Help: Nipple on breech plug won't unthread

[deermanok]

Nipple from breechplug ?

 

[Dude]

All good advice, but there's a little more I can add. Heat and cold cycles help a lot. The two pieces will expand and contract at different rates allowing the penetrating fluid to penetrate just a little farther with each new heat cycle.
If you don't have one of those little Butane torches a big soldering iron should do it.
When trying to loosen a stuck fastener, it works going the opposite direction. Try tightening, then loosening. The 'rocking' forces can help break the bond. Once it breaks free, it likely won't just easily thread right out. Jockey back and forth - each time it gets threaded back in it carries a bit more lube back into the threads which allows it to come out just a bit farther next time.
And most of all - be patient. Up until it breaks free, it'll seem like nothing will happen. Like, it's impossible and you're wasting your time. One of the best feelings in the world is when it finally loosens up. You've conquered the impossible.

 

[Idaho Ron]

In this video I take out a stuck nipple at about 3:00 minutes in.

 

[FishDFly]

A very worth while watch.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

In one sentence you sound like you're trying to remove the nipple. In the next sentence you sound like you're trying to remove the breechplug. Which is it?

Trying to remove the nipple from the threads located on the breech-plug end of the barrel.

That's the best I can clarify. Everybody else seemed to understand how it was written.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[bubba.50]

Trying to remove the nipple from the threads located on the breech-plug end of the barrel.

That's the best I can clarify. Everybody else seemed to understand how it was written.

Thanks for your reply.

I understood the 'trying to remove the nipple' sentence perfectly. But then in your next sentence you talk about 'practically breaking your wrists with the BREECHPLUG wrench'. And in most cases, a nipple would have wrung off with that much pressure.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

I understood the 'trying to remove the nipple' sentence perfectly. But then in your next sentence you talk about 'practically breaking your wrists with the BREECHPLUG wrench'. And in most cases, a nipple would have wrung off with that much pressure.

It shoulda read "nipple wrench". I own a Thompson Omega and occasionally I'm speaking the wrong language. My bad.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

In this video I take out a stuck nipple at about 3:00 minutes in.

Excellent video Ron. A couple times you said "snail". I've never heard that term. Where/what exactly is the snail? My other question is exactly where did to hit the breech area of the barrel with the flame? Thanks !

 

[Newtire]

A very worth while watch.

I have had good luck with driving a sacrificial socket from a 1/4" drive socket set, (8-point works best but a 12-point works too) and the resulting "splines" will bite in enough to let you turn it out with your ratchet. Have used this method on nipples soaked with Kroil and PB Blaster. Used to have to remove lots of rounded off bolts stuck in aluminum transmissions and have never seen it fail. Not that the heat method can't work but consider this as just another way when you're pulling your hair out!

 

[deermanok]

So your talking about an inline rifle?

 

[PatriotKnight]

View attachment 120955

THIS!

 

[Idaho Ron]

Excellent video Ron. A couple times you said "snail". I've never heard that term. Where/what exactly is the snail? My other question is exactly where did to hit the breech area of the barrel with the flame? Thanks !

This is where you will focus the heat. Check often. You don't need to heat it too much. If it gets too hot the nipple will swell. That will defeat what you are trying to do. You are swelling the snail, and the nipple is staying the same size.

 

[mooman76]

What the nipple screws into when you don't have a drum, it sometimes is referred to as a Snail because of the shape looking from the side.

 

[Billy Boy]

I have had good luck with driving a sacrificial socket from a 1/4" drive socket set, (8-point works best but a 12-point works too) and the resulting "splines" will bite in enough to let you turn it out with your ratchet. Have used this method on nipples soaked with Kroil and PB Blaster. Used to have to remove lots of rounded off bolts stuck in aluminum transmissions and have never seen it fail. Not that the heat method can't work but consider this as just another way when you're pulling your hair out!

Yes! Best stuck nipple wrench around.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

So your talking about an inline rifle?

No not an in-line. Thompson Center .45 Cal Hawkin. I bought it from a Soldier (friend) over at Fort Stewart, GA, back in 1988. It was born from a kit.

Later I bought a Remington .50 Cal in-line and sent the Hawken to my older brother. He had it in Kodiak for about 20 years and just sent it back. Obvious he didn't maintain it properly. That's my fault for not following-up.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

Thanks for all the comments & replies. As of today, Feb 20th, 2022, I'm at about the fifth day soaking the "snail" (what I've been calling the breech) from the outside and I poured equal Kroil down the barrel to attack the problem from both sides.

As mentioned beforehand, this Hawken is going to #2 son. He lives near B'ham about 75 mi west of me. Once he gets here w/ requisite heat and tools, we'll try to unscrew the nipple one way or another using y'alls tips.

After that I'll spend an hour or so teaching him how to clean & maintain it. I already provide a long list of items he'll need minus what I give him from my spares. Then later down the road we'll go to a range and fire away.

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

[deermanok]

I had a stuck nipple on a rifle. After soaking the barrel like you're doing. I took a small adjustable wrench to the nipple and with a short length of pipe for a breaker bar was able to unscrew the nipple.

 

[Newtire]

Yes! Best stuck nipple wrench around.View attachment 122884

Yeah, have one of those too. Can't remember where I bought it from but made another after buying one. Handy item to have.

 

[The Sergeant Major]

I have an issue w/ a Thompson Center Arms .45 Cal Hawken that I need some help with. A friend sold me this rifle in the late '80s down at Ft. Stewart, GA. He taught me everything I needed to know about shooting, maintaining, safety & more regarding a black powder rifle. I gifted my rifle to my older brother about 15-20 years ago. He lives 6 mths in Cali, and 6 months in Kodiak where he hunts. He recently offered to return it. Obvious to me, he didn't maintain it properly. Long story short he mailed the rifle back to me a couple weeks ago. I'm trying to get it all squared away and once I do I'll teach my son how to operate-maintain it and then gift it to him. Problem is, I can't free the nipple from the breech plug. I soaked it in Rem-Oil for a few days. That didn't work. I'm using a std small breech plug wrench and I'm practically breaking my wrists trying to turn it. I'm worried too much force might strip or damage the breech plug threads. Any ideas would be welcomed & appreciated.

The nipple was finally unthreaded & removed by my son this morning after I had soaked the nipple/breech in Kroil for about 2 weeks.

I couldn't remove the nipple using my standard nipple wrench, nor could my son using his drill-wrench adapter on low-regular speed. He cranked his drill to high-speed and it finally cracked the lock.

Doesn't appear to be any damage to the breech (barrel) threading and the nipple threads look fine. He'll always have a spare on hand.

We washed the barrel using a boiling water & ivory bar soap mix. The barrel's in bad shape. We washed patches up and down the barrel and the patches were still dirty. We then ran several pre-saturated patches up & down dried it, and then I ran 4-5 pre-lubricated patches down the barrel. My instructions to him, as he left w/ muzzleloader in hand and a good amount of stuff to go w/ his Hawken, were to rewash it until he gets a solid white patch when retrieved. Rinse & repeat what we did above so to speak.

His birthday is coming up, so instead of getting him a gift card off Amazon, I ordered him everything from a jag to a ball puller, to bore butter, cleaning stuff & more. Looks like getting No. 11 percussion caps is gonna be a real chore finding them along w/ some Triple Seven. I instructed him to find that stuff on his own.

Thanks for all the ideas. I sure appreciate it.

 

[deermanok]

Good work. I would toss that nipple and put in a brand new one. A tab of some kind of grease on the threads first.