yeoman

1) Has anyone tried firing a squib load using smokeless powder to foul a bore? Seems that might accomplish the task without the corrosion problems.

2) the 300 XTP's which come from Hornady in the box of 20 come with sabots which are 1/4" shorter than the .44cal sabots I bought in bulk from them. That 1/4" makes a major negative difference in my barrel. Anyone know where I can get the shorter green sabots in bulk?

cayugad

1.) while the idea might have merit, I would hate to open the can of worms that smokeless powder causes with some people. They would have no idea of amounts or kinds of powders. They might even in a fowling shot, over charge the rifle. Perhaps fowl the barrel with some APP which is cleaner, and less prone to fowling then most powders. You could then load and shoot off that fowled type barrel.

2.) have you checked the MMP site?

dmurphy317

I have been using the Clean Shot pellets that I bought years ago to foul the barrel when needed. I just drop one pellet in and seat a sabot stuffed with patches over it and pop a cap. Seems to work for me and it helps justify the expense of the old pellets that did not perform well in any load I tried. So far I've not had any issues with doing things that way.

yeoman

Cayugad - I was only thinking of 5 grains or so of smokeless. I'm afraid of the stuff. A friend and I back in high school, in a quest to build a mini cannon with which to shoot geese, managed to build a small pipe bomb instead. How neither of us wasstruck by any of the several chunks of resulting shrapnal I'll never know. He holding a paperclip with a pair of pliers and I heating the clip 'till red hot, before sending it down the tiny hole bored through the pipe for ignition. Not a good idea.

Dmurphy -is that a fouling charge you are willing to leave in the unfired gun for an extended period of time? Say a week? Are Clean Shot pellets still out there or did they disappear and return under an American Pioneer product name?

Cayugad - I emailed Hornady to find out why the sabots in the pre-packaged 44/300 XTP's are shorter than the bulk 44 cal sabots I got from them. You mentioned you just ran out of the 44/300's. Were your's bought in quantity or the 20 per box? The petals of the short sabots which come in the 20 box extend to between the two crimp lines on the bullet. The bulk green sabots I have extend to the top line on the bullet.

I may call MMP and see what they say.

dmurphy317

The longest I have left the gun loaded is a week using that method of fouling. I didn't have any noticable issues with it even though it snowed heavy on the first day of that hunt. At the end of the week I used a 100+ yard target to unload on and to check to see if the load would have any problems, it hit where I was aiming like it should have. I'm pretty sure they don't make the type of pellets I have anymore. I'm not sure of the name but I think Clean Shot was bought out by another company and the name was changed (possibly the formula also) to something else. Maybe someone else knows the answer to that question.

nchawkeye

1) I believe every muzzleloader can shoot well with a clean bore, might take a little work, but I have never found one that I couldn't make shoot just fine with a clean bore...

2) If I am understanding you correctly, you want the petals on the sabots shorter...You can cut them off, toenail clippers work well...

yeoman

nchawkeye - I may have to trim the ones I have, or, just hold them for a 44 cal load to experiment with in the future.

What sort of things have you done to cause your 1st shot to go where subsequent shots do, or do you just not worry about subsequent shots since that's more of a target concern than hunting concern?

nchawkeye

Every shot I shoot through my inline is from a clean barrel...With my flinters I go with a thinner patch, but that's another story....

Guess I'm bragging, but I'm kinda the go-to guy when my buddies have problems with their guns, whether modern, sidelock or centerfire...They usually just bring them buy the house and let me go over them...

With an inline, I run 3 dampened patches of rubbing alcohol (both sides), then a dry patch followed by a lightly oiled patch and finally another dry patch...This makes sure the barrel is lightly oiled like it will be when you load up that first shot...I know some guys worry about that 2nd shot, I don't, never have...I carry a ziplock bag in a vest pocket with everything I need to clean the barrel again before I load up again...It really only takes maybe 3 minutes to pull out this bag, clean and reload...Then you are ready for that 2nd deer... Assuming you have a 2 deer a day limit...

Frankly, with my Knight, shooting 250 Shockwaves, I can't load a 2nd round without cleaning, it shots so well with a clean barrel I don't even attempt it...
Now, I have learned that I can do a quick spit patch and get decent accuracy on a 2nd shot, but you don't want spit and black powder in a barrel for long...