This friend of mine, ahem, got a patched round ball stuck down his 1803 Harpers Ferry repro. Forgot the powder. He used the screw-in ball puller and removed it but thought there must be a better way. This friend keeps seeing the CO2 devices advertised in Cabelas and other places. Can anyone here share their experience with those CO2 ball dischargers and the various fittings? Many thanks.
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Ball discharger
- Thread starter connerm
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Luddite....I have a CO2 Discharger. Here in East Texas the humidity, even in the winter, is extreme. I usually discharge my Percussion Hawken at the end of the day. The Discharger works like a charm. The only time it didn't was on a low cylinder. I got about 3 discharges on a cylinder. Surely they make an adapter for a flintlock.
It's fairly populated at my favorite hunting spot. I really felt uneasy popping off a charge after dark. With the discharger it sounds about like a cork coming out of a wine bottle.
But be careful where you point your rifle. A patched ball might travel 50 ft with a fresh cylinder.
It's fairly populated at my favorite hunting spot. I really felt uneasy popping off a charge after dark. With the discharger it sounds about like a cork coming out of a wine bottle.
But be careful where you point your rifle. A patched ball might travel 50 ft with a fresh cylinder.A lot of the shoots here use them. The range officer is usually the person incharge of it. Also instead of the small co2 cylinders like a pellet gun uses they have it hooked up to a larger tank of co2 about like a small welding tank. Yes they do have flintlock adapters. It seems alot of clubs would just as soon safely blow a dry ball out than spend the time messing with getting powder behind the ball and shooting it out. I have done both (Hey my name is No Powder and there is a story behind it) I do not have a co2 discharger but used one at a shoot once and it worked great, but then so does working powder behind the ball.
I don't like to shoot a ball out after a hunt for several reasons...don't want to call attention to myself, don't want a game warden (or other people within earshot) to think I'm poaching after dark, don't want to have to clean the rifle unecessarily, etc.
I have a TC Arms CO2 discharger that I used a couple of times years ago, but went to use it one time and the CO2 had leaked out, never bothered with it again. A ball puller on the ramrod is cheap, clean, quick, & quiet
I have a TC Arms CO2 discharger that I used a couple of times years ago, but went to use it one time and the CO2 had leaked out, never bothered with it again. A ball puller on the ramrod is cheap, clean, quick, & quiet
I've had a CO2 discharger in my shooting/range box for about 5 years or so. They work great on percussion. With the flint adapter, they are much less useful...if you dry load a ball in a flinter, it will usually be driven down enough to cover the vent hole, meaning the adapter can't get in behind the ball. If you can work the ball forward a bit, you can get it in, but then you can probably get in enough powder to blow the ball out. The discharger does work if you bring a loaded gun out of the woods and need to unload it...because then the powder in front of the vent hole gives enough room for the gas to get behind the ball.
A warning: I left my discharger out on a bench at our range after blowing a ball out for a shooter....it was August, and the sun heated it enough for the CO2 cylinder to blow up and blow up the discharger....One more point, if you are going to try and use a discharger, it is better to do it before you try and pull the ball with a worm,,,the worm will spread the ball and make it fit tighter...Hank
A warning: I left my discharger out on a bench at our range after blowing a ball out for a shooter....it was August, and the sun heated it enough for the CO2 cylinder to blow up and blow up the discharger....One more point, if you are going to try and use a discharger, it is better to do it before you try and pull the ball with a worm,,,the worm will spread the ball and make it fit tighter...Hank
Bald Baron
36 Cal.
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I attempted to use Pyrodex in my GPR at one time. After several attempts to fire it a shooter up the line used his CO2 discharger on my Flint GPR. He unscrewed the vent liner and put in a nipple with the same thread. If I ever see anybody shooting an in-line they are welcome to my Pyrodex. Goex 2f from now on.
Thanks to all who have offered help. Hank makes an excellent point. The ball was driven down far enough to block the flash hole so no insert could get it - I guess no powder could get in either. My flash hole is the kind that cannot be removed without destroying it as it has no slot for a screwdriver. Soooo. I'm going to put my camo thinking cap on and think of a way to use the CO2 discharger so that the little adapter will sit flush against the flash hole liner. I think I saw a pic of one of the adapters with an o-ring around it. I can use a clamp of some type to make sure the fit is tight. Clamp would squeeze from side of barrel opposite flash hole.
I've dug a few balls out - some dry some live, and it is too much of a p.i.t.a.
Thank you all for giving me lots to think about.
I've dug a few balls out - some dry some live, and it is too much of a p.i.t.a.
Thank you all for giving me lots to think about.
Rocky Johnson
45 Cal.
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Luddite- I have one of them C clamp thing for cleaning a flintlock, maybe you could just take the hose off and put the C02 thing on the clamp. TOTW will send you one in just a few days? Rocky /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I'm surprised a ball puller won't just slide your dry ball right out...I probably pull a couple dozen balls after hunts every year during hunting season...at least in TC Hawkens, it only takes about 15-30 seconds to screw the puller on the rod, turn the puller into the ball, and slide the ball out. I use Hornady balls and prelubed patches but wouldn't think that would matter...dunno
Roundball, our club has 45 members, all pretty experienced, and our success rate with ball pullers is about 75%, and that only with a lot of effort. It may be that some of the guys are using a too-tight patch/ball combo, but my own problems (I admit to having dry loaded a couple of times) with pullers got me to spend the bucks on the CO2 discharger...I use wonder lubed pre-cut patches, .01 and .49 balls in my .50....is your patch/ball combo an easy load? About a third of our guys use a mallet to drive the ball home (I don't)...Hank ps, since I switched to flint about 6 years ago, I don't dry load as often as when I knew I could blow it out easily with a caplock gun...
No, never used a mallet...I use Hornady .440's, .490's, .530's with .018" prelubed pillow ticking patches.
I'm a pretty big boy with a fair amount of strength but it still hurts to try and thumb start them so they're pretty snug, but knock on wood, ball pullers have always worked.
Of course, now that we've discussed this, I'll drop the hammer on a dry ball this November with a boone & crockett buck 75yds away not knowing I'm there, but I won't be able to pull the ball !!
I'm a pretty big boy with a fair amount of strength but it still hurts to try and thumb start them so they're pretty snug, but knock on wood, ball pullers have always worked.
Of course, now that we've discussed this, I'll drop the hammer on a dry ball this November with a boone & crockett buck 75yds away not knowing I'm there, but I won't be able to pull the ball !!
