Sidelock Patented Breech/Fire Channel

This is from an old Roached out .50 Cal TC Renegade barrel I decided to use for educational purposes, I thought of sending it to Hoyt for a Rebore, Maybe Relined? But decided against it, This Barrel actually shot well, But had to many things going against it, it was drilled and Tapped for See Through scope mounts, 3-4” of the Bore down at the Breech end was in HORRIBLE condition. I completely stripped the barrel of it’s parts and used them on a REALLY nice old .54 Cal Renegade barrel i had tucked under the Bed. I didn’t buy this Rifle for the barrel (I suspected it would be junk) i bought it for the Stock and accessories for a Brand New Green Mountain LRH Barrel in .54 Cal (Affectionately known as my “White Wale” Barrel) Which i now have fitted in this Stock and ready

Enough of the Explanations as to why i did this  


Top view


Flipped over


Another view, This Particular Breech plug had the Clean out screw on the Side as you can see, and you can See through the nipple Hole here, The Fire Channel leads directly to, and under the Nipple. The powder chamber is the Lower red arrow, and the Flame channel is the upper Red Arrow  


Now here is a View of my .50 Cal Cleaning Jag, as you can clearly see the Jag Stops on The Shoulders of the Breech plug, it can NOT get in the Patented breech just behind it.


TC makes a “Scraper” Tool for their Barrels, Here it is, as you can see it is Rounded and designed to fit in their Patented Breech


Here is the TC Tool inside the Patented Breech, again this is designed as a “Scraping” Tool, I rarely use mine, when you clean Properly it really isn’t necessary, But DEFINITELY doesn’t hurt to use it! After all TC designed it for their Rifles :yeah:

By the pics above you can CLEARLY see what you are working with, It is ABSOLUTELY Vital that you Clean, and properly Care for this Critical Breech end! Here is where 99% of Hangfires occur in a Sidelock Muzzleloader! After i clean my Rifles, and oil them liberally, Oil gets in the Patented Breech and Fire Channel, All is Good, i want that oil in there when my Rifle is Sitting with a Folded Patch Between the Hammer and Nipple to Catch excess oil. When i get ready to Load a Rifle, i Pull the Nipple, Run a Few Dry patches down the Bore to Absorb Excess Oil, I then Point the Nozzle of my Air Compressor attachment Inside the Nipple hole with barrel pointed straight Down And i BLAST Compressed air through the Nipple Hole, As you can see by my photos above this Compressed Air is FORCING excess oil OUT of the Fire channel, I also Blow The nipple out really good as well. I then Run a Few more Dry patches, Then i Pop 1-2 Caps straight through with the Muzzle pointed down, i Run 1 more Dry Patch, And i am ready to Load my Rifle. Since i started the above method i have yet to have a Cold bore Hangfire, My rifles go off IMMEDIATELY

Hopefully this helps folks That don’t have a Clue what these things look like inside, The Ole Renegade Barrel Payed the Ultimate price for it  

When you clean these Sidelock barrels, Use a bucket of Tap Water, Dunk the Breech end in the Bucket, When you push a Patched jag down the Bore to the Breech Plug Shoulder “Stop” and Draw it Back out slowly it pulls Water back up in the Bore, i pull back about 12” or so and then RAPIDLY push the Rod back in til it Stops on the Breech Plug Shoulder, this “Rushes” Water back through the Patented Breech and Fire Channel, Do this several times. You don’t need any special tools to do the Job, just a proper Jag and Good fitting Patch. Some say A bore brush is not Necessary, But I personally like them, i use ONLY the good “Loop Through” Style brushes, Either Bronze, or Nylon. AVOID the press fitted brushes in a Sidelock, they are an accident waiting to happen, they can, and will Pull apart! It’s a bad feeling when you have a Brush Bottomed out in your barrel and you pull your cleaning rod back out to find the Brush is no longer attached to your Cleaning Rod I had it happen 1 time, luckily i was able to get it without much problem. If this ever happens, use a Copper tube that just fits inside the Bore, push it down and “Over” The brush, it will come Back inside the Tube. Avoid this problem by using a Loop Through brush in the First place  

Here is what i use, “Loop Through” and i use both the Bronze and Nylon, Notice how the Wire loops through the Ferrel end, These will NOT pull apart  


This is a Press fitted brush, AVOID these in a Sidelock Muzzleloader, these are an accident waiting to happen! Arrow pointing at the Press/Crimp Fit, These Can and WILL Pull apart

Well that’s a fine how do you do that’s where my cleaning patches on my jag get totally stuck if I use too thick of a cleaning patch lol and it’s a royal nightmare to get un stuck if you know what I mean

thanks for that I wasn't aware of the loop through brush

Thanks for sacrificing those parts for ease of understanding  for us all. A mate of mine that's no longer with us somehow machined a ring of steel to go inside the breech plug to create this very scenario, in older Lyman/investarms .50 cal rifles. I think he believed a 9mm hole/powder resivoir worked great, especially when using a powder drop tube that located the powder right in the 9mm resivoir/hotspot. He shot some nice groups at 50m, I know that for sure! Interesting.

Lewis thanks for this informative thread.  I have one of those scraping tools but I never knew what the inside of a T/C BP looked like either.  
Also when I get back home I'm going to check on my brushes to see what style I have.  If they're press fit I'll be ordering the loop through.
Looking at this cut away the flash from a nipple has to travel quite a bit further and make about a 60* turn whereas the flash from a flintlock's pan, if my memory server me right, the flash channel is in a more direct line with the main charge. Thanks again

Bronko22000 wrote:Lewis thanks for this informative thread.  I have one of those scraping tools but I never knew what the inside of a T/C BP looked like either.  
Also when I get back home I'm going to check on my brushes to see what style I have.  If they're press fit I'll be ordering the loop through.
Looking at this cut away the flash from a nipple has to travel quite a bit further and make about a 60* turn whereas the flash from a flintlock's pan, if my memory server me right, the flash channel is in a more direct line with the main charge. Thanks again

It really helps to see what they look like inside, that old barrel was completely Ruined so it was a good one to use for educational Purposes

Get yourself a few of them Good Loop through Style Brushes, They are the ONLY way to go with these Old Side Hammers, With an inline it doesnt matter which Style brush (though the Loop Throughs are the Best way to go for Everything) I pulled a Press fit Brush apart in a TC Scout Pistol a few years back, Luckily i was able to get it out fairly easy, But that was the END of The Press Fit Brushes for me, The Good Loop Through Style Brushes are all i buy anymore

My absolute favorite are these Nylon Style, There is really no need for the Stiff Bristle Brushes, they wear out fairly Quickly. All i want is a Brush to agitate any fouling that might be left behind in the Land/Groove Corners, These Nylon Brushes do an AWESOME Job, and they last Forever, I have been using the same 1 of these for 2 years now, and i shoot a BUNCH, with numerous different Rifles. These are DARN GOOD, I highly recommend them

As you can see these are both the Good Loop through Style


This Nylon Brush is 2 Years Old and stil going Strong, this thing has had LOTS of use in .45 & .50 Cal Bores

I believe most of my brushes are Montana Extreme

Hey Lewis awesome tutorial on the TC breech plug. Obviously a ball/bullet can only be seated to the shoulder of the breech plug. Do you know what the volume of the breech plug c/w fire channel is? I have always been told to seat the ball/bullet right tight on the powder charge, never want an air space between the ball/bullet and powder. Seems if a guy doesn't tap the side of the lock to get the powder to completely fill the fire channel before seating the ball/bullet, the powder could move down after the ball/bullet has been seated creating a void.

Raven wrote:Hey Lewis awesome tutorial on the TC breech plug. Obviously a ball/bullet can only be seated to the shoulder of the breech plug. Do you know what the volume of the breech plug c/w fire channel is? I have always been told to seat the ball/bullet right tight on the powder charge, never want an air space between the ball/bullet and powder. Seems if a guy doesn't tap the side of the lock to get the powder to completely fill the fire channel before seating the ball/bullet, the powder could move down after the ball/bullet has been seated creating a void.

The TC Patented Breech, and Fire Channel holds 16 Grains of Swiss 2F Powder. There were a couple different variations of the TC Plugs over the years, But they are very Similiar.

I agree it is very important to Seat the Projectile on the powder good, I don’t feel The air space/void you speak of is not near as critical at the Breech end as say out at the Muzzle, like accidentally firing a Short Started Ball. Again, we should always take care to seat whatever projectile we are shooting on the Powder Good

has anyone tried 20gr. for squirrel ?

Just saw someone has a scraper for sale on (ebay) for bout $125 that little piece of brass must be collectable?? I wonder if anyone would want one that bad?

Awesome tutorial I would never have guessed on that configuration of fire channel but totally makes sense.