Burr in barrel -- question

I recently bought an Austin & Halleck percussion mountain rifle on their closeout. When I run a cleaning patch down the barrel, it sometimes catches so I have to hit the cleaning rod handle to get it started back out. The patch is torn on one side of the jag. Best I can figure is that there is a burr, probably where hole for the drum was drilled and tapped. This is, of course, not a problem when loading, since the burr is covered by powder, but is a bit of a pain when cleaning.

My question is, would it be worth the time and effort to remove the breech plug and drum in order to smooth the bore Any opinions and/or suggestion would be welcome.

Also, how does one remove the drum without buggering it up? I can get a wrench on the breech plug, but the drum is round.

 

You probably have a slight protrusion of the threaded shank of the drum into the breech area. You can remove the drum and check. You will have to remove the drum before you remove the breechplug anyway so check the drum shank first.

Use vise-grips to grab the drum and turn it out. There is a chance you will bugger up the drum so plan on ordering a new one. $3-$7 is about average so it will not break the bank. Removing the drum a couple of times will not wear the threads. Doing it every time you clean will lead to excess wear.

I know, some claim they remove the drum for each cleaning and it has not hurt anything for 20 years. I guess that is true if you only shoot once a year!

Measure the length of the shank compared to the wall thickness of the barrel. File off any excess.

 

Thanks. will give it a try.

 

[boar]

I had to take the drum off of one of my CVA's To smooth it up. What I would do is take and cut a piece of copper tubing the length of the drum, split it and clamp visegrips on tight. This might save drum from being scared. YOU can put penetrating oil on and heat it lightly, The heat will drive in the oil. I take nipple out first so not to damage it. Brass will work if you have some. DILLY

 

[renovato]

Before you remove it, make a small witness mark on the drum and barrel. It's much easier to get it back in the right spot this way. I had to remove the drum on a Traditions Trapper pistol kit. I just used vice grips, then after reinstalling it, I used a file to smooth out the marks left by the vice grips. A little sanding and you couldn't tell it had ever been touched.

If you do this on a finished barrel, you'll have some touch up browning to do. I'm still tinkering trying to figure out what Austin & Halleck browned their barrels with. As soon as I find a match, I'll post it. Good luck.

 

Why don't you just file a couple of flats on the end of the drum and use a crescent wrench to remove it? It will make things easier if you need to remove it again. You can even buy drum blanks with flats.