ORIGINAL: cascadedad
philnie, one other thing, newbie to newbie. If you do swab, the patch should only be very lightly moist. The first time out I had put some patches in a small Tuperware container and moistened them with windex. Too moist that is. One shot there was a pop, but no boom. Sat there for 30 seconds or so with gun to my shoulder. Then installed a new cap. Shot again. Pop...........(1 second)...........boom. The last trip out, I had just slightly moistened patches, swabbed with a wet patch and then a dry patch. No problem.
On a side note. One thing about the teflon tape I do not like. I have found that it is not easy to get it all out of the breech threads. Of all the steps involved with cleaning, that is biggest pain in the rear for me. I use a 12 ga brass brush, it is tight and even tried putting a patch on it, but just doesn't do that good of a job. Any suggestions by anyone?
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=000309507
get yourself a breech plug cleaning brush. You wrap a large cloth patch around the bristles, solvent the patch, slide it in the back end of the rifle into the breech and then turn the brush clockwise. Ithen pull it back out and check the threads. Sometimes a second patch will be necessary. That is all the brush is made for.
As for the wet patches ... if you can ring fluid off the patch do so. Swab the bore and the turn the patch over and swab the bore again. I swab with a solution of 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and car windshield washer fluid. The alcohol starts to dry as soon as you pull the patch. Then be sure to run a dry patch or two after the wet one to make sure the barrel is dry. That will stop the hang fires or misfires for the most part.