ball stuck

[paulvallandigham]

30 years ago, someone came out with a plastic "sabot" that was suppose to hold a caliber RB tight enough that it would not roll out the barrel if shaken or upended. They were green in color.

I suspect that is what you have pulled out. Use that ball puller ( wood screw on a threaded shank that fits your Ramrod) to dig out whatever else is down there. You may a gun that was Dry-balled, ie., loaded with a ball without powder down the barrel first. If you have lubed the bore, the ball-pulling jag should be able to pull the lead ball out. Otherwide, pour some FFFFg powder down the flash channel UNDER the nipple- just a few grains-- point the gun at something safe, and shoot the obstruction out. 3-5 grains by volume is all it takes to expell most obstructions.

:thumbsup:

 

[Pete G]

The plastic thing was called a "Poly Patch" concave on both ends and differnt color for each caliber.

 

[paulvallandigham]

thank you for that memory. That WAS the name. My gun club decided to ban them from our range, because they didn't always hold the lead ball in the "cup", allowing the ball to come loose-either to drop out the barrel when it was lowered, or roll forward enough to become a bore obstruction.

The one shooter who brought a bag of the Poly-patches to the range to try found that they gummed up his bore with plastic fouling- needing a bore brush after three shots!-- which he didn't bring with him that day. He "borrowed" a bore brush from another shooter to clean his bore. Then he had the opportunity to pick up some of the plastic "poly Patches" only to find clear evidence that gas was escaping past the "rear" soft Skirt( blowing through it is a better description) and cutting/melting the sides of the plastic poly patch, so that it offered NO protection to the lead ball. That explained why he could not get any decent group using the things, and why the plastic fouling in his barrel was so bad. [MORAL: ALWAYS READ YOUR SPENT PATCHES.]

He found someone at another club's rendezvous who bought the rest of the bag of the things. He tried to warn the guy about his experiences with them, but the guy claimed his gun fired the things just fine. Who knows?? No one in my club used the things after that, and they slowly disappeared from the market.

paul