Rifle plug removal, field removal

treetophunter said:

I unscrewed the nipple and replaced it with a same thread grease fitting. A few pumps seemed to budge the old load, but then it jammed tighter and the only thing I got is a stuck load with a ball puller and broken ramrod inside a rusted barrel, now full of grease. My next try is a 6' breaker bar on a smooth jawed pipe wrench to try and remove the breech. I feel like a nitwit already.

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treetophunter said:

Granadier, The rifle is a Thompson Center 'White Mountain Carbine'. I'm not at home, but I think it is a 22" long barrel. I don't see a seam where the breech and barrel come together like I have seen on other T/C's.

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SDSmlf said:

A standard hand pump grease gun should get you about 7000 psi of pressure. Assuming you have a 50 caliber gun, that 7000 psi would put a little under 1500 pounds of force on a .50” diameter roundball. Unless the grease is somehow leaking past the roundball or you have an undersized or defective grease gun, it is hard to understand how it is not moving. Did you have your ramrod or similar resting on the roundball so you could observe the movement or lack of movement of the roundball as you pumped up the grease pressure? Watch this video by @Idaho Ron


Yes, your breech plug can be remove with the correct tools and process, though I would only suggest it as a final option for a stuck ball or bullet. It’s easy to muck things up.

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sethwyo said:

For some time now I've been considering doing some work on my Hawkin replica rifle, a 54 Cabela's, so that I can remove the plug from the end of the barrel,

I don't have a ball stuck in there and don't really need to remove it right now but I always had the perception that it , the threaded plug in the rear end of the tube, could be removed in the field with a couple of wrenches , one on the barrel and one on the plug you could thread it out,

I have heard of several cases over the last few years where the person had a ball stuck in the tube and was having a terrible time getting it out,

And I thought well why don't you just unthread the plug and then put in a fresh charge of powder, and solve the problem and have some fun at the same time.
But then I disassembled mine to have a look at it I realized that the plug has been threaded in , and such a manner that it's not designed or intended to be removed by hand, or in the field

It'll be quite a process to get it removed and then come up with some type of a plug that can be threaded in and taken out occasionally if ever needed to.

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sethwyo said:

Probably will end up doing that, it seems like in the back of my mind I've always had the perception that that breach plug could be threaded out for maintenance.

Local libraries don't have any kind of books on such things anymore, searching the tangled web doesn't bring up a whole lot but it seems as though during the construction of rifles the threading was simply done because it was the only really mechanically sound apparatus available to put a sturdy breech plug in that wouldn't ever come out.

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treetophunter said:

I think I'll just look for another barrel for that gun. If'n I find one, I might just try pulling the breech off the old barrel, for the experience. Thanks to you all for your suggestions.

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Phil Coffins said:

Red Green and Patrick McManus are my role models!

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Taevers said:

I knew this was my kind of group. I’ve got you all beat. I have a repurposed school bus with a wood stove I named the possum bus. God bless all you soot burning saints!!

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Horizontal Hunter said:

This.

Now if I am interrupted while loading I just hold up a finger for a second and finish reloading. Then I am happy to answer a question and respond to what the other person wanted.

Bob

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The Miner '49er said:

@Horizontal Hunter, what you said is a great idea, in theory, but . . . The other day I was shooting alone and dry balled both barrels of my smoothbore SxS pistol. There just isn't anyway on earth to 100% of the time prevent dryballing. Anyone who thinks he's immune just hasn't had his number called, but it's coming!

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Mike in FL said:

I have never and have no plans or reason to ever remove a breech plug. I think it ludicrous.

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smoothshooter said:

Leave it alone. There is almost never a good reason to remove a breech plug.
There is no telling how many have been damaged because some amateur just had to see if they could do it.

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smoothshooter said:

Same goes for vent liners on flintlocks.
There are actually people out there with OCD that want to remove the vent liner every time they clean the gun.

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smoothshooter said:

Same goes for vent liners on flintlocks.
There are actually people out there with OCD that want to remove the vent liner every time they clean the gun.

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sethwyo said:

What is an OCD ?

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SDSmlf said:

Does this also apply to removing nipples from percussion guns?

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SDSmlf said:

Does this also apply to removing nipples from percussion guns?

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