Ever feel like throwing your rifle in the drink?

[pepperbelly]

Is the type of air-line fitting I'll need fairly common or should I plan to bring my own?

Jon

The auto stores have an air blower tool. It has a rubber tip and is made to blow through small ports as well as blowing stuff off. It should be perfect for the nipple. This will keep you from having to remove the nipple and attaching something.
After reading about all the stuff that gets stuck in barrels I have decided to take mine with me when I finally get to the range. I have a small air tank that I can fill before leaving home and take to the range with me.
Jim

 

[B.Habermehl]

I'm not sure what thread t-c uses for their nipples. But I once took a 1/4-28 zerk fitting(grease)ground the base back 1/32 or so. This released the ball detent and left a holow tube. Then I took the guts out of the female grease gun fitting that fits the zerk. Attached it to a bayonett fittting to fit my air hose. Screwed the zerk into the nipple thread, hooked up the air, turned on the air, and BING,BING,BING, the ball and powdre charge is recosheting all over the shop! The idea worked well, the execution, well..... Make sure you keep her pointed in a safe direction!!!! :redthumb:

 

[tna]

had a problem w/ my t/c 50 hawken. everytime i ran a patch to the plug it would get stuck. needed vice grips to pull it. so first i put a brush on my ramrod and put the ramrod in a drill and worked that at the plug w/ about a gallon of solvent. then i put my jag in a drill press (careful of the threads) and used 150 grit sand paper to kind of lathe the outside of the jag clean. i do this every one in a great while and don't have a problem. although i did buy a new jag to check the size w/ a micrometer and make sure i'm not taking too much off.

 

[JKVirginia]

I just wanted to thank all you folks for putting up with my venting here... I had no intent of throwing Susie into the Rappahannock all comments to the contrary aside.

Your help is also greatly appreciated.

As an aside, I finally got the jag out with a multi-front assault of soaking the breech end of the barrel in a bucket of soapy water, pouring some "NMLRA Racing Oil" down the barrel, letting it soak for half an hour, then wedging the barrel between two rungs of a ladderback chair and using vise-grips on the rod (in lieu of a proper vise, which I don't have set up yet)

I also picked up a T/C aluminum ram, which I'll be taking Zonie's advice and pinning the end into.

Thanks again,

Jon

 

[Stumpkiller]

I think the older T/C ramrods must be of better stock. I have two original wood ramrods on my two T/C rifles and have put maybe 7,000 combined rounds through them in 25 years - without the use of a range rod for cleaning or loading. Just the ones that came with the guns. (T/C uses 10-32 threads, by the way).

From the sounds of things the fouling in your bore is drying out and you need to loosten it up more between shots. To do this you need to run a damp patch down to wipe the bore every-other shot or use more (or different) lube on the ball patches. Some lubes & load combinations require a damp cleaning pacth between evert shot (plain old saliva works great), while others can run 15 or 20 rounds using only the lubed patch around the ball. Depends on powder, patch thickness, lube, amount of lube used, humidity, temperature, lead hardness, bore condition, etc.

Stick with it. It's not like flipping a switch and suddenly having the tricks and techniques all figured out. You've got us old duffers who've made all the mistakes already to help you out here. Keep asking. :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

I just wanted to thank all you folks for putting up with my venting here... I had no intent of throwing Susie into the Rappahannock all comments to the contrary aside.

Your help is also greatly appreciated.

As an aside, I finally got the jag out with a multi-front assault of soaking the breech end of the barrel in a bucket of soapy water, pouring some "NMLRA Racing Oil" down the barrel, letting it soak for half an hour, then wedging the barrel between two rungs of a ladderback chair and using vise-grips on the rod (in lieu of a proper vise, which I don't have set up yet)

I also picked up a T/C aluminum ram, which I'll be taking Zonie's advice and pinning the end into.

Thanks again,

Jon

=========================================================

FYI...sounds like you may have got the lightweight hollow tubular aluminum...TC also makes solid black aluminum alloy ramrods which require no pinning.

PS:
My rifles are TC Hawkens and as another consideration, I've found that brass ramrods look great with them, matching the rest of the brass furniture, and I've gradually changed all mine out over the past couple years.

I particularly like the solid brass rods as they don't require pinning, are strong as an ox, and the extra weight out front makes the sight 'hang' on the target with less muzzle movement and improved accuracy

 

[pepperbelly]

Where did you find a brass ramrod for a T/C Hawken?
Jim

 

[Rebel]

You can get one from RMC Sports. www.rmcsports.com

 

[GrayBear]

I'm also a newbie but I've learned two things:

1) Pay no attention to anyone who attempts to repy by writing in some version of a dialect they think people used to speak. Their lack of knowledge of the English language seems, for some reason, to make them put down more educated people.

2) My group decided to allow non-wood rods after two members put broken rods deeply into their hands. After all, none of the old-timers used shooting glasses and ear plugs, either, but we do.

JMHO,

GrayBear

 

[Slamfire]

First thing to do when this happens is to jump into the drink and cool off. After that there are all kinds of things you can try. I think most of them have been suggested. :relax:

 

[JKVirginia]

Upon further examination of the snapped rod, it seems to have been some sort of synthetic shaft with brass tips. A thin, wood-grain look exterior with some kinda flexy, plasticky looking shtuff in the center. Always felt like I was ramming a ball with a noodle anyway, so good riddance--The aluminum tube-rod is a cheap, right-now solution, and it sounds like the solid-brass rod is gonna be the long haul fix.

So, who feels like walking the FNG through a sample load-fire-reload sequence, so I can figure out if I'm missing any other vital elements (aside from using a 12-bore patch in a .45 rifle for a wiping patch (It worked fine for the bubble bath cleaning after shooting!)

 

I'm also a newbie but I've learned two things:

1) Pay no attention to anyone who attempts to repy by writing in some version of a dialect they think people used to speak. Their lack of knowledge of the English language seems, for some reason, to make them put down more educated people.

2) My group decided to allow non-wood rods after two members put broken rods deeply into their hands. After all, none of the old-timers used shooting glasses and ear plugs, either, but we do.

JMHO,

GrayBear

I cain't fer tha life'a me, 'member put'n anybuddy down (more educated'er not)!!

OH!!.. Wait'a minute!!.... I do 'member challenge'n a couple'a feller's "view" in regards to smokeless-powder, but it was done in tha "name'a safty"!!

rollingb

 

[leadball]

TRial and error. I made some mistakes that made me want to give up muzzleloading more than once when i first got into it. Yes, the co2 will blow it out. the stuck jag is one of my first

 

[leadball]

Actually throwing your gun in the river might soften the fouling and wet the patch :haha:

You know who else makes a cheap ramrod? the cabelas blue ridge. nice gun but real cheap rod

 

[JKVirginia]

Actually throwing your gun in the river might soften the fouling and wet the patch

Just what I need, a frippin' wiseguy....

Thanks for injecting a bit of humor

 

[Zonie]

I know the ole timers already know this, but for any newcomers to muzzleloading, I'll just mention something I learned a long time ago that might keep you from breaking a wooden ramrod.

When your ramming the ball down the bore, don't try to do it in one mighty stroke.
Ya, I know, the old movies show them reaching way up to the top of the rod and cramming the ball/patch down the bore, but then the makers of those movies can afford to buy new ramrods. ::
Most of them wern't loading a real ball/patch either. They were just making "action" which looks good in the movies.

The best way to load, in my opnion follows:
If your loading with a wooden ramrod, after you have got the ball/patch started and have placed the ramrod into the bore, grab the ramrod about 8-12 inches above the muzzle. Push the ball/patch down, then repeat the proceedure until the ball is seated.

 

[Rat]

I thought that when a jag and patch stuck in the breech like that, it was because the breech was "counter sunk" I guess you would say, (???) and slightly smaller in diameter than the barrel...??

Is that wrong...did this rifle have a flat-breech? Or does the breech-plug have a "chamber" in it?

For instance, with my Zouave, when you run a patch down all the way, you can feel the breech get smaller than the bore. The breech plug has kind of a "chamber" in it.

On my Bess, where you can actually see down the bore to the breech, (got to love them BIG bores) you can see that the breech face is flat, and when you run the jag all the way down to the breech face the resistance does not change.

Just wondered, that's what I had been led to believe, that a jag and patch will sometimes get stuck when it goes into a breech that is slightly smaller than the bore. ???

Rat

 

[Musketeer]

1) Pay no attention to anyone who attempts to repy by writing in some version of a dialect they think people used to speak. Their lack of knowledge of the English language seems, for some reason, to make them put down more educated people.

I hope you aren't serious about this! Many of us on the Forum reply in some sort of bogus "old time" dialect merely for the fun of it. Such replies generally have nothing to do with the author's intellectual capacity or knowledge of the English language, but are made in such manner simply to lighten the tone of their reply. Pardon my departure from the original topic. Let us return to it, dag nabbit! :::thumbsup:

 

For instance, with my Zouave, when you run a patch down all the way, you can feel the breech get smaller than the bore. The breech plug has kind of a "chamber" in it.

This is a "new one on me",.... on every counter-bored breech plug I've seen, tha rifle bore is consistantly the same size all the way down to tha (counter bored) breech plug and you shouldn't feel anythin git "smaller" (tighter?) when run'n a patch down-bore.

Maybe I've "mis-unnerstood" yore comment. ::

YMHS
rollingb

 

[Rat]

No you understood right, but I don't really understand it...but that's how it seems to be. I may be "mis-commenting". !!!

And I did come close to getting a patch stuck down there once, so now of course I'm really careful not to.

Again, my Bess and 1861 both have a flat breech, and there is no increase in tightness as you move a tight fitting patch all the way down to the breech face. They don't give any indication of the patch wanting to bind up or stick...but the Zouave will.

On my Zouave, that last inch about you can definately feel where it gets tighter.

Looking at the breech from the outside, with the rifle in my lap right now, you can see that where the breech attaches to the barrel is AHEAD of the bolster and nipple, not at the end of the barrel like most tang/breech plugs. The distance from where the barrel joins the breech, to the end of the barrel and tang, is 1 1/8". Not the end of the tang, but to where the barrel ends and the tang starts.

So there does seem to be a small portion of un-rifled, "chamber" in the breech plug...which I'm pretty sure is slightly smaller than the bore. ???

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And that's about as clear as mud!

Rat