You know, after 20 years in the N-SSA, one would think that I would have learned to speak "Musket". This spring, however, my Musket was talking to me about a problem, and I couldn't translate. Please stay with me for a short story.
My spring shooting practice started very well, but soon started a slow downhill slide. At the same time as the slide, I noticed that my "final oiling patch" after cleaning showed a black mark corresponding to the ID of the barrel at the breech plug. It was also there when I put a patch down the barrel to remove the oil before shooting. I wasn't listening.
At the Spring National, the Musket decided to get my attention ... sort of a Musket equivalent of hitting me with a 2x4. My first shot was a keyhole ... then later I placed a bullet under the bottom horizontal frame board ... after which I had my first failure-to-fire in twenty years ... with the final embarrasment of a team hit time of 142 seconds per hit.
OK ... you got my attention. At home I disassembled the Musket and started cleaning the barrel using the hot-water-in-a-bucket flushing procedure. Nothing was unusual until I finally removed the cleanout screw and found a solid wall of black powder shooting debris that even an awl could not penetrate. Back to the hot water, which finally dissolved the wall.
My Musket had been trying to tell me via the patch black mark that the cap flame channel was almost completely blocked, which caused variable ignition (including no ignition). At the next skirmish, my team hit time dropped to 62 seconds per hit, almost normal, which validated my conclusions.
So ... thank you for allowing me to enter this event into the N-SSA Library of Musket Knowledge & Language.
My Best/Good Shooting/and Please Listen to Your Musket,
Dave M.
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