Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Ignition Issues

OK here is another photo for you . This photo is from a 50 cal CVA mountain rifle barrel that I had out in my shop . The barrel was un usable so I cut the breech off so you can see what the bolster looks like . This barrel is also early enough that it carries the medium sized CVA bolster
This is the hole in the face of the plug that the hole in the neck of the bolster must align to

..
This hole is the same size as the hole in the neck of the bolster . so as you can see if don�t have a low temperature powder and /OR this hole and connecting flash channel gets plugged with built up fouling or is restricted , the result is poor ignition consistency .

Now let me show you how easily this fouling can build up and what it looks like .
Please look back at my previous post of the Pedersoli blue ridge breech plug .
That plug came from a flintlock rifle that a person was having ignition problems with .
The rifle was well maintained and looked to properly cleaned on a regular basis ..
However when I pulled the breech plug , this is what I found


But this is what it should have looked like and did once I cleaned the plug out


What you are seeing is carbonized fouling from True black powder which had restricted the flash hole of the flintlock , to the point that even a direct flash from the pan , could not ignite the main charge . Not only was the restriction to the point the powder could not get back to the flash hole . But the flash from a flintlock being less hot then that of a #11 cap , it just didn�t have enough to ignite the main charge after making a turn and being restricted .
Anyway , I hope that helps you some