Strange thing happened today

[Bacon Creek]

I have been trying to find a bullet and powder combination for my new CVA Hunter Mag. I have a couple boxes of Buffalo ball-ets 270 grain, that I was giving a try. The last one I shot didn't do just right. It had very little kick, and sounded kinda like a morter going off. It didn't have the normal crack but more of a hollow thump.

When I went to reload for another try, I could get the ball-et about half way down the barrel, and it stopped and wouldn't move a lick. I took the breech plug out and poured some cleaner in the barrel and got the ball-et to push out, but didn't see anything fall out that would have stopped the ball-et from going down the barrel. So my question is what would have stopped the ball from loading, no matter how hard I rammed it?

[Multidigits]

Mayby the other ballet didn't get out. Sounds like you loaded without powder or a full charge of powder. But you should have noticed that. If not that, it's just crud build up from several firings?

[INKYHUNTER]

I shoot Buffalo Bullets .45 cal 285GR in a old H & R Huntsman inline and it is very accurate. However, I have to reduce the size slightly on a belt sander inorder to get them to load. I,m not sure if they are oversize a little or the H & R is undersize (I suspect the latter). Also I shoot FFFG blackpowder and after a couple of shots it is difficult to load. I would recommend swabbing after a couple of shots. Sounds like you either had to little powder or failed to seat the shot that sounded odd.

[Bacon Creek]

Well I had just swabbed the barrel out and run a couple of dry patches to soak up left over moisture. I put a full charge in, and I am pretty positive the ball was seated good on the charge. I usually push the ball as far as I can and then give it a couple good thumps.

I got the new ball down about half way and it wouldn't budge until I took the breech plug out and put some cleaner in the breech. Then it slid right out, but I didn't see the other ball fall out. I looked on the ground where the "new" ball was but did not see the "old" one.

So I am stumped with the "hollow thump", and why I couldn't load another ball. Is it possible that the lead was bad and the powder burnt around the base and then went out the barrel without forcing the ball out? Would that make it have the "hollow thump" sound?

[GSP]

If your ball was only half way down the barrel you will get a hollow thump. I'm guessing you had bad lead build-up in the barrel. Have to cleaned it with a brush and tried reloading?

[Bacon Creek]

The ball that would only go halfway down the barrel was after the "hollow thump" incident. I had just swabbed it out just prior to loading the load that made the weird sound, so the barrel wasn't to dirty. When it is clean once the balls are started they go right down the barrel normally, so seating the ball isn't real hard. I'm guessing that the ball had a defect and let the powder slip by it, but I really don't know.

[Flintlock54]

Here is what I think happened. After putting in the powder you didn't put in a projectile and fired the gun. This gave you the "hollow thump" sound. This "dry balling" causes a barrel to foul considerably as a projectile will help push out the fouling of the previous shot. When you tried to load the next round it just locked up because of the excess fouling in the barrel.

What I would recommend doing while you are trying to work up your load is to mark your ramrod with a piece of masking tape to indicate when the gun is loaded with powder and projectile. If you change the amount of powder change the place where the tape is on the ramrod. If you change projectiles change the place where the tape is on the ramrod. Once you have developed your best, most accurate load mark you ramrod permentently. Now get in the habit of looking for that mark on your ramrod each time you load. If your mark goes down in to the barrel, you left something out. If it doesn't come flush with the muzzle you put too much in. It is safest to find out which without pulling the trigger.

You are not the only one to have ever dry balled a load.

[Bacon Creek]

Now that could be a possibility since I did shoot several times, and the more I shoot the more likly I'll mess up. I have been known to load my bullet without powder a time or two [:D] Don't think I ever loaded powder and no bullet, except for memorial services for Confederate veterans.

Come to think of it during the memorial services the guns never sound anything like what happened the other day. Could it be the difference of length of the inline and the Enfield replica that would cause one to be "hollow" and the other fairly normal sounding?

[Flintlock54]

Yes