Break that edge

[Bunk]

Following a tip from Geojohn Fuhring I broke the sharp edge of the chamber mouth just enough to see the cut. Now the ball swages down into the chamber making a good tight seal.
I have purposely “dry balled” a chamber on my Pietta snubby two times for conformation and get a seal about .03” wide whether the sprue is up on right on the chamber mouth.
I have shot over 500 rounds through guns that has this simple modification with no dreaded chain fire so I am satisfied it works and makes loading easier.
I read somewhere that the so-called period correct way to load is grease over the ball. I hate to rain on any one’s parade, but the loading instructions in a cased set plainly say to fill the chamber one half full of power and ram down the ball.
The gun was meant to be emptied and replaced with a loaded one not reloaded in the middle of a fight.
Here is a challenge for you grease on top shooters. Slather as much Crisco or what ever on the top of the ball. Fire one or two shots and tell me where the grease went. All over the front of the gun that is where.
Powder, lube wad, ball or bullet if you are using real Gun Powder. With APP the grease wad in not needed. With Pyrodex I makes no difference because the chlorate residue will do bad things to the barrel interior and chambers. See the article by Prof. Marvel in the Powder Room section.
Rant ended
Yr’ Obt’ Svt’
Bunk

[Lefty Dude]

Yep;
Works for me, been doing it a lot of Years.

[medic15al]

I've always filled the powder up to 1/8 in of end of chamber and rammed the ball in.

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[greyhawk]

Following a tip from Geojohn Fuhring I broke the sharp edge of the chamber mouth just enough to see the cut. Now the ball swages down into the chamber making a good tight seal.
I have purposely “dry balled” a chamber on my Pietta snubby two times for conformation and get a seal about .03” wide whether the sprue is up on right on the chamber mouth.
I have shot over 500 rounds through guns that has this simple modification with no dreaded chain fire so I am satisfied it works and makes loading easier.
I read somewhere that the so-called period correct way to load is grease over the ball. I hate to rain on any one’s parade, but the loading instructions in a cased set plainly say to fill the chamber one half full of power and ram down the ball.
The gun was meant to be emptied and replaced with a loaded one not reloaded in the middle of a fight.
Here is a challenge for you grease on top shooters. Slather as much Crisco or what ever on the top of the ball. Fire one or two shots and tell me where the grease went. All over the front of the gun that is where.
Powder, lube wad, ball or bullet if you are using real Gun Powder. With APP the grease wad in not needed. With Pyrodex I makes no difference because the chlorate residue will do bad things to the barrel interior and chambers. See the article by Prof. Marvel in the Powder Room section.
Rant ended
Yr’ Obt’ Svt’
Bunk

Bunk
we dont have crisco as such down under - we did use a fairly stiff boolit lube over top of the ball - it pretty much stays put - I set those guns up with about 5 thou cylinder gap (most seem to be way more than that) -- anyway heres where we had some fun with all this - my son had been reading forums and books - stuff tellin how it was dumb to put the grease over top - should be under the ball etc so he does an experiment - he compressed the powder with the load lever, loaded that stiff boolit lube cookie on the powder with the ball on top - but he forgot the bit where you put a separating wad under it all - got a walker and a 1860 army - him (with the walker) and his girlfriend (with the 1860) were doin this just outside the workshop (we got a little range there its safe!) - so the walker came first, 6 steady shots (ahhh love the sound of that cannon with a full charge!!!) then a lull and three from the army - hey dad come lookit this - I moseyed out and the paper target at 15 yards is on fire! - do that again while I watch - sure enough its doing tracer rounds - the lube cookie plastered to the ball and on fire from the powder grains squished into it - didnt happen with the walker with its heavier charge - probably not something you should try at a public range!!!!   
We load now with a lube soaked egg carton wad on the powder but both those guns shoot a better group with a little lube over top as well - just enough to fill the groove around the edge between cylinder and ball (about what you would have left of crisco after a shot or two) .

Always enjoy your posts here Bunk

[Bunk]

Hi Lefty
Thanks for the comment but remember this is one of the places the new BP shooters gain knowledge.
As long as I have been shooting BP, which goes back to the days of oval shaped Du Pont Gun Powder cans, I still pick up gems of wisdom here and also Open Range (RIP) .
Experiences should be shared and this forum is a good place IMHO
Yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk

[Galloway]

Can someone elaborate on how to break the edge exactly, what tools etc?

[Navy Six]

I've broken the edge ever so slightly using a common counter-sink of appropriate size held in my hand. Just a light twist seems to do the job. The amount of material you remove is barely discernible. I haven't done this to all my cylinders yet--four guns each both 36 & 44. So far after a couple years shooting those guns I've yet to experience any problems. It began to make more sense to me to swage the entire ball into the chamber compared to shaving some of it off. Before doing this, I've had some of those shaved rings get in the way of loading the remaining chambers of a cylinder. Whatever works, but I think I will get around to doing this to all the guns.

[Galloway]

Would an rcbs case deburring tool work? Do you cut down to the white? Thanks

[Coffinmaker]

Yes, an RCBS de-burring tool will work nicely.  Error on the side of "less is more."  You will be able to see bare steel at the chamber mouth but you DO NOT want to see a LOT of bare steel.

You can also use a standard Chamfer Tool.  I currently use a 5 degree forcing cone cutter.  LIGHTLY!!

[Galloway]

Thanks pard thats the best idea ive heard in a while

[Lefty Dude]

I also use the Wilson/RCBS case mouth chamfer tool. Just break the edge, ever so lightly.

[LongWalker]

A 3/4" square of 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper, and a glass marble, will do the trick too.  Wipe the face of the cylinder with a dry-erase marker, so it is colored around the chamber mouths.  Lay the paper grit-side down over the chamber mouth, press it into the chamber with the marble, and pinch the overhang around the marble.  Now rotate the sandpaper-wrapped marble a few times.  You want an even ring of white metal around each chamber mouth. 

440-grit paper works too, just a little slower.  It does give you a higher polish, and is a bit easier to clean. 

[will52100]

What Bunk said.  Been doing this to my cap guns for years.  The originals either used lubed paper cartridges or if hand loaded, no lube (though I'm sure someone has tried just about every variation). 

The lube on a well regulated percussion revolver does one thing only, keeps the fouling soft.  Soft fouling means keeping the accuracy up longer and keeping the gun running longer.  I did an experiment a while back with zero lube and my 1860 army, wish I'd wrote the details down, but if I remember rite accuracy started to fall off sharply around the 4th or 5th loading, and really started to bind up shortly after.  Cleaning was a pain as the (Graf's 3F) fouling was very hard and thick.  After cleaning I repeated the experiment with a swipe of Crisco over the balls and accuracy and functionality stayed up and clean up was a breeze.  If your only going to shoot one or two cylinder fulls then there is no reason for lube over the balls, except maybe to make cleaning a bit easier, but I often put over a 100 rounds through one at the range.  Most of the lube gets blown all over the front of the gun, but that means the arbor gets lubes and some gets sent down the barrel from the little left on the balls.  Doesn't take a whole lot of lube either.  If I'm shooting conicals, which I'm doing a lot more of than round balls, I lube the conicals and either use paper cartridge or hand load them, no extra lube needed.

The idea of shaving lead can lead to chain fires.  Replica revolvers have improved a whole lot in the last 30 years, but I've seen ones that had a sharp bur on the chamber mouth, in effect making a smaller chamber mouth than the actual chamber.  A ball that shaved lead would show light around gaps caused by the bur when loaded.  A slight chamfer on the chamber mouth makes for an air tight seal provided the ball is large enough and the chamber is not egg shaped.  A proper sized projectile and chambers in good shape with a slight chamfer makes it physically impossible to have a chain fire from the front.

[Noz]

I have an 1862 made 1851 that has factory chamfers.  I duplicated this on all of my black powder guns using a cheap Lee cace chamfer tool