Help with cleaning rod mishap

[8W8]

I was going to clean my hooked breach hawkins flintlock with hot soapy water this morning and the patch/jag and the threaded end of my cleaning rod pulled off at the breach end of my barrel. Has anyone use an air compressor or one of the CO2 dischargers to push something like this out of the barrel? I pulled the vent liner and worked in some bore butter to help lube things up but I was unsure if I should trickle in a little bit of FF and try to shoot it out. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[jtmattison]

An air compressor or C02 discharger should blow it out. If that fails you could shoot it out with powder. You could also get the proper size grease fitting and pump it out with a grease gun.

HD

 

[mazo kid]

Only way to know is try one of those methods. It would probably shoot out, but now you have the lube in the breech. When you get the jag out, epoxy and PIN it to the end of the ramrod. Emery

 

[hepburn4590]

Try the Co2 or compressed air first. I that doesn't work, unscrew the breech and push is on through.

 

[xbowman]

That happened to me last year and my air compressor did the trick.

 

[jtmattison]

Try the Co2 or compressed air first. I that doesn't work, unscrew the breech and push is on through.

I'll be the first to jump on this.
The breech plugs on most muzzleloaders is NOT meant to be removed. If you do you can #1 void any warranty or #2 destroy your rifle.
Please try a sensible solution to the problem before resorting to drastic measures.

HD

 

[omarick1948]

Try the Co2 or compressed air first. I that doesn't work, unscrew the breech and push is on through.

WHOOO!....No offense, put I'm guessing your fairly new to muzzleloading or you might of already knewn about pinning your jag fitting to your ramrod!

I would suggest, that you take your muzzleloader barrel to an experienced B/P Gunsmith or builder and have them help you take out the breech plug, if you think you need to do this. Sometimes you can run into all sorts or problems loosening the breech plug or indexing it back to it's original position.

I personally wouldn't de-breech the barrel as a last effort!

 

[8W8]

Thanks All,

Mazo Kid_ My first thought when the epoxy slipped and left the whole contraption, wet patch, jag, etc. was why wasn't this pinned?

xbowman_Do you remember how many PSI you tried this with. I was thinking of buying one of the CO2 dischargers for out in the field but I have an air compressor with a nozzle at home and it is killing me thinking that a wet soapy patch is rusting away in the barrel.

 

[bob1961]

you got an air compressure at home and don't have it out yet :shake: go blow that sucker outta there into some rags in a 5 gallon pail :v ..................bob

....

 

[boar]

What happens when the ends are not pinned,is hot water seens to unglue them. Should blow out. Dilly

 

[8W8]

No offense taken Horner75. I am new to muzzleloading (six posts total). My son and I built kits about 12 years ago because he felt that hunting with his 243 scoped rifle was just a little too easy and since he was not yet strong enough to hunt with a longbow I suggested we give these kits a try. I gave up hunting with a rifle some time ago and have only hunted with recurves and long bows since. Where I hunt we are overrun with wild boar and the land owner came to us earlier in the year and said that although he appreciated the fact that the 6 of us hunting the property (all traditional bowhunters) preferred “playing in the woods” with sharp sticks he would like us to bring out rifles to knock back the number of pigs on his land. The other 5 hunters knew that I had a flintlock in the closet somewhere and so it fell on me, in the interest of good land owner relations, to set aside my longbow whilst the rest of them ended the season hunting with bows. You should have seen the ranchers face when I ran into him hauling back my first “rifle” harvest in 17 years with my flinter. He went away muttering something about being surrounded by backward thinking luddites and if it weren’t for the fact that we picked up the beer cans that his grandkids left down by the river cause we hated seeing them as much as he that he’d be done with the lot of us! Maybe now that the deer season is almost over I will switch out my barrel and lock and try percussion. I don’t want him to think that we are not taking him seriously about wanting more of the hogs eradicated.
White Buffalo_I had the air compressor but only for nail guns (no nozzle). Picked up a nozzle today at lunch. I will try the air compressor tonight and get back to you all.

 

[Mulebrain]

Been there!

You can try to reinsert the rod, and unscrew the end from the jag, and drill and put a pin in the end. Then re screw it and pull it.

 

[8W8]

Great Idea Mule Brain; no need though. I fired up the compressor, cranked it down to 70 PSI, put the muzzle in a plastic bucket and everything, patch, jag and rod tip flew out slick as can be.

Thanks again all

Will pin both ends of the rod before I load her up again. Brass nails OK for this purpose?

 

[CZMark]

I use steel. Put end on ramrod, drill nail-size hole (or slightly smaller), slightly countersink brass at both ends of hole, insert nail into hole, cut to length, peen ends of nail into countersink, file nail flush with brass.

 

[mrbortlein]

John, had this happen to me a few months ago. My father-in-law used a ball puller and screwed it into the wood that was left in the brass piece of the ram rod end.
mrbortlein

 

[mukluk]

Happened to me just a couple weeks ago; about 120psi from the ol' air compresser blew it out without any fuss.

 

[John Camp]

Any other suggestions out there re: cleaning rods/jags? First I had heard about the pinning. Thanks for the info!

 

[omarick1948]

Any other suggestions out there re: cleaning rods/jags? First I had heard about the pinning. Thanks for the info!

Campsite, Get you some cleaning jags that have steel threads for attaching to your rod. The all brass ones seem to break too eaily!

 

[Hawkeye]

I had this happen and my compresser was not in service. So I got a length of tube just under bore diameter and pushed it down, the brush went into the tube and the whole mess came right out, it worked so well that length of tube is now a fixture in my gun room and is how I will handle it if it happens in the future. Before anyone says to pin the rod end this deal was when the twisted metal of the brush pulled out of the ferule.