Break Action Muzzleloaders - Sealing the primer!

A lot of our members on here already know about this fix, but for our new members and, especially those on Facebook that are following us, I am going to start with the easiest fix to sealing up primer blow by on the CVA/Traditions break action muzzle loaders.

Years ago, I bought a brand new CVA Accura and right away, scrubbing the inside of the frame after every use was normal. Sometimes you'd even get a sticky firing pin from the amount of blow by, blasting the face of the frame and filling the firing pin with soot.

At the end of the day, out came the tooth brush and at most times, 0000 steel wool, in order to get the fouling off the frame! On the CVA/Traditions muzzleloaders, these often are coated or painted and any scrubbing over time, eventually wears this coating off and you are left with bare aluminum alloy. Not a terrible thing, but some folks, including myself, try to keep our weapons in top condition and loss of paint or a coating can bother us at times, especially after the money we spent on that rifle.

Does your action and primers look like this from time to time or every time?

 Note the firing pin bushing

 Over time you will have an action that looks like this mess!

  Not all muzzleloaders have this firing pin bushing. And that in a way is a bad thing.

What happens is, the CVA/Traditions rifles have a loose tolerance ( To easily accept different brands of primers ) between the primer and the face of the frame ( head space in centerfire terms )

When the rifle goes off, that Primer, now turns into a projectile and slams into the face of the firing pin/bushing, sometimes even causing the primer to stick into the firing pin bushing or cock at an angle in the breech plug, causing you to grab a pair of pliers and remove it.

Now, do you remember me saying that not all muzzleloaders have a firing pin bushing?

Traditions is one of those that does not using a firing pin bushing.

What happens when the fired primer, turns into a projectile, and slams into the face of the frame that's surrounding the firing pin?

That's right... Your frame becomes damaged very badly over time and can even cause the firing pin to break or worse, stick in the fired position without you noticing and then having a slam fire the next time you reload and close the action.

How can we seal up the Primer blow by AND protect the face of the frame?

First, Go here and order a bag or two: 

Note: If you buy a CVA Muzzleloader and bought the Western Powders Blackhorn209 breech plug kit, these O rings come with the kit!

Second, grab your breech plug and clean the primer pocket and flash channel out the best you can.

Take One O ring and install it into the breech plugs primer pocket. You can use an old primer to fully seat it. 

  Please remember that these o rings are slightly over sized to take up that loose space between the primer and the frame. After 3 to 5 shots, the heat from the primer going off will slightly shrink them a bit so your action closes easier. At first, you will need to use a little more force or flick of your wrist when closing the action.

This will only be for the first few shots. After that, everything should load nice and smooth, with a touch more force to close, but your frame finish will be saved, you will no longer have to clean the inside of the frame or remove the barrel to scrub blow by out of the action, the rifle will now be 100% ( or close to it ) blow by free!

In this breech plug cut away, we can see both the firing pin bushing and primer making contact with each other, without over crushing. One benefit to the o ring is that it is rubber and squishes down to the proper size without over crushing the primer which could cause a slam fire. 

 A proper seal!