Box Elder Wildlife Federation

[OldBear]

Went to WallyWorld today to pickup a couple of items, stopped by the sporting goods section where our member Gene Sterr was on duty. Got to talking while he was stocking the shelves, and ended up falling in lust with a new CVA in-line .50cal "Wolf". Considerably less than the MSRP, the new inlines have a tight rifling twist for greater accuracy and are built to accept the higher "Magnum" loads.
Had to take it up to the range of course, and at the 100yd benches it was dead on with no adjustment of the iron sights. Ran a couple rounds through it and called it a day, came home and cleaned it up, ran a final patch down the barrel and left it there on the end of the ramrod. Been doing that with my BP rifles for some time, the ramrod sticking out the end of the barrel tells me the barrel is empy except for the last patch. I pull the ramrod out, and out comes the clean lubed patch with the barrel ready to be stoked up again.
Read something in the CVA owners book that I had not read before, that with non-sulphur powders like Triple-7 they recommend swabbing out the barrel after each shot, seems the powder builds up around the area of ignition, deep into the barrel, more than the sulphur types do, and may cause you to not seat the next projectile properly against the powder charge.
Anyway, I guess I could have just stuck with my older sidelock and saved buying another .50cal, after all, how many can you shoot at the same time? Maybe it's just like my grandson's poster on his bedroom wall says; "A man can never have too many guns or too many knives...". Pretty observant for a 14-year old.

[PDZAPPER]

Congrats on the new smoke pole, Had to reply though on the patch in the barrel tip you posted. This is absolutly the worst thing you can do for any firearm for storage. Even a highly lubed patch will dry out on the piece of the patch that touches the barrel and become a giant moisture magnet. (Remember gravity) in short order. This will create pitting in a very short time where the patch contacts the barrel. (unless it's stainless) You can mark your ramrod for an empty barrel which will preclude a senior moment a lot better than leaving a sponge in the tube. I know this from experiance!! Check it out with a bore scope if you don't believe. KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY !!

[OldBear]

OK, PDZAPPER, thanks. Will scrub down the barrel and leave the patch out from now on.

On another note, an article I read from CVA said that with Triple-7 powder (can't imagine why only Triple-7, maybe with all powders?) the use of 209 shotgun primers would move the entire charge up the barrel a ways before it torched off and blew the projectile on it's way. The problem, it seemed, was the regular 209's were too powerful. CVA finally ended up using Remington 209-4 primers designed for reloading .410 shotshells. The reduced load in the dash-4's allowed the powder charge to fire up where it sat.

The problem in the charge moving forward before it ignited was it left a ring of residue 1/4-inch or so up the barrel, making seating the next projectile kind of iffy unless you scrub the barrel before the next load.

Anyone got any info on this subject? I haven't had time to email CVA for their take on the problem.