oubeta

I broke down and bought a muzzleloader barrel for my Encore and went to the range today and had some major problems.
I'm shooting 100 grains of777 pellets with a Shock Wave bullets with 777 primers.
My first 3 shots were right on. I clean it after every shot with apresoaked solventpatch followed by a dry patch.
On my 5th shot I had a delay and it just got worse from there.
I took it apart at the range and cleaned the barrel and the breach plug.
Put it back together and got 3 shots out of it before the dreaded delay.

It looks like the primer pocket starts to get clogged after about 5 shots or so. What could be causing this? The only thing I can think of it the 777 or some combination I'm using.
Should I switch to a granular charge?

Doegirl75

I would swab with something other than bore solvent. T/C #13, vinegar/windex, something nonpetroleum based. See if that helps. Carry a paperclip or nipple pick with you and occasionally clear out the breech plug channel.

cayugad

You're swabbing with too wet of a patch and soaking the fowling in the barrel. Then as you swab, you're pushing that wet fowling back into the plug. Once the plug gets clogged, then you're getting the misfires and hang fires.

All too often, people swab with too wet a patch. I use a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and car windshield washer fluid mixed 50/50. Just get the patch damp. I actually ring out the excess mix from the patch to make sure they are not too damp. Then to keep it from getting stuck in the barrel as you swab, work the patch in about 4" strokes, moving down the barrel. When you finally reach the breech, pull that "damp" patch back up, turn it over and repeat the procedure. After that, run the two dry patches the same way in short strokes down the barrel. Then load as normal.

If you have any doubts you may have packed the breech, instead of loading all the powder, etc, just put a 209 primer in it, and fire the primer off. It will blow the breech plug clean and clean. Do it in the dark sometime and you can see the fire come out the barrel from the simple primers. Want to check the plug for being clogged, push a dry patch to the bottom of the breech on your jag and pop a primer, it will about burn that thing up.

That will take care of your misfires. When you swab, remember... you're not really trying to "clean" the gun, just to get the major fowling out of the barrel and make sure that a hard crud ring is not building in the breech. Other then that, it sounds like your all set..

Good luck.

Triple Se7en

PM sent your way!

ahankster

Congrats on your new barrel,
Well, look at the good side of things, as long as you don't fire more than 3 or 4 shots at a deer, you won't have any problems!!!!

cayugadhit the nail on the head with the hang/misfires. Save the solvents for your cleaning and you won't have this problem anymore.
Every barrel and shooter are different, but I can tell you what my experiences are.

First, pellets foul the breech plug, barrel and make more of a crud ring than loose 777 does. In my experience, loose is more accurate as well and not really that much trouble to deal with. Save the pellets for quick reloads if needed.

Second, shooting on days where the temp is out of the 50s or 60s will cause the 4th and 5th (sometimes the 3rd on a hot day) to string due to the barrel heating and goofing with the sabot. Warm barrels just don't do as well with shockwaves as cold barrels. This could be a part of your problem.

Third, in between shots, don't use any solvents at all. My routine is to have two patches between shots. The first is just a spit patch, with very, verylittle spit, just lightly damp. Run it down the barrel on both sides of the patch and then use a dry patch, on both sides. Then load and shoot. I think that if you do this, you will find that your accuracy and consistancy is much enhanced. If you use any solvents or cleaners on the first patch, I would suggest that you only use a very little bit. I can't prove this, but I think it "squishes" out the tip of the jag/patch and makes a little clump of junk down in the breech plug area and over lubricates the bore. Modern sabots don't need any lubrication, they create their own (melting plastic !)

Last but not least, you might want to try some Ballistol. Search the net and I think you can find sources. It is a cleaning/lubricating product that has been very much proven in the black powder and long range world. If you use it regularly it seems to "season" the barrel. I use it on all my guns exclusively. What I can tell you about my encore is that when I first bought it, I used 777 pellets and cleaned with ballistol. At first, the crud ring was pretty bad. I switched to loose poweder and kept cleaning w/ ballistol and the crud ring got much better. Over the past year, I have changed nothing, other than continue to clean with ballistol and my crud rings have pretty much completely dissapeared. This isn't an ad for the product, just a satisfied user.
Hope this helps.
R
Hank

oubeta

Well I think you guys problem. I'm using Knight purple presoaked patches to swab the barrel between shots. I thought it was a nonpetroleum based fast drying type cleaner, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm heading to the range today and will post my results.

Thanks for the great answers

cayugad

Some of those pre-soaked patches should be called pre-soaking wet patches. I bought some of the Rusty Duck pre-soaked patches once and the only way to use them was to ring them out. They were really saturated. Those Knight patches do work good for cleaning the rifle though.

I will be waiting to hear of the glowing range report this time. Damp only, two dry patches and then shoot.. it will work for you.

If the 209 primer area starts to clog, take some Q-tips to the range and some isopropyl alcohol. Dip the Q-tip and work that in the primer pocket. It will remove the fowling and it drys real fast. I use a chunk of old guitar string as a nipple pick, but you can use a paper clip, bread ties, and an actual nipple pick of course.

oubeta

Went to the range today and still had problems. I'm shooting two 777 pellets, 209 primer. The first shot was a hangfire. After thatthree morehangfires. I switched to prodex pellets and problem solved. I shot 25 shots with not one hangfire.

I guess my encore won't shoot 777 pellets[:-]

cayugad

It could have been you had old pellets or bad pellets. That does happen. If I were you, I would contact Hodgdon's website; http://www.hodgdon.com/ fire them off an e-mail about your experience with the pellets and see what they have to say.

Also in the long run, Ilike loose powder. I recently have been shooting some Pyrodex Pellets in a couple of rifles and really like them. So far, I have been real impressed with the accuracy.

I am glad to hear you have everything working for you. Good luck with your rifle.

lemoyne

Well at least I am not the only one that has horrid problems with 777.Lee