Argh!

[Golfswithwolves]

My Christmas purchase: a Beretta Tricentennial O/U muzzleloading 12 gauge. I was buffing out the lower barrel with a brass brush on a cleaning rod when the brush let go and came off its base. So now there's a brass brush stuck down in the barrel! :cursing: I hope to come up with a solution so I can get the brush out, and I also hope it won't be necessary to take out the breech plug to do it!

 

[XLIV]

I'm new, have yet to fire my first BP gun, but wonder if a 60LB test line with a trebble hook on the end would pull it out? You could drop it down, nuzzle it in the brush with your ramrod..

Just a thought, from a newbie. Take it with a grain of salt

44

 

[musketman]

That happen to me once, I took a brass wire coat hanger and straighten it out and made a small tight hook on the end, then I worked the hook past the brush inside the bore, rotated it to engage the shaft of the brush and then used the hanger to pull the whole unit out.

 

[WV MZL HUNTER]

My Christmas purchase: a Beretta Tricentennial O/U muzzleloading 12 gauge. I was buffing out the lower barrel with a brass brush on a cleaning rod when the brush let go and came off its base. So now there's a brass brush stuck down in the barrel! :cursing: I hope to come up with a solution so I can get the brush out, and I also hope it won't be necessary to take out the breech plug to do it!

I like the idea of a fishing hook on a rod to try and get it out, but it maybe possible to take the nipple out and put in some powder. Cover the brush in the barrel with some patches and shoot it out? To me it would be like loading a dry ball?
I have never done that, or will never tell anyway. :rotf:

 

[patriot]

:yakyak: I would get a long 36" wooden dowel from Home Depot, thin enough to get between the barrel and the brush, but strong enough not to break. Drop some oil down the barrel and then force the dowel/ramrod between the brush and barrel and keep working it to bend the bristles until you undersize it enough to loosen it.

It works on paper as I write this. :hmm: Wooden rod will not hurt the barrel. Might work.

Patriot

 

[jdstrang]

There's a jury-rigged device that some N-SSA skirmish sutlers sell to solve just this problem. It consists of about a 3-inch length of 1/2-inch copper tubing soldered to a threaded receptacle that fits our commonly used cleaning rods.

When a brush comes apart "down there," you screw this tube on the end of your cleaning rod, slide it down to the stuck brush, then force it over the bristles and withdraw the package. Deceptively simple in both logic and execution. Make it yourself if you're handy at such things, or they are available from, among others, the Miami Valley Sutler: [email protected]

 

[MikeChapin]

I would try the mechanical methods first. Try what musketman advised if, it doesn't work, Zonie, I think, had a very good method. It involved slipping a hollow tube around the brush and pulling it out.

I had a brush get stuck years ago. I ended up pulling the nipple and putting 5 or ten grains of powder, replacing the nipple and blew it out. It took two tries but it popped out and went about twenty yards down range.

 

[roundball]

Yes, a bore sized, thin walled piece of tubing will work...also, following a tip from this forum I once used a grease gun to remove a brush. I removed my vent liner, packed a couple dozen 1/4" square pieces of patch material deep into the breech, screwed in a 1/4"x28tpi grease fitting, and pumped it out with a grease gun.

Then remove the fitting, slowly slide a dry patch down bore which pushes 99% of the grease right back out through the vent, a couple more dry patches, then just clean the barrel as if you had just returned from the range...worked perfectly.

The Moral:
Only buy brushes that have positive/captive end connections to the threaded ramrod adapter...not the crimped on types.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Some advise too late to help you but may save someone else a similar fate; when you push a brush downbore do not just pull it straight back up. Give the rod a clockwise twist as you pull back. That will help the bristles reverse direction and pull back more easily and also help the twisted wire brush shank remain tight.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

I've done the same as Musketman, but with an ordinary iron (mild steel) coat hanger. I made the hook at the bottom angled slightly to the side so I could try to get it around the shaft of the brush. Whether that actually happened or not, it fished the brush quite easily.

Joel

 

[ronrryan]

questions: (1)When you say you were "buffing" do you mean spinning the brush with a power drill on the rod ? (2) What is actually left down there/ a) the brush itself, with threaded end (8/32 or 10/32)exposed, or (b) the brush, still threaded into the brass end of the ramrod, which has separated from the rod, or (c) the brush, brass end, with part of a fractured rod still attached? This would simplify advice if we could visualize the problem ( some of us have probably experienced all three at some point in the past. Good smoke, Ron

 

[Golfswithwolves]

Thanks for all the advice; I hadn't thought of the copper tube idea and will certainly try it as the hooked coathanger has failed so far. Ronryan, I was just spinning the brush by hand and what is left is the steel wire core of the brush with the brass bristles but the threaded brass portion pulled off the wire core. Sounds like this has happened to others as well!

 

[rdillion]

I've had this problem in the past with cheap Wal Mart brushes. After the second one came apart on an old Mauser rifle I threw them all away. Now I only use Tipton cleaning attachments and never have any problems. Look at how their brushes are constructed and you will see what I mean. I order mine from Midway arms, they cost a little more, but.....

 

[silverfox]

By now you probably have your problem solved. The copper tubeing will work but at the price of copper tubeing these days and the fact you have a 12Ga you might get by with a section of pvc tubeing it's much cheaper.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[dgold]

I had this happen with my Enfield .58 many years ago. Took a pen light, shined it down the barrel and after about an hour of trying, got the thread started and tight and pulled the brush out.

 

[Croppy Boy]

when you push a brush downbore do not just pull it straight back up. Give the rod a clockwise twist as you pull back. That will help the bristles reverse direction and pull back more easily and also help the twisted wire brush shank remain tight.

On a couple of occasions this has happened to me. The problem is when you twist the rod clockwise, you actually unscrew the wire of the brush out of its crimped holder. On both occasions I removed the brush by using a 0.32 brush I use on my Pedersoli's patent breech. Ease it down between the barrel wall and the stuck brush, slowly turning it clockwise until the bristles become entangled and slowly pull both out.

 

[MikeC]

Copper tubing sounds like a great idea. I wouldn't bother trying to attach a rod to the end, just get a piece about a foot longer than your barrel so you have a good long end to work with and have a go at it.

Curious to know how it works out for you...good luck.

 

[reddog]

Just stick a piece of :haha: wire with a little hook in it down and grab the durn thing,,,I ain't gonna tell you what to stick it down in,,,

 

[Golfswithwolves]

:thumbsup: Success! The length of 1/2" copper pipe worked brilliantly! I am happy once more. :grin:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Knowing what is down hole, I would just make up a simple fishing tool to retrieve the brush.

Using a small diameter barbed brass rod, making brass barb by hard soldering to rod.

As such:

Keeping unbarbed side of rod snug to wall of bore, it should then then shove through the brush bristles and when pulled get a good hold to retrieve brush.

Assuming the bronze brush is quite tight in bore, ease of retrieval might depend upon orientation of brush bristles, as in if one was pushing or pulling when the mishap occurred? If pulling, the bristles are oriented to the good, if pushing, the bristles are oriented to the bad, as they will have to be reversed and in doing so is when the brush will be the tightest and hardest to get moving.