Chain fire front or back??

Skinny 1950

Skinny 1950

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When using Black Powder there are dangers... not the least of which is having a chainfire in a revolver. I have two revolvers in the 1851 pattern a Pietta .44 and a .36 Uberti. Both of these guns require a fair bit of effort to seat the ball on the powder so I doubt that flames from the other cylinder could penetrate into the charge and cause problems. But on both of my guns the caps refuse to stay on the nipples. I think the most likely cause of chainfire comes from the exposed nipple after a cap has fallen off.
 
When I got started shooting, far too many years ago, used to go to the gravel-pit where the old fort used to be and shoot an 1860 Army Colt with the Anglican priest.

We had chain-fires, of course, made the world sound as if there were somebody loose with a full-auto blackpowder Colt.

ALL chainfires STOPPED when we started covering the rammed and loaded balls with nice, stiff axle-grease and making SURE that they were ALL covered. Likely it would work just as well with b'ar grease but you have to talk to the b'ar about that.

You can test this out for yourself if you like. Just load the gun and then grease FIVE chambers very carefully, then start shooting. If you get a chain-fire, it will be the chamber that you didn't grease. Then try it again with a single cap missing. It will not take long at all for you to become convinced, as were both Armies in the War for Southern Independence, that the cause of chain-fires is chamber-flash communicating to adjacent chambers.

And please believe me whan I say that you definitely do not want FOUR going off at the same time.
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If your caps are coming off you probably need to find a smaller size. #11 are the most commonly available but most revolvers take a #10 cap. In a pinch you can give the bigger caps a bit of a squeeze to deform them a little and make them stay on better.

I've never had a chain fire and would prefer not to as they can sometimes cause quite a bit of damage. My practice is to cap all loaded cylinders and smear some Crisco or similar grease over all the balls even when they carve nice little rings of lead off while seating.
 
I had one very exciting two seconds I forgot the grease on the front of the cylinder luckily I had already shot 2or 3 and the chamber facing the frame was empty or the gun would have been blown apart never forgot again .
 
I have never had a chain fire but also it is common practice here to use a corn meal filler between the powder and the ball. It seems extremely unlikely to me that flames would make it backwards to the powder charge. On the other hand I use #11 caps and pinch them to make them a snug fit on the nipples. It is not particularly uncommon to have a cap or two fall off from recoil and I can readily see a chain fire resulting from that situation, if I continued firing with an uncapped nippled

cheers mooncoon
 
OK.... I will continue to cover the balls with the vegetable shortening that I have been using (is that the same as Crisco?) even if it makes a mess. It is easier to clean up vegetable goop than deal with a chainfire. I noticed that the shortening tends to melt in the cylinders but I think it still provides a good seal or maybe I should go to a stiffer goop of some sort???
 
Crisco is Veg shortening. I keep meaning to mix some with a bit of bees wax or carnuba wax to thicken it up and make it less messy but haven't got to it.

Some of the commercial bore butters or BP lubes might be worth a try.
 
I tried a 50/50 mix of vegetable shortening and bee's wax and it was way to hard next I tried 25/75 still to hard.... next 10/90 this was still hard but if I crushed it up it was nice and thick. I will try this next time at the range.
 
I use lard mixed with a bit of soft dollar store candle wax. works great keep it in the freezer except the small container you are using as it has a lovely rancid smell as it gets older
 
Skinny 1950 said:
I tried a 50/50 mix of vegetable shortening and bee's wax and it was way to hard next I tried 25/75 still to hard.... next 10/90 this was still hard but if I crushed it up it was nice and thick. I will try this next time at the range.
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The percentage of beeswax that you add to vegetable or animal fats will vary depending on the ambient temperature conditions.What works well for summer time shooting might be too thick and hard for winter use and vice versa,a good winter lube formula is probably going to be too runny for summer use.
 
Skinny 1950 said:
I tried a 50/50 mix of vegetable shortening and bee's wax and it was way to hard next I tried 25/75 still to hard.... next 10/90 this was still hard but if I crushed it up it was nice and thick. I will try this next time at the range.
Click to expand...

Your experience matchs mine then in that just shortening and wax doesn't quite cut it.

I've been experimenting with anhydrous lanolin and hope to find a source of carnuba wax. Need to find something a bit gooy and sticky for better results.
 
Another vote for crisco (actually no-name facsimile) over the loaded balls. Never had a chainfire yet. Have shot this way for years.
 
kjbaker

I use Wonderwads from Basspro. They work great and are much easier to use than borebutter and cleaner. You load the powder, then a Wonderwad, then press in the ball. It's a cinch and no chain fires.
 
I coat my ball with liquid alox and use circle fly wads from track of the wolf and so far no chain fires. My sound funny but I also use the wads to prevent a double charge hard to see black powder in a dark cylinder lol
 
sometimes you can save 10 c or get it for free if you have a crisco golden coupon- there seems to be more coupons on golden than what there is on regular crisco-you can't put double charges in my cylinders- 33 grains of ffg and a swc tops it right full
 
I still cannot believe that not covering the ball with lube is the reason for chain fires. The ball should be tight enough that when rammed in a ring of lead should be sliced off. The lube is necessary to soften the powder residue. I'm convinced the cause is nipples coming off. I have forgotten at times to lube and never had it happen. I could see it happening with the igniting type paper cartridges used during the Civil War.
 
I worked with a guy years ago; in the early 90's, who was missing the end of a finger from a chain fire ( he claimed anyhow). And I mean gone from the first knuckle, not just a weevil bite.
It's never happened to me; but I use a (approx) 1/5 beeswax / vegetable shortening mix to plug the bores. That and dropping the balls straight from the mold into a tin bowl with beeswax to lube them; works for me.
The gun cleans up better anyhow when the cylinder is plugged with lard / wax. Good & greasy after about 4-5 cylinders fired.
 
I might point out that the only reason to lube the cylinder is to keep the black powder fouling soft and lube the ball. The only way a chain-fire can happen is if a cap falls off. There is no way flame can get past a ball!
 
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