Bullet stuck in barrel - with a twist

[brushblind]

Build yourself a set of these: Make whatever length you need, first put a little lube in the bore. When you make these use Locktight on the parts you don't want to spin, spin the nut and washer down to the muzzle after screwing into lead ball or conical and use a wrench to turn the nut to lift the bullet lose. Once it pulls loose then you can pull the rod by hand. It's never failed, I've got them out when nobody else could!

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

The grease gun method works perfectly. Here’s a secret to dealing with the grease in the bore afterwards:

Once you get the ball and patch out, remove the zerk, place breech end in a container (this grease can be reused!) and use a jag and patch to push all that grease out the nipple hole. Do that a couple of times and then blow through the muzzle with air. Cleanup is minimal after that, starting fluid works great for final clean up. Doesn’t leave any residue and will not harm a finish.

I applaud your method of acquiring experience.

A few grains of 4f under the nipple would get it out, too. There would be no “crack” of a rifle shot. Just a dull whompf. Myself, I would carry a sand bag into the basement and proceed as such.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Shoot it out shoot it shoot it out and shoot it out.
This is nuts, shoot it out.
Do it someplace it isn't a violation but shoot it out.
What a waste of server space.
Shoot it out.
A nuclear bomb is a weapon of mass destruction, a muzzloading pistol ain't, shoot it out.
Oh, and don't do it again but if you do,
SHOOT IT OUT.

 

[wiscoaster]

Here's a hint,, hover the cursor over a members "blue" name of their posting,, you'll see an "ignore" button, click that,,
It makes reading the forum so much nicer,

No, not my style. Unless maybe obviously a troll. I'm strong enough to take the bad along with the good. Thanks anyway.

 

[wiscoaster]

What if you heated the barrel to melt the lead and just poured it out?

Hmmmmm ..... I don't know, wouldn't that be chasing ignorance with ignorance? You know what they say about "two wrongs...."

I have no idea how hot it needs to be to melt lead and worse yet, I don't know how hot the barrel can get before the properties and strength of its metal are compromised.

but it sounds like fun anyway

 

[wiscoaster]

I'm off to Harbor Freight ....

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Deliberately?

With all respect to your personal thinking: Many of us here, (including myself) have dry balled a barrel intentionally to see how the ball/patch combination works loading. It don't help the shooting results, but when you are in the shop, then ya can't shoot it. The poster planned on removing the ball in one of the normal ways to remove a ball. It failed. We all know that shi_ happens. He learned from that, but he was doing the whole process to learn his barrel before going to the range. I hope you will come around and see his side of the fence. Doing a dry ball becasue you are not paying attention to loading, is dumb, and stupid. Doing what the OP did was smart in my opinion.
Larry

 

[smo]

Shoot it out shoot it shoot it out and shoot it out.
This is nuts, shoot it out.
Do it someplace it isn't a violation but shoot it out.
What a waste of server space.
Shoot it out.
A nuclear bomb is a weapon of mass destruction, a muzzloading pistol ain't, shoot it out.
Oh, and don't do it again but if you do,
SHOOT IT OUT.

You think he should shoot it out Brits…?

 

[ibud38]

Reason it jammed when pulling it out is because the excess patch bunched up ahead of the ball and jammed it.
Just ram it back down and remove the nipple, put as much 4f or 3f in there as you can and reinstall the nipple, it will come out.

 

[bronko220002]

Does the ball go down any further? If so, remove the nipple and trickle about 5-10 grs of powder into the bolster, replace the nipple and seat the bullet on the charge, cap and fire off in a safe direction. There should be zero issues doing this. And you just might be able to recover your accessory.
And next time, pin your ramrod attachment to the ramrod with a brass brad.

 

[Eterry]

To those who say shoot it out, I agree. But I believe he mentioned the gun is not complete. Shooting a short barrel without a piece of wood to hold on to may not be the best idea.
Besides, I think he wants to learn what he did wrong when the rod broke, and practice pulling the stuck ball.
I know I've seen many shooter's spend countless hours trying, and failing, to pull a stuck ball.

250 years ago every soldier had to know how to pull their load. It's something that no one practices anymore.

 

[wiscoaster]

@wiscoaster ...Oh yeah, who made your bullet puller? ...

As I recall, it was Traditions. It was off their merchandising display at my local Fleet Farm.

No, I stand corrected. It was CVA.

 

[wiscoaster]

Reason it jammed when pulling it out is because the excess patch bunched up ahead of the ball and jammed it.
Just ram it back down and remove the nipple, put as much 4f or 3f in there as you can and reinstall the nipple, it will come out.

Now there's a post that shows some real teaching and some consequent learning. Thank you!!

 

[wiscoaster]

What came out:

Honestly, the worst part of the whole process was loading the grease gun. I've dealt with many a gun spring that weren't much worse to deal with. Once I got that loaded and connected, the rest was simple.

Note to readers: for future reference, the proper size grease gun fitting is the M6 (ie metric) nipple.

Acetone will make short work of cleanup.

Thanks to all for the help, ideas, opinions, and education. It's appreciated.

 

[Sun City]

I'm proud I don't have to go to a public range!!

 

[OldRust]

Build yourself a set of these: Make whatever length you need, first put a little lube in the bore. When you make these use Locktight on the parts you don't want to spin, spin the nut and washer down to the muzzle after screwing into lead ball or conical and use a wrench to turn the nut to lift the bullet lose. Once it pulls loose then you can pull the rod by hand. It's never failed, I've got them out when nobody else could!

Nice!! To take it one step further something like a 1 lb piece of round stock steel center drilled to clear your all-thread would make a nice slide hammer !!! Man is this a rabbit hole we could get down into.

I'm not really sure but I think @Britsmoothy would just shoot it out

Thanks,
O.R

 

[OldRust]

Well done sir! You made short work of that and Thank you for a Sunday morning distraction. I think the majority of the posts were well meaning and educational. Thats what this forum is about.

Thanks,
O.R.

I still think @Britsmoothy would have shot it out !

 

[Eterry]

Well done sir! You made short work of that and Thank you for a Sunday morning distraction. I think the majority of the posts were well meaning and educational. Thats what this forum is about.

Thanks,
O.R.

I still think @Britsmoothy would have shot it out !

What makes you say that???

 

[Eterry]

What came out:

View attachment 227581

Honestly, the worst part of the whole process was loading the grease gun. I've dealt with many a gun spring that weren't much worse to deal with. Once I got that loaded and connected, the rest was simple.

Note to readers: for future reference, the proper size grease gun fitting is the M6 (ie metric) nipple.

View attachment 227582

Acetone will make short work of cleanup.

Thanks to all for the help, ideas, opinions, and education. It's appreciated.

I'm pleased you got it resolved.

I've said it before; I'm sure modern muzzleloaders do 2 things not usually done by hunters BITD.
1- shoot much heavier charges than our GGG Grandfather's did.
2- use a much tighter patched ball than they did.

I'm not sure if one applies here, but I still wanted to point it out.

 

[leadhoarder]

I feel your pain with the grease gun. For a simple contraption they can be humbling.