Cleaning up a dirty girl

[Confederate rifleman]

Plunger/striker fired inlines are notorious for being dirty rifles. Its a shame that it puts folks off because the are some of the most accurate and dependable rifles out there. No hinge pin tolerances to worry about. No bolt innards to sieze up and full length rammers make loading,swabbing and occasionally pulling a ball less of an adventure.Short rammers make extensions necessary ( ever forget to bring one?) and telescoping rammers can, well, telescope or bend at the worst time.Anyway, I've found these rifles are messiest when using 209 primers as most of the plugs or ignition modules ( like my Black Diamond) have spaces that the 209 doesnt block and this results in ALOT of gasses and other wonderful stuff getting into the breech. If your rifle has a plug threaded for nipples , a standard #11 cap or musket cap will give a noticeable reduction in breech fouling, better accuracy and in the case of my Black Diamond, another 100 fps with the same load.. This has been the case with my Black Diamond XR ( which Cayuga refers to as a " dirty pig"), and my daughters Traditions Tracker 209 which after fracturing the 209 holder on the breech plug, I converted to use musket caps.Using the same load, groups were cut by 1/3rd compared to 209 fired loads. With my Black Diamond, replacing the flamethrower musket nipple with a single port Ampco reduced the breech fouling ( cci 6 petal caps) so that 10 shots give the same breech fouling as 3 rounds did with the flame throwers. Also the regular nipples are easier to find, and far less expensive than breech plugs. Another point about using nipples, swapping out burned out breech plugs can introduce a problem. Differences in the bearing shoulders of the plug and barrel can result in gas cutting and/ or gas leakage into the breech threads.With a plug that uses nipples or has been fired with a vent liner, the mating shoulders get matched up and their ability to seal remains constant.Every time you swap out the whole plug those shoulders have to re-seat.My Omega Z5 used to need a new plug every 350-400 rounds, and after 1600 rounds those barrel sealing surfaces showed viasble erosion.My Diamond needs a new nipple after about the same.But a $6 nipple beats a $20 breech plug. Sooo If your rifle will accept nipples and they will ignite your powder of choice, the old , humble percussion cap might just make your " dirty pig" alittle more user friendly.

 

[Batchief909]

8) 8)

 

[txcookie]

Nice to know Traditions is sending me a trigger for my older buckhunter this week. Kinda excited as I never really use the old bukchunter much and have been playing with sidelocks since.

 

[Okie Hog]

My Black Diamond is the older gun with the shorter barrel. With 209 primers it was much dirtier than my CVA StagHorn. Changed that gun over to the TC musket nipple. The gun now stays much cleaner and it's more accurate as well.

My Black Diamond was not consistently accurate. TC got cheap and floated the barrel by reducing the height of the receiver bearing surface at the rear of the stock. After a failed attempt to glass bed the action, i got serious and did it right by enlarging the barrel channel and glassing up that bearing surface.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Okie i know what you mean. My Diamond came with a synthetic stock which was WAY too flexible for my taste. I think the best synthetic stocks ever put on a muzzleloader were the solid type on the American Knight I had. Seriously, you COULD club a bear with it and not hurt the stock a bit. I called T/C and got the last walnut stock they had and the inletting was...generous to say the least. I glassed the action and first inch of barrel, paying special attention to the recoil lug as well. The results were excellent and far in excess of the effort expended.

 

[Okie Hog]

Wish i could find a wood stock for my Black Diamond. That thin hollow buttstock is noisy. The other evening i was watching a feeder and waiting for a big boar hog to come in. The hog came in and went straight under the feeder.

Started to bring the gun up and my fingernails hit the stock. It sounded like that old witch in the one room school i went to in WV raking her nails on the blackboard. Needless to say the big boar launched out of there.

 

[GM54-120]

Okie Hog

That foaming spray insulation in a can will easily fill the hollow buttstock and add nearly no weight. Spray on "under coating" for cars will also deaden some of the sound.

Both are fairly easy to apply even inside an item. If weight isnt an issue, there are lots of options.

 

[Okie Hog]

That foaming spray insulation in a can will easily fill the hollow buttstock and add nearly no weight. Spray on "under coating" for cars will also deaden some of the sound.

Great idea. Thanks very much, GM 54-120. i'm on the way out the door to Lowe's now.

 

[richdeerht]

I have a Black diamond XR .45 and it shoots its best with BH 209, but it's messy. (getting it to fire BH209 reliably took some work)I'd like to see someone make an Encore style breechplug for the BD. The Encore plug captures the primer better, and has less leakage. It may be safer as well. The existing Encore plug fits, but is way too short.

 

[Banerbird]

I have a Black diamond XR .45 and it shoots its best with BH 209, but it's messy. (getting it to fire BH209 reliably took some work)I'd like to see someone make an Encore style breechplug for the BD. The Encore plug captures the primer better, and has less leakage. It may be safer as well. The existing Encore plug fits, but is way too short.

I've thought the same thing, but I don't think it's possible and still be safe. I think the slots in the Black Diamond 209 nipple are to let the escess gas from the primer (blowback) escape without slamming the striker bolt back.