coolest tricks?

[jferguson]

I read somewhere that the ball expands outward a little when you screw in the ball puller. It sure seemed so.

Yes, I have heard that before, so my "trick" to add, is that someone showed me the way to avoid that problem is to rig up a small drill bit to your rod and hand drill a PILOT hole in the ball, for your ball pulling tool to screw into, and thus not swell the ball diameter! How's that?

 

[S.Kenton]

Or you could simply remove the nipple and dribble a little bit of powder into the hole replace nipple and fire the ball out..... :wink:
My answer to the stuck ramrod in the barrel is that I have a "T" handle that screws into the threaded end of the ramrod, this trick requires one to have both ends of the ramrod threaded....this allows one to have a lot more grip thus makes it easier to pull a stubborn ball. I purchased this handle from Ohio Ramrod and it has proved to be invaluable.

 

[coloradoclyde]

The idea of a drill bit down the bore makes me nervous :shocked2: ....also I have Had one or two pullers strip out of the ball before....

But we all know what works for one doesn't work for all. :grin:

 

[M. De Land]

Learning to pressure flake flint edges with a pointed copper tool in a bone or antler handle.

 

[Brokennock]

Thank you.

 

[fishmusic]

Use 35mm film a lot. The cans are now plastic and make good pillow tick patch storage.

 

[Jim C]

"A 35mm film can"

Boy y'all are some old timers! Cannot remember when I last saw 35mm film.

A little while back I bought a sack full for $6, I think twenty of them, online, to store my prelubed rolls of patch cloth in. Air tight and water proof they are perfect for it.

 

[mooman76]

I like the tins that tobacco come in. I don't chew myself but pick them up whenever I see one lying around. Small and flat but big enough to fit small items and the wintergreen smells good too.

 

[bender20]

x2 I chew tobacco and find the cans useful for storing lots of things

 

[hanshi]

An important thing to remember when you dryball is to do what I've learned to do over the years. First, you have to cuss - get away from the kids and ladies - then kick something. It makes it much easier to get it out. :shocked2:

 

[Eric Krewson]

I dry balled on a shotgun load last year. No problem, dump the shot but then there was that stack of cereal box over powder wads I put down the barrel. A puller wouldn't screw into them, you couldn't get powder behind them so it was unbreech the barrel to punch them out. I might have cussed a little at myself for being careless during the process.

 

[KingofDerby]

Less for shooting but...

live for a year in a house with no heating (we called it the Ice Palace!) and it will improve your resistance to cold, thus allowing you to take less blankets to events, leaving more space for beer!

(The thread's title is 'COOLEST tricks', see!)

 

[pwbsmokey]

When loading I place the rifle butt on the tow of my boot. It protects the butt plate, and I can feel the ramrod pressure.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

No sure if any of this is "cool" just stuff that occurred to me at one time or 'tother...

I don't have a ramrod on my rifle that has any attachment for adding tools. So I took a small drill bit, a drill, and a needle file, and made a small oval hole in one end, like the eye of a needle. Comes in handy when I want to swab the bore with a scrap of leftover patching material.



On a LLP Bess, which had a wooden rammer, I added a tip to the bottom of the rammer that would accept a 10x32 screw. Prior to adding the tip, I inserted a steel, 10x32 screw from the inside, which caused some of that screw to protrude beyond the tip. When installed, instead of my wooden rammer having a female end, it had a male end, as do the ramrods on the Pedersoli or Jap Bess. That way I could use a worm for cleaning that musket made for the Jap Bess, as they come with a 10x32 thread.




My hunting neckerchief is blue checked, and is 30x30. I fold it in half across the diagonal, so it forms a triangle, and tie two of the three points together in front of me with the third point pointing down the center of my back. No secret there...

But then I took beeswax and rubbed some of it into one of the two triangular portions, followed by applying an iron on a low setting. So one of the two "triangles" formed by folding the square of cloth is now water resistant. When I wear it, the waxed portion is against my back, and beneath the unwaxed portion, keeps the wax from getting sticky in the sunlight.... but when a storm comes up quick, and I've forgotten to bring a cow's knee...the neckerchief is wrapped around my lock with the waxed side up, to keep the lock and the priming powder dry.



I don't use a dedicated game carrier when going for rabbits, or squirrels. I cut a piece of rope, about two feet long, and knot the ends. I stick this half way through my sash. When I get a squirrel I part one of the three strands of the rope, and insert the critter's head. The natural twist will hold the first critter, and additional critters are secured via different strands so they cause the rope to tighten a bit as their weight pulls down.

LD

 

[doug smith]

Back in the mid 70's I built a T/C Hawken from a kit. The first year I had it I took it deer hunting. I had two hunting partners with me that were using modern fire arms. We rode together to our hunting spot all the while giving me grief for using an antique style of hunting rifle. Once there we split up and went our separate ways. We hunted from sun up to sun down, and then met back at the truck. Nobody got a shot that day. Before getting in the truck I took a shot at an old stump with a safe background to unload the T/C. Aim at stump, pull trigger, snap. Re cap, aim at stump, pull trigger, snap. Re cap, aim at stump, pull trigger, snap-kaboom. Then I caught all kinds of grief,"you carried that all day, and if you had got a shot it wouldn't have gone off". From that day forward, if I hunt with a cap lock, before I load powder and ball, I snap 3 caps. Then after I load powder and ball, I pull the nipple and dribble a little powder in the hole, replace the nipple and go on. I have never had a misfire since.

 

[Jim C]

Back in the mid 70's I built a T/C Hawken from a kit. The first year I had it I took it deer hunting. I had two hunting partners with me that were using modern fire arms. We rode together to our hunting spot all the while giving me grief for using an antique style of hunting rifle. Once there we split up and went our separate ways. We hunted from sun up to sun down, and then met back at the truck. Nobody got a shot that day. Before getting in the truck I took a shot at an old stump with a safe background to unload the T/C. Aim at stump, pull trigger, snap. Re cap, aim at stump, pull trigger, snap. Re cap, aim at stump, pull trigger, snap-kaboom. Then I caught all kinds of grief,"you carried that all day, and if you had got a shot it wouldn't have gone off". From that day forward, if I hunt with a cap lock, before I load powder and ball, I snap 3 caps. Then after I load powder and ball, I pull the nipple and dribble a little powder in the hole, replace the nipple and go on. I have never had a misfire since.

:thumbsup: Excellent idea.....I too done this back when I used to deer hunt and never once ever had a misfire. When you only have one shot you have to do all you can to help make it count.

 

[azmntman]

Have come home meatless too many times per the snap no boom curse. Now when Hunting I fire a half load of powder then swab and reload. I never carry a gun thats "clean" in the field. I fired gun is a dry gun! Means cleaning every night but? Id trade that for the few real nice bucks n the one fat cow that laughed at my cap!

Oh and BTW I shoot the gun into a tree a ways from "my" camp so as not to spook the game. Probably a few calls to game and fish bout some guy shooting deer before light but I'm long gone by the time they climb outta their tents and have a look see :grin:

 

[BrownBear]

I dry balled on a shotgun load last year. No problem, dump the shot but then there was that stack of cereal box over powder wads I put down the barrel. A puller wouldn't screw into them, you couldn't get powder behind them so it was unbreech the barrel to punch them out. I might have cussed a little at myself for being careless during the process.

I did that with fiber wads.... In both bores! Egads. Don't ask me how I could be so stupid twice in a row. Didn't even want to contemplate de-breeching a double, but the worm/screw pulled right out of the fiber wads in both bores.

Tried my CO2 discharger, but the screw holes in the wads defeated that. Was just about ready to resort to the grease gun, but tarried.

Ended up popping a couple of caps in each bore to scooch the wads forward a little, then removed the nipples for the powder dribble trick to launch the wads. Just gladder than glad I didn't have chokes for the wads to push past, because they didn't have much enthusiasm coming out the muzzle.

 

[KingofDerby]

My flat is cold and often humid from drying clothes indoors...not had any condensation on my guns yet but, just in case, I've plugged the muzzles with greased cloth, and put the locks in a bag of rice. They've been shiny so far!

In your tent, tie a cord from pole to pole...means your clothing can be off the ground and out of the way and, if you extend your rod, you can hold up your musket.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

You can also place a couple of loops of rope spaced apart on your ridge pole (if you use a wedge tent), and you can suspend your musket or rifle off the ground in these.

LD