Well I am learning that when you take a full stock flintlock to the range, it gets a lot of attention.

Twice now when I have gone to the range "old-timers" have pinned me down with monologues of their guns, loads, etc., etc. Today the guy stood within 4 feet of me, if he wasn't talking he was watching me load and shoot. Now I know they mean well, but its tough to concentrate when someone is yakkin' at you.

During the monologue this guy-one of the line safety officers at the range-told me about using corn starch. He told me that if I put corn starch on top of the charge, in between the charge and the load, I would not have to swab out the barrel. The corn starch would scrub the barrel on its way out. Presumably taking dirt, etc., along with it.

At first I just nodded like a bobble-head, but then he disappeared, only to come back a while later with some corn starch. And 'natch, he stood there and watched me pour this stuff down the barrel.

My question is: was this guy loopy from standing out in the heat for too long? Or does corn starch really clean fouling out of the barrel as the guy said it would?

Thanks again for all your help.
~Robert

Are you sure he did not say corn meal? Corn meal was used as a buffer and they claim that as it passed over the barrel it would do a light scraping of sorts on the way out. It acted as a buffer between the powder and the patched roundball and was supposed to increase accuracy. I have shot corn meal out of my rifles. I could not say it made a big difference but the birds seemed to like it.

Long ago they also used wasp nest from the Paper Wasp. These Wasps make a large nest usually within six feet of the ground and the hive itself is a paper like secretion from the bees and a mixture of the plants and elements in the area. (The old saying is the higher the nest was off the ground the more snow you can expect.. or is it the other way around? ) This also was used in the same setting as the corn meal.

I've never heard of the corn starch but have heard of many other things that people like to shoot out of the rifles. Now we make bore buttons or wonderwads as they are called out of 100% wool felt and then lubed with a bore butter type substance to keep it from burning when the charge is ignited. The bore buttons will protect the patched roundball in the barrel. They will also act as a buffer between powder charges and conical bullets. The old rule if thumb is if the conical has a flat base then you use a bore button. If the conical has a hollow base like the minnie ball, or the some of the Buffalo Bullet conicals or Hornedy Great Plains (I think they are hollow based) then the bore button would not be used. Yet we have a poster, Roskoe, that gets excellent results shooting the Great Plains with a sub base.

All you can do is try the different things and see if they work.

If you poured it down & used it, then surely you know if it works. So why are you asking us?

The only problem I have with the cornstarch is it being a sugary replacementfor somefoods. It will invite/absorb moisture at a high level.

Just curious! How many grains of starch were you using??

I haven't heard of the corn starch trick yet. Course I've just started getting in to muzzleloading and am still somewhat of a greenhorn.

I do know what you mean when at the range though. I don't know how many times I've been at the range checking accuracy of my 30-06 and felt like a foriener, where no one even says "howdy", but I showed up with my 50 cal. Hawken and the bees came out of the woodwork. Last time I was there the range boss (who also happened to be a prominent member in the National Muzzleloaders Association) wouldn't leave me alone. His big trick was to swab out the barrel with simply green cleaner after each shot. He also did some heavy recruiting to try to get me to join the NMA and a local group called EE-DAW-HOW Longrifles or something like that.

Another thing I did get from him was to file down the rear site to a flat withthe center notch (if you have a curled up rear sight, like bulls horns...not sure what they call it). He claims it helps ya increase accuracy, and he was quick to pull out a target from his last shoot. It was an impressive group he shot with his 45 cal.Kentucky style flinter at 100 yards. I haven't done that to mine, as I am happy with the results I'm getting, but my brother (who was with me that day) did it to his, and he said he notices a difference.

Cayugad: Now that I am thinking about it, I don't recall if it is corn starch or corn meal-kind of makes a difference! I'll have to take another look at it.

Triple7: I'm not sure what effect the stuff had. I'm still working on sighting in, so the targetwas only 25 yards out. (I live in Arizona, the range temp was in the upper 90s. I only got about 10 shots off when my body started telling me its time to pack up and cool off somewhere.) As for cleaning, I used Cayugads Iso/Washer mix and the fouling didn't look to be noticeably less. Guess I will just have to do some more shooting and testing!

Trouthunter: I do have the type of rear sight you described. No offense, I think I'll keep it the way it is

~Robert

Robert: I did keep mine the way it was too. It was my brother who filed down his. He likes it, but I feel if it ain't broke, don't fix it.