New Liner

[Wyo Mike]

When I was at our club shoot a couple of weeks ago I used my .58.  I was starting to have problems with the load.  About every three or four shots I would  get a poof shot, like I had only put in a half load.  I was also spraying  people 30 feet down the line.  I had recently swapped to KIK from GOEX.  KIK 3F is a little little finer powder than GOEX 3F so I figured some of it was going out the touch hole when I was loading.  I had drilled out the touch hole on the rifle to  5/64" when I built the rifle about 5 years ago and thought that size must be just too large for the KIK 3F.

I put the barrel on the bench and got out the propane torch and heated up the liner.  When I install a liner I make it so that it takes and easy out to remove it.  I also seal the threads with red or blue Loc-Tite.  I tried the 5/64" easy out and it went  in to far.  I then tried a 7/64" easy out and it went in over half way.  The liner came out easy enough after that.  I put another stainless liner and opened the hole with a 51 gauge drill.

I got to the range on Saturday to test it out.  There was no hessitation with the smaller hole.  The rifle was back to shooting like it used to.  Someone had left a Redfield target up with a couple of .22 holes in it.  The .58 put five shots  into the center diamond at 25 yards offhand.  Someone had left a Shoot-N-See up at 50 yards so I took 5 shots at it offhand.  Everything went into a two inch group.

It loooks like the new liner will work fine.

[Hanshi]

I love the smell of success in the morning. 

[gordy]

        Sounds  like you found the cure for the problem . WWhat made you switch from Goex to Kik?
Availability , price , better performance ? Just curious , I've never tried Kik .

[Wyoming Mike]

Price and performance.  I had used 25 pounds of KIK about five years ago and really liked it.  After it was gone I found I could get bulk GOEX for $9.00 a pound so I have been using that.  When I ran low this year I could not get the local distributer to answer my emails so I got 25 pounds of KIK from Powder Inc.

KIK has a little more oomph than GOEX but not much.  It does clean up a little faster.  Again not much but noticable.  I like it a little better than GOEX but not enough to pay the extra $2.00 a pound if I don't have to.

[gordy]

        Do you think that the fact of the grain size being some smaller than the Goex 3fff might be the reason Kik appears to have a little more oomph using the same volume measurement ? Seems that there would be more powder by weight than the Goex 3fff. and might also burn faster because of the smaller grains ? Quite some time ago I was sent some information {addvertizinment} promoting Wano and Kik . at that time they had a considerble difference in price over the same amount of Goex ? The last price quote  I got from Coonies in Hobbs N.M. I could buy Goex nearly as cheap , and save the haz-mat because I go to N.M a coulpe of times a year and can call ahead and they'll have it ready to go when I get there . For me the difference in price , availability , performance would have to be substanual before I"d switch .

[Wyoming Mike]

The grain size probably does make a difference.  My prior order was for 2f and it was as hot as GOEX 3f but the grainular size was noticably larger.  I just think they use a little hotter formulation and possibly a different type of charcoal for the difference.

I understand where you are coming from on changing powders.  When I win the lottery I will just buySwiss and look down on the poor vermin that use anyting else.   

[Hanshi]

Is KIK imported or domestic like Goex?

[Wyoming Mike]

KIK is imported from Slovenia.

[Hanshi]

PowderInc's site had Kik listed as unavailable, I noticed recently.  Otherwise the price is great.