Cayugad & Mark, I would respectly like to disagree with your assement of the operation of the breech plug.

The face of the breechplug is designed to mate with the rear flange in the barrel. The face of the breech plug needs to be seated firmly against this flange to reduce the amount of gasses blowing by this seal and back into the threads. Both Remington and Austin & Halleck technichians recommend that the plugs shouls be snug and unmoving.

Breech lubrication of some sort should be used to help insure what blow does occur is reduced by the lubricant taking up space and to provide some lubrication when removing the the plug.

If the breech plug is loose or not tight you may, might drive the plug forward with the fall of the hammer and then it will be driven backwards by the ignition of the charge. This movement could prove to be a problem with weakened threads.

I believe you should check the mating mating surface of your plug with the mating surface of the barrel. This is pretty easy to do with a black felt pen or a surface blackening compound. Cleaning of both surfaces is critical. Most people clean the flange of the plug without a problem, most often the build-up on the barrel surface is ignored because it can not be seen. Screwing a cleaned and dry plug back into the barrel snuggly will knock off, clean off a lot of the debris that may be lodged on the barrel suface a turning bronze brush does wonders.

I use Teflon tape on my plugs, with the tape over lapping and patted down on to the plug flange/face even to the point of covering the flash hole, then screwed tightly in place. I will shoot 30-40 rounds each trip to the pit, never loosening the plug and often not even cleaning the gun until the middle of the week. Breech plug removal is not a problem.

Again I suggest to you as has been told to me, the gas seal is suppose to be the face of the plug to the rear of the barrel. If the surfaces are clean and mate perfectly, blow back is not a problem - to insure this seal greese/teflon is the way to go - not just on the threads but the face of the plug also. A ignited cap or a fowling shot will take care of the excess greese. If you are using teflon tape you do not need to worry about fowling the powder. The first shot will drive your sealing compound either greese or teflon back up an into any space that would not seal.

When I remove my plugs the teflon on the threads is still pink and shows little sign of being burnt or heated to any any extreme.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...BreechPlug.jpg

Class is starting so gotta go....

All of this is just my opinion as I use my guns.