I gotthe.54 Green Mountain barrel for myRenegade back in November, at which time I shot four 5-shot targets and haven't shot it since then. I was waiting to get a scope mounted on it, which I managed to do last week. So one shooting session this week end was devotedto the .54GM Renegade.I'll post shooting results later, but I wanted to tell you guys about the misfire problem I had today.

I was shooting GOEX FFFg, cast balls with olive oil patches,CCI #11 magnum caps, and wiping with both sides of one alcohol patch between shots. I was "slapping the lock" each time after dumping powder to make sure powder got under the nipple. Temperature in the upper-80's & slightly humid.

First and second shots went off fine.
Had a misfire on the third shot. Put a second cap on the nipple and it fired.
Fourth shot went off fine.
Misfire on fifth shot. Did not firewith a second cap. Pulled the clean-out screw from the bolster and put some powder in there and it went off with the next cap.
Misfire on sixth shot. Had to pull the clean-out screw again and prime the bolsterto get it to fire.

Man, was I getting frustrated.

After the sixth shot I took a good look at the cleaning patch after the first swab- and took a picture of it.




It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but some of the fouling pulled out by the patch was almost like little flakes of clay.

Then I flipped the patch and swabbed again. Here's the picture of side two.





Do you see that "flake" of fouling at the 11 o`clock position on the face of the jag? It was actually sticking out from the face.
That got my attention.

So I put a clean sheet of paper on the shooting bench, held the gun in a vertical position, butt up,with the muzzle over the paper and slapped the side of the lock.

Here's what fell out of the bore (not the cap - it's there for perspective).




Well, it was pretty clear that those flakes of fouling were somewhere down in the barrel, probably near the breech plug, and when I dumped powder in the bore the powder was knocking theminto the flash channel.

So I changed my swabbing/loading routine. After swabbing the bore with both sides of the alcohol patch, I pointed the muzzle toward the ground and slapped the lock. I could see crud falling out of the bore every time. Twenty-five shots later - NOT ANOTHER MISFIRE.

This is the first time I've experienced this kind of thing. I believe it has something to do with the way Green Mountain flash channels are configured. Back on May 8th. I shot the Great Plains about 30 times with basically the same load and swabbing the same way and did not have one misfire. Temperature and humidity wereabout the same.

That is very interesting. I was experiencing the same thing with a Green Mountain Barrel. You might be on to something there.

Semisane

Excellent photography - especially close-up pics.

I do not have that problem and I do not want it... you keep it...

Kind of hoping that the "new and improved" Black mag3 gets into easy to access sale points. Would be nice to have an easy to ignite powder that doesn't leave residue. The only way I feel comfortablehunting with3f 777 in my renegade (green mt barrel) is with magnum caps and pouring a small amt of powder under the nipple after loading.

Semi - That is really cruddy stuff. It may be a PITA but maybe if you carried an extra ramrod or cleaning rod with you and put a breach scraper on it you could scrap all that stuff out before you loaded the next shot.
I never experienced anything like that. My first impression is that you left a charge in the rifle and it got all caked up in there during the cleaning. And maybe it would be true if you were a novice, but I know you better than that. I think anyway.

txhunter58

My hunting partner and I use T7-3f in our sidelocks all the time and have never had a problem shooting it with a #11 mag cap... it was a different story with 2f however... we could not get it to ignite in really cold weather. Since we made the swith to 3f no such problem last year i shot my GM_LRH barrel after a day of hunting in 15 degrees below zero. If your nipple is clear so air can pass out of it I can can easily tap T7-3f over under the nipple. If you are patching between shots and the hammer is off the nipple you can hear when the air passes out of the nipple. I should have added when we pour it in we pour in 5 - 10 grains and tap and tilt that over under the nipple... if you drop the whole load often it will compact it self and become difficult to move...

BlackMag, i probably will not make that switch because of price and it is 10 oz. container. Guess that is the same reason I have not made the switch to BH. I am cheap and T7 works for me.

Semi, when I first saw your pics - I really thought it to be un-burnt powder. I have not used very much GOEX and the GOEX I use is 3f. I honestly have not experianced that problem.

sure looks like some liquid got to that powder but that doesn't explain the difference in the two rifles.

What type jag were you using?

As several of you have said - I've never experienced anything like that before either.

That's not unburnt powder, it's compacted fouling.I was using a 91% alcohol patch,which I've been doing with all of my muzzle loaders for the last six months or so with great success.

If I'm using one patch as I did in this shoot, I wet the patchand squeeze any excess out between my fingers.The wet patch picks up the fouling real well and it usually looks as you see in the picture. By the time you flip the patch over for a second swab it's just about dry. The warm barrel from the previous shot really evaporates 91% alcohol quickly.By the time you pullit out on the "flip side"swab the patch is completely dry. Those flakes of fouling you see in the third picture are notwet at all- they're crusty.

If I'm using two patches, I don't squeeze the first one outmuch and it's pretty wet going in. It remainsslightly moist when I swab with the flip side. Then I barely moisten the second patch. Usually when the flipside of the second patch comes out of the bore there's very little fouling on it and both the patch and the bore arecompletely dry.With two sides of two patchesI'm shooting on a bore that's "almost" clean.

The jag I was using in this shoot (see first picture)is pretty snug in the bore and it may have beenpushing a little of the fouling. But if you look at the center of the patch you see a clean circular area. There was no fouling compressed between the end of the jag and thebreech plug. I wish I had a bore scope to take a look at how the flame channel is configured in the GM barrel. At any rate,point the bore at the ground after swabbing and giving it a little slap solved the misfire problem completely.

saxman1

My GM barrels have a clean out screw and you can feed a pipe cleaner in that and with a good pen light you can see it come out on the BP. The pocket in the BRP of a GM barrel is a bit larger than that in a TC barrel - infact if i drop my bore light in the barrel to fast it will get stuck in the breech plug.

If I remember right the flame channel comes out on the top of the powder about a 1/3 of the way up on the load. So infact you are igniting the top 3rd of the powder load. You are not starting the burn at the rear of the powder - helps reduce some blow back effect + gives a more efficient burn.