, either through the nipple or cleanout hole on a percussion rifle, or the vent hole on a flinter. This situation, involving a flintlock, is the only real justification I can see for using 4F powder for priming, since it could be difficult to force larger grains of powder through the smaller-diameter vent holes. Even if the initial first few grains don't propel the ball completely out of the barrel, they'll move it forward enough to allow a second, larger charge. Re-seat the ball atop the second charge and shoot it out.

One thing that seldom gets mentioned, directly, in these discussions, is the location of the vent hole or percussion drum. On a patent breech the flash channel usually runs from under the base of the nipple through the face of the breechplug, so that by definition any powder you trickle in via the nipple will be behind the ball, but on guns with a vent hole or a percussion drum it's critical that both be located as closely as possible to the face of the breechplug. Many novice builders and even some with experience enough to know better will locate the vent or drum a bit further forward, if for no other reason than to have the threads clear of the face of the breechplug. Especially on smaller-caliber barrels, this means that in the event of a dryball the ball will actually be blocking the vent or flash hole, which makes it somewhere between difficult and impossible to get powder behind the ball. There are several valid reasons for locating the vent or drum as far to the rear of the breech as possible, but the most practical reason and the one that most applies, here, is that a dryball is inevitable, not a matter of IF but of WHEN, and the vent or drum ought to be located with this in mind.