touch hole placement
Hi new to the site,Im building a kentucky rifle bought all parts from dixy not a kit gun my placement of the flint ended up a liitle forward of the breech plug maybe 1/4 inch or less is this dangerous the flame will hit the charge on its side instead of the back side.I was thinking of having a machine shop add to the breech plug to take up the space I havent drilled the hole yet Thanks for any answers it is a 40 cal green mountain with small silerlock[:)]
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I have built a number of flinters and probably can help. First I have to understand what you are saying. What do you mean by where the "flint ended up"? The vent wants to be pretty much centered, fore and aft, with where the pan meets the barrel. It wants to be placed, up and down, at about mid point from the bottom of the pan and where the frizzen closes over the priming powder.
Barrel-wise the vent hole wants to be just ahead of the face of the breech plug. Often times the breech plug face is filed away a bit to accomodate proper placement vis-a-vis the pan.
If you are saying the vent hole, properly placed as in the first paragraph, would place it a quarter inch ahead of the face of the breech plug, that is a horse of a different color. It would still shoot but whether you would have problems with it is (as Obama said) that's above my pay grade. Adding to the length of the breech plug, better making a new longer breech plug can run into complications too. Been there done that.0 -
Thanks for reply the pan meets the barrel fine and I know where to put the vent hole but it will be forward of the face of the breech plug so the powder would not ignite at the back as it would with say a inline gun if you ignite from the side with powder a 1/4" back I did not no if gun might blow apart? Thanks 0 -
No Problem you could have the flash hole close to the front and it would not hurt a thing. Like other things with firearms different people will have different opinions. Call dixie gun works they will give you a FACTORY answer. 0 -
Some early cartridges ignited at the front of the charge at the base of the bullet. Probably no practical difference in pressure from where the ignition is started.
There may be someone here among the 'experts" who can shed some scientific light on your concern.0 -
I'd prefer the touch hole to be at the front of the charge to get better combustion. Also, the weight of the charge will not enter into the recoil equation.
the problem would be in loading light charges where the ball would block the touch hole. A 1/4" distance between breechplug and touch hole shouldn't be a problem unless you use duplex charges.0 -
i too have built many Flinters, my specialty was the Hawken line of rifles i made over 50 custom Flinters for people who love them, concerning the breech plug, i file a "funnel" shaped groove in the breech plug and center the flash hole in the middle of said "funnel" the ignition is almost instantaneous, this is NOT my invention as i picked up the idea from an old "Gunsmith Manual" that i acquired about 50 years ago, the copyright/publish (?) date was 1844, you also want the flash hole dead center of the pan, i also make the flash hole "funnel" shaped by using a 2 degree taper reamer, some i built i used a stainless steel flash hole insert which requires the barrel be drilled out and threaded 1/4-28 the insert MUST be flush with the barrel.
here are some photos of Flinters i did NOT build but are very close to the ones i did build:
here is a very good on line reference: http://www.airbum.com/NeatShtpix/HainesPart1.html
this book, is a very interesting read, Charles Hanson well researched book; "The Hawken Rifle; It's Place In History"
more info here: http://www.thehawkenshop.com/hawkenshop.asp
good luck sir, and happy building0 -
Thank you all for your information, thanks for taking the time to anwser my questions[:)] 0
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