Gald I had a Ball Puller!

[The New Guy]

And nope, I did not, have not yet, dry balled. But plan to, hence the reason I have a ball puller.

Went to the range yesterday afternoon so my son could shoot his CVA .50 for the first time and he had a blast. I think he really did enjoy shooting a traditional gun. He tends to be very methodical in everything he does and the slower pace of pour powder, tap it in the bolster, insert patched ball, ram it down, pick it up, place cap, aim and bang, tends to fit his personality. Anywho, after he and his younger brother finished makin as much smoke as they could stand I decided to try and shoot the Daly .50 cal I recently picked up to refinish before I completely destroy it learning what not to do during the refinishing process. to make a long story longer, I put in the powder, rammed down the ball, then went to place the cap and uh oh, cap doesn't fit! What?. One of my boys actually said out loud, "seems like mister I read the muzzleloader forums everyday, forgot to check something" and he was right. Seems the nipple on this gun is a bit larger in diameter than on the CVA. I now have a loaded gun and no way to fire it. so, being the resourceful guy that i am, I force a cap on the nipple, aim down range and drop the hammer. Just as I thought, didn't fire the cap, but the hammer drop seated it a little better. pull back the hammer once again, and pow, but no bang! Really! Oh well, time for plan C. Pulling the ball was much easier than I had anticipated. I am now much more confidant that when I do dry ball, I'll be able to get the ball out with the puller if needed. :grin:

Question Though: when we returned home, I poured hot water down the barrel to make sure all the powder was out and I noticed water seeping from around the breech plug. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

 

[Sinner]

Can't say I know the answer definitively, but I would think if water seeps around it, then hot gases would as well.
Hopefully a smith will chime in. :hmm:

 

[junkman_01]

Question Though: when we returned home, I poured hot water down the barrel to make sure all the powder was out and I noticed water seeping from around the breech plug. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

If water can leak out, hot powder gas can too. Yes I would be concerned.

 

[jdkerstetter]

To double check before you do anything drastic, I would plug the nipple with rubber or remove it and replace it with a screw the same size with teflon tape on it....do not overthighten it.

Stand the barrel up and put some light oil in the bore, let it stand and check for leakage again.

If it is indeed leaking the oil will only facilitate removing it so it can be rebreached.

Good Luck and Enjoy, J.D.

 

[Rifleman1776]

noticed water seeping from around the breech plug. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

Definitely not normal.
You should be concerned. Real concerned. :shocked2:
Do not shoot again until this is repaired.
Replace yer nipple too.

 

[FRJ]

If water is actually leaking out past the breech don't even think about shooting it. Because of the tension of water it has to be a significant leak to let water thru. Try some alcohol or acetone, it should run thru if there is a leak. Then if if does take it to a competent gunsmith and have it fixed before shooting. FRJ

 

[Zonie]

To my way of thinking, whether one should be concerned or not depends on how much the breech is leaking water.

The CVA or Traditions breeches do not have a tight metal to metal seal in them.

They depend only on the threads in the area to do the sealing and none of these threads are dryseal or pipe threads.
They all have some clearance built into them so they are never water tight.

Before someone says, "My CVA threads never leak." I'll just point out that after firing a lot of shots the powder fouling that gets blown back thru these threads ends up sealing up the threads.

Anyway, if the water is running out at a rate of several drips a second then, yes, be concerned.

If the water is just making the rear of the barrel wet because it is slowly seeping thru the threads don't be too concerned.
There are a LOT of threads in that area to hold things together.

As I mentioned, after the gun has been shot a number of times it will tend to seal itself.

Oh, to keep the water that seeps into the fouling in the threads from turning the metal to rust it's a good idea to heat the breech of the barrel until its hot enough to boil the water out of the area.
It's also a good idea to spray some WD40 into the breech threads. Driving water out of tight places is what it was invented for.

 

[Buffalohntr]

To help you never have the dry ball problem just rember this poem and you will hopefuly never do it.
"First the POWDER then the BALL, that's the
BEST-ES LOAD of ALL" Easy to rember and works.
You can trust me on this one. Have fun :v

 

[The New Guy]

After further review and testing, it's not actually leaking. Seems I just happened to look about the same time water was merely dribbling from the nipple, running it's way around the bolster and dripping from the breech hook. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[junkman_01]

I hate false alarms!

 

[jdkerstetter]

Better safe than sorry!

Enjoy, J.D.

 

[Nuc]

I don't think I'll ever use a ball-puller again. Once, when pulling hard to get the ball moving back up-stream, the screw came out while I was tugging hard. It left a scratch inside the bore right where it left the muzzle. It did not effect subsequent accuracy, but many more such scratches might. I'll just gonna trickle powder thru the nipple hole.

 

[Nuc]

I meant to respond to the new guy. Not sure if I know how...