Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders My muzzle loader got a bulge in its barrel today?

What causes barrels to bulge? Thanks John

Sometimes its a space between the slug and powder.

Or the mud and the powder.

Sounds like you got lucky 🍀

did u load a viagra inside by mistake?

I was shooting 460 grain no excuses. Using triple 7 fffg. There was a " stickiness in the barrel" Had to really work em down the tube. Then they got easier to pass. They were grouping awfully. Switched to a power belt 395 grain. Shot two they grouped a little under 2.5 inches at 100 yards. Started to load number 3 and noticed the bulge...about 7 inches from the muzzel?

It has to be a bad spot in the steal I would not shoot it. What brand is the gun

Thompson Center NW explorer.

Such things usually occur when one shoots a bullet seated short with only a bullet starter and no follow thru with a ram rod to fully seat it. The cure is a new barrel.

Yes, did you start it and not fully seat it?

Either way, that barrel is all done......which sucks, but it could have been worse....

I'd talk to Thompson Center and see what they say. They might know what the deal is and if your lucky, they might give you a new barrel, but probably not. They'll probably claim operator error.

Sounds like a classic case of overstimulation. You need to turn on parental controls on the cable box nearest your gun safe. It's shocking the stuff these black powder guns get into while we are away.

If you were using stout charges meant for ffg, fffg is smaller-grained and will have more powder by weight than the same volume of ffg. fffg give more pressure and velocity than the same volume of ffg in other words.

Thompson center offers a lifetime guarantee I believe. I think the barrel developed a crud ring at the bulge. I was at my cabin and did not bring my full cleaning kit and against my better judgement kept shooting. Then the bullets began to load EASY. But the groups were horrible. I switched to the powerbelts, those two grouped and I was preparing to load a third to confirm final sight adjustment and noticed the bulge. It must be karma from my years of slandering powerbelts that got me. But I would guess the injury to the barrel happened the shot prior to it getting easy to load.

Whatever it was that caused the bulge, it wasn't the bullets. Especially powerbelts.

Power belts are $hit......

Right. And they make barrels bulge too.

Agreed. Totally my fault! It is the old haste makes waste that spanked me. My fault.The powerbelts instructions actually discuss the need to monitor crud rings when shooting triple 7. They recommend wet patching bore between shots which I failed to follow. The incredible deal is the accuracy the powerbelts exhibited even out of a barrel that was so severely damaged.

I've been shooting Power Belts for about 15 years and have never seen a screwed up barrel. I use three 777 50-50 pellets. I can typically shoot 7 to 10 rounds before I need to swab it out.

.....and I shoot an Encore.

Two things about "crud rings." First, they normally form down near the breech so you wouldn't expect them to cause a bulge near the muzzle in a good barrel. Second, they make loading hard but they are just powder residue so they shouldn't cause a barrel bulge either.