Corrosion Thoughts

[rodwha]

I did...but thats only because i allowed the damage to occur by not cleaning my gun immediately. After that i cleaned immediately and im sure just patches or at most a nylon brush would have been enough...but i still went at it with a brass brush lol. I was very careful to clean the gun extra well. The time the fouling was left to sit for 13 houra after shooting i ended up with rust that wouldnt go away after a few couple days of good cleaning. Learned my lesson well.

Ahhhh, not that’s a different story, and I was in the same boat. It took hours of off and on again scrubbing and several years of patches coming back orange when checked periodically. My bore light’s batteries corroded so I need a new light. I’m curious what it looks like in there, and if it’s more than minor pitting I figure I found the barrel I’ll have reamed to 28 ga. I don’t feel tugging on patches so I don’t think it’s that bad, but who really knows. At this point I figured I’d buy an additional Lyman barrel and see which is more accurate first.

 

[alsaqr]

For many years i would receive a dozen or two muzzleloaders to ready for deer season. Many had not been cleaned after use. Bores of rifles that were fired using Pyrodex and black powder were equally trashed. Rifles fired with Triple Seven, not so much.

Leaving a muzzleloader uncleaned after use is asking for trouble, especially a muzzleloader fired with Pyrodex or black powder. The culprit that makes these propellants so corrosive is sulfur.

For many years i have used Black MZ extensively for hunting and target shooting. Black MZ is much less corrosive than either black powder or Pyrodex. The APP factory that made Black MZ was badly damaged by explosion and fire. It will probably never be rebuilt.

 

[TheOutlawKid]

I had called alliant months back and asked if the rumors of black mz were true about being discontinued and if they were going to be making a substitute in its place. I got a voicemail back saying "its not a rumor, we have stopped making blackmz and we have no plans on a substitute in its place". Those were the exact words. Just short and to the point. It seemed as if they didnt care much for the product

 

[Black Jack Shellac]

Will the powers that be allow priming discussions here? Like formulas and such? I know this subject was locked down on another forum.Still don't know why. What I have is no more dangerous than the Prime-all mix. Mr OutlawKid we have talked priming stuff before and punching out the cups as well.
Black Jack Shellac

 

[TheOutlawKid]

Prime all mix is decent...i improve it by removing the binder and adding a tiny bit od baking soda and optional aluminum powder and using Duco cement thinned with acetone as a binder. Also put a small thin rice paper disc on top to protect the primer. Stays solid and waterproof and sealed from the atmosphere. This method also keeps the reddish orange colored primer fouling down..and its still less fouling than the dark lead infested fouling in store bought non corrosive primers.

 

[arcticap]

I shot a deer on the morning of January 6th with my T/C .50 Pro Hunter (100 grains Pyrodex under a 250 Shockwave). The rifle was placed back into a soft case for travel and taken home. I removed the rifle from the case yesterday and cleaned it. I noted no rust or even any discoloration of any kind - the rifle cleaned up as usual to a bright and shiny bore.
In the past, I have waited (for different reasons) to clean this BP with again, no even minute signs of rust. I have read many accounts of horror stories about barrels using Pyrodex being savaged with rust formation in as little time as overnight.
I am wondering if the Pro Hunter barrel not reacting to the powder residue is because it is that well manufactured, if it is because it is SS or maybe as simple as it being stored in a soft case with no access to a supply of humidity - I do not know. Thoughts of those who know?

Congratulations for harvesting your deer.
I'm not sure exactly how many days that you went without cleaning but it would appear to be 11 days during this Missouri winter?
I think that you're lucky for the same reasons that the others mentioned.

I once bought a used Traditions stainless rifle that was heavily carbon fouled from shooting some kind of pellets and was fortunate that it wasn't rusted under the thick carbon residue.
But the residue was really baked on and very difficult to remove from the grooves even with a bronze brush and repeated cleanings.
Usually Pyrodex fouling is somewhat softer if cleaned sooner after the shots are fired.
At least your fouling wasn't the result of a range session with many shots fired which increases the amount of corrosive by-products.

From personal experience, it only takes one occurrence of rust forming in a barrel to teach a person the lesson to not wait too long to clean the gun.
In my case it was probably a month or two left exposed to summer humidity for a non-stainless barrel to show some signs of surface rust inside the bore.
It was a long time ago and luckily the gun wasn't ruined.
But it could have been a lot worse and I've seen others in person that were a lot worse.

The stainless steel, the protective case and low winter humidity helped to keep your gun protected.
Every gun has different steel, and the humidity variables and amount of fouling can have a different effect on the speed of rust formation.

One year I shot a deer and some snow fell onto the muzzle crown during the time the deer was being dragged to the car.
The flat of the muzzle crown of the rifle was not blued at the factory like the rest of the barrel, and the melting ice crystals mixed with the Pyrodex fouling to leave some black stains on the crown area.
It was no big deal and the "indelible stains" faded a little bit over time which seems unimportant now, and were well worth harvesting the deer for.
But it illustrates that you never know what can happen when a person is out in the woods with a dirty gun, and who normally carries cleaning supplies in the woods to immediately begin cleaning right after shooting a deer?
If it had rained into the barrel, then who knows what could result if a person waited 11 days to clean up their Pyrodex residue.
Even allowing blood to mix with fouling might be able to cause a problem.

Congratulations again on the deer harvest and for keeping your gun safe from rust and stain free, at least for this time!

 

[TheOutlawKid]

I know the european and uk black powder shooters are known to shoot very light loads with filler for accuracy...aside from them most people who shoot .44 with roundball tend to shoot 25-30 grains with 30 grains being the most common. Although i dont know the charge that our friends across the pond shoot..i do know they tend to shoot very light loads compared to us. Id make a joke about the french having weak wrists and not able to handle the recoil but that would be uncalled for and we here on the high road are upscale forum users. Am i right? Just messin ....the french shooters are a great bunch.

 

[rodwha]

Who loads a .44 Pietta 1858 with less than 20 grains of Pyrodex under a round ball? My best accuracy is with a 35 grain charge.

Those were the weights of 30 grn charges.

I used an adjustable rifle measure marked in 10 grn increments so I never tried anything other than halves as eyeing the middle was close enough. I broke it and bought a new one (different) and have decided to etch quarter marks and see what I see. Prior my NMA did best set at 30 grns. With 3F Olde E it weighed ~33 grns.

 

[rodwha]

I’ve often read those competing find 18-25 grns with filler to be most accurate. Maybe those were slow twist barrels as the faster twist in my NMA is from 2013 and I created short bullets thinking I’d get the old 1:30”.