Got My Ball Stuck

[2172]

Lone, they sell an adapter for the CO2 discharger...it is a little like a nipple on the end that goes on the discharger, and narrows to where it'll fit into a touchhole. A problem in using it with a dry-loaded ball is that the ball usually covers the touch hole,blocking the adaptor from getting with with its CO2. If one is going to use an adaptor, it should be used before someone tries a ball puller, as that'll exand the ball. Hank

 

[davy]

IMHO IF you just hafta pull a ball the hard way ... lube the barrel & let it soak first ... then tie a stout lanyard to the end of the ramrod and tie it to a hook in the wall or beam and pull the ball by holding the gun and backing up or pulling .. no reason to creat an unsafe conditon for someoone else in front of a gun!

Not to mention its easier this way .. NOT THAT I EVER HAD TO DO IT MIND YOU! :hmm: :redface: :shocked2:

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you really dry balled that load, there is NO powder under the ball to cause any danger to someone pulling the rod from the muzzle. However, if you stuck a ball partway down the barrel, that is another story all together.

In that case, I recommend fouling the powder by pouring water, or cleaning fluid into the vent, or down the flash channel from the nipple. Only then would I pull the ramrod out by placing myself, or any part of my anatomy in front of the gun barrel. YOU do want to remove the Nipple on Percussion actions when doing this, so you can get lots of water or moose milk into the powder. If you only have a wooden ramrod, like the short one that comes with your gun, wet some leather latigo, or even shoe lace, wrap it wet around the ramrod 3 times, and tie it before trying to pull on it. Pay attention to the number of times you wrap the leather around the rod. For reasons I don't fully understand, 3Xs works better than 2 or 4!

If you give your self time for the water or solvent to soak the patch around the ball, and lubricate that barrel between the muzzle and the ball, it will come out easily. The trick is to use plenty of lube so that once you break the ball free from where it is seated, it has a totally lubricated surface to travel on as you pull it out.

 

[Al Parsons]

Now please don't everyone shout at me but is there an alternative to either pulling the ball or blowing it out with CO2?

I mean firing it out.

Now, once again, I only mention this because I had once heard from people who seemed to know their stuff that this was safe enough WITH A FLINTLOCK. Not a caplock, but with a flintlock because of the gases escaping out the vent and past the ball itself.

I have been told that because of the escaping gases, no danger was likely to either the barrel or the shooter.

Was this bad information?

I shall now take cover. Remember: be nice, this is Sunday.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Now please don't everyone shout at me but is there an alternative to either pulling the ball or blowing it out with CO2?

I mean firing it out.

Now, once again, I only mention this because I had once heard from people who seemed to know their stuff that this was safe enough WITH A FLINTLOCK. Not a caplock, but with a flintlock because of the gases escaping out the vent and past the ball itself.

I have been told that because of the escaping gases, no danger was likely to either the barrel or the shooter.

Was this bad information?

I shall now take cover. Remember: be nice, this is Sunday.

A thrill seeker, I be not. Would strenuously advise against such.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

If you have gases escaping around the ball, then it probably isn't stuck. Better to use a puller and a stout rod.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The problem iwth firing a ball out when you have " dry balled" the gun, is there is no powder down the barrel to fire it out with! I did take a touch hole liner out of a gun, use a small screw driver to push the PRB forward enough to leave a little space for powder, then poured about 3-5 grains of 4fg powder behind the ball, put the liner back in, prime the gun, and my friend then sat down and carefully aimed the gun at his 25 yd target and fired the gun. The ball hit the target in the exact center of the bulleye! It went through the air so slow, we could all se it traveling in mid air! But, most vent liners can not be so removed, and you can't move the ball forward enough to put powder it. Its safer to pull the ball, or use one ofthe CO2 devices to blow it out of the barrel and be done with it.

Now, if you stick a ball down the barrel part way, because you didn't clean between shots, you will have a gun with powder in it. A few drops of solvent to lube the patch more will often allow you to move the PRB ball down on the powder. Since some of the solvent may spoil some of the powder, don't expect that shot to be like your others. Fire it down range into a berm, or backstop, just to get it out of the gun. Then give the barrel a thorough cleaning, before reloading it again.

 

[davy]

Ball removal options list ...

1) Pull ball with traditional ball puller.

2) Blow out ball ... with a co2 device.

3) Blow out ball ... by packing a small amt of powder behind ball if you can get to it, making sure to ram ball back onto powder first.

4) Use a mechanics grease gun and installed zerk fitting on the barrel breach .. just pump grease into barrle the hydrostatic pressure forces the ball to come out! :shocked2:

5) Remove breech plug and push ball out of barrel.

I am sure there are other methods more inventive folks have come up with! :hatsoff:

Davy

 

[CrackStock]

Al,

The original question involved a ball that was stuck in the bore, but had powder behind it.

You might make stronger efforts to seat the ball and then shoot it out, particularly if you had a good range rod.

However, shooting it out from partway down the barrel would run a strong risk of damaging the barrel.

CS

 

[Herz_aus_Stahl]

Here is explained why:
Why Does a Short-Started Ball Cause a Barrel Bulge?
http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/mlexperiments/bulge/bulge.html