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Thread: Gallagher cases

  1. #21
    gemmer is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Holland View Post
    Gemmer - You said "...the cap blows out the wad and some powder but it doesn't ignite...". The power of the cap exploding pushes a blast of air ahead of the flame. The column of air is pushing the powder and wad out ahead of the flame. It would appear that the flame of the cap is getting diminished somewhere. I would suggest that you remove the clean-out screw and insert a wire into the clean-out hole as far as it will reach. Then mark the depth of the wire, remove it, and lay it across the face of the breech and see if it reaches past the exit hole in the face of the breech where the end of the cartridge fits into the breech. There is a possibility that the interior has eroded past where the flame of the cap is supposed to come out to ignite the cartridge. If that is true, then that's where the flame is being trapped past the exit hole and thereby not able to get out and into the hole in the base of the cartridge.
    OK John. Here's what I came up with. My method differs a bit from yours because you have to allow for the thickness of the bolster when you insert the wire. The width of the breech including the bolster is 1.467. The breech itself is 1.265. So the bolster projects .202 from the side of the breech. The wire measured .859. Deduct .202. for the bolster and you get .659 to the FAR SIDE of the exit hole. The dimension from the outside of the breech to the CENTER LINE of the exit hole is .6325 (the width of the breech without the bolster divided by 2). That would suggest that the clean out hole extends past the exit by .0255 BUT that's not really the case because the wire went to the far side of the rather to the center of it. To sum up, I don't think there's run out of the clean out hole. And, when I shine a light on the exit hole, I can see the end of the wire hit the side of the exit channel. Granted, I'm not the best guy with a dial caliper, but I think I'm close.

    Thanks for your suggestion. I actually thought that I was going to find the problem.

    Regards,

    Duane Spyer

  2. #22
    CAGerringer is offline
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    I like this train of thought. If the flame is not being trapped in the channel, then where? I had a problem with my Smith where the chamber under the nipple eroded. I had to have the area built up so the flame could make it over to the flame channel instead of down below it. I've never seen an Erma Gallager, so I don't know what the inside of the bolster looks like. Could your flame be going too low in the bolster to make it into the flame channel?
    Charlie Gerringer
    Old Dominion Dragoons

  3. #23
    Lou Lou Lou is online now
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    FWIW
    some repro smiths have hollow bolsters. Thus no ignition until hollow fills with carbon and direct flame out. Had to have a threaded rod , drilled and inserted to get teammates gun shooting
    Lou Lou Lou Ruggiero
    Tammany Regt-42nd NYVI

  4. #24
    gemmer is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by CAGerringer View Post
    I like this train of thought. If the flame is not being trapped in the channel, then where? I had a problem with my Smith where the chamber under the nipple eroded. I had to have the area built up so the flame could make it over to the flame channel instead of down below it. I've never seen an Erma Gallager, so I don't know what the inside of the bolster looks like. Could your flame be going too low in the bolster to make it into the flame channel?
    Charlie Gerringer
    Old Dominion Dragoons
    The thing is, I drilled out the touch holes on several case with a #41 drill which is what Spence Wolfe suggested to do to .45-70 cases for Trapdoors. I figured it might work. The hole is big enough for the 3F powder to leak out. I covered the base of the case with a piece of curler paper like I do with Charlie Hahn's tubes. As long as the powder was compressed to keep it in place, the carbine fired. It's the only way it does so, but the flame is reaching the case. The only thing I can think of at this point is that perhaps there's erosion at the face of the flash channel hole making it too wide for the flame to hit the tiny touch hole on the case. Making the hold bigger allows more of the wider flame to hit the powder. That's just a guess and I have not idea how to determine if that's what's happening. I've had the carbine for four years and up until around six months ago, I never had an ignition problem. I had a few here and there since then. If I picked the touch hole like for a flintlock, it would fire on the next try. Last week I could not get ANY of them to fire. Whether it's the carbine or the cases, I'm at a loss to know how this happened all of a sudden. I'm going to compare the exit hole size on my Sharps to the one on the Gallagher.

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Duane Spyer
    Last edited by gemmer; 06-07-2020 at 02:48 PM.

  5. #25
    Toddj is offline
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    Same problem but found a temporary solution

    I had the same problem when a bought an Erma Gallagher last year. Kept getting misfires to the point that it only shot about 1 out of 4 times. I talked to a lot of people and some modified the clean out screw, rounded the end of it so the fire would have less resistance going through. I'm not that smart or that good to do it to mine. What I did do is try about every cap made. Still had the same problem UNTIL a team member loaned me caps that they don't make anymore, the vorderlader-zundhutchen No. 1081 FL wingless caps. I used those for an entire shoot and not a single misfire. So I bought all I could find. I have not had a misfire since. I don't think any of the new caps are as hot as what they use to make. They seem to be made for more modern blackpowder weapons.

  6. #26
    gemmer is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toddj View Post
    I had the same problem when a bought an Erma Gallagher last year. Kept getting misfires to the point that it only shot about 1 out of 4 times. I talked to a lot of people and some modified the clean out screw, rounded the end of it so the fire would have less resistance going through. I'm not that smart or that good to do it to mine. What I did do is try about every cap made. Still had the same problem UNTIL a team member loaned me caps that they don't make anymore, the vorderlader-zundhutchen No. 1081 FL wingless caps. I used those for an entire shoot and not a single misfire. So I bought all I could find. I have not had a misfire since. I don't think any of the new caps are as hot as what they use to make. They seem to be made for more modern blackpowder weapons.
    I used those caps for years for all my muskets and my Sharps. I still had some left when I got the Gallagher. Up until recently, the Schuetzen and winged RWS caps worked pretty well. I'll take a look at the clean out screw.

    Thanks,

    Duane Spyer.

  7. #27
    gemmer is offline
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    I compared the exit hole on my Sharps to the Gallagher and the Gallagher's is bigger. But in retrospect , I don't see that as an issue because the flared exit hole fits into the concave base of the case right up against the touch hole. I know that because when I close the action, the bullet is pushed into the rifling. Another of my theories busted.

  8. #28
    Lou Lou Lou is online now
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    Does the flash hole in the case line up With the guns flashhole?
    Lou Lou Lou Ruggiero
    Tammany Regt-42nd NYVI

  9. #29
    gemmer is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lou Lou Lou View Post
    Does the flash hole in the case line up With the guns flashhole?
    Yes. I put some inletting transfer around the hole in the case and it showed up around the exit hole in the breech.

  10. #30
    noonanda is offline
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lou Lou Lou View Post
    FWIW
    some repro smiths have hollow bolsters. Thus no ignition until hollow fills with carbon and direct flame out. Had to have a threaded rod , drilled and inserted to get teammates gun shooting
    lou do you know who does this work? I have a Smith that has this exact problem
    Daryl Noonan
    NSSA # 14002
    12th Regiment US Regular Infantry

    "You see in this world there are two types of people my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig!!"

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