Need help....Have a cva hawken rifle with ball stuck in it,,,

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I think what happens is that the ball is rammed all the way in to the breech plug. Thus you could place a load in front of it and it would fire off. The flash hole is just far enough forward to still let one fire the gun. But there can still be a ball up against the Breech plug.

I would have unscrewed the breech plug and pushed the ball out of the barrel via the breech end.
This is a CVA Hawken. Unscrewing the breech plug on one of them is very difficult to do and to do right. It might be near impossible if the PRB is in the patent breech.
 
I have a .54 cal. CVA Hawken rifle that has a ball and a possible patch stuck in it. I bought it from a friend in the fire dept.
Didn't know there was a problem with it till I went to shoot it.

Just would not shoot right. put inspection camera down the bore and could not believe what I saw.
I have a .54 cal. CVA Hawken rifle that has a ball and a possible patch stuck in it. I bought it from a friend in the fire dept.
Didn't know there was a problem with it till I went to shoot it.

Just would not shoot right. put inspection camera down the bore and could not believe what I saw.
A stuck ball and patch in it.

Need to know how to remove the breach plug. Where can I get a breach plug wrench? Is it a right handed thread or Left hand thread?

Thanks for any help,

Dan
Guess, I’m a bit confused regarding this post. Did you check for a clear barrel, by first firing a cap while placing muzzle near a blade of grass, before loading?
No poof of air from the muzzle would have told you of a blockage, a discharge, that it was loaded. What I’m concerned about is, did you put powder, patch and ball on top of the existing load. This would require pulling 2 balls. Difficult, but can be done. As previously stated, soak loads with some sort of lubrication, then pull. If that doesn’t work, follow others recommendations.
Need to know how to remove the breach plug. Where can I get a breach plug wrench? Is it a right handed thread or Left hand thread?

Thanks for any help,

Dan
 
See my post above. Not sure I would try it myself, but would probably try to find an experienced professional (unless of course, you are one). I have attached a CVA photo of a crosssection of the breech plug. I believe the main problem is you have the bolster as a screwed in integral part of the screwed in breech plug.
 

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My $.02 worth gents. Regarding post #5 above, not meaning to step on any toes chorizo, I'd suggest to any of you to get grease fittings with longer necks than the standard short necked ones shown. They are available in most sizes. The short ones will fit a lot of guns, but not all, I know because one of mine has a snail instead of a drum, and I can't get my grease coupling to snap onto a standard short fitting on that gun. Regarding the use of a ball puller, having one is a great accessory to have on hand, for sure. The rub is that some have a screw that is much longer than ball diameter. A longer screw than your ball is not a good thing! If you go completely through and pierce your ball, then the grease fitting method will not work at all later! I'd recommend making a collar of some sort to fit over the too-long-screw part which limits the screw length to about 3/4 of your ball diameter, that way you can't pierce the ball all the way through which leaves the grease fitting method still a viable last resort alternative. Good luck!

Just had another thought whilst typing this reply. There could have already been a dry PRB down in the barrel from before dan101955 got the gun. dan101955, to my knowledge, hasn't said that he poured powder down the barrel as it was and then seated a PRB on it, obviating that it would not fire. He only said that it "Just would not shoot right." So, until cleared up otherwise by dan101955, there is the possibility that there is a viably charged PRB sitting atop a dry ball. Gotta be real careful if that is the case.
 
I believe the ball was not fully seated and was forced down the barrel.
Whe I checked it with the 64 ramrod it went all the way down.pr so I thought.
So when I fired off a cap to check it .It went off as normal.
I was able to fire it 2 to 3 times and that was it.
I have pictures of the rifle bore and it looks like I have removed enough pieces of the squished ball to see the primer hole.

Having trouble uploading the pictures.
Dan
 
Years ago I had a larger diameter brass screw for pulling balls. It was large enough that if one of the smaller diameter ball puller acres stripped out it wold thread in.
 
I believe the ball was not fully seated and was forced down the barrel.
Whe I checked it with the 64 ramrod it went all the way down.pr so I thought.
So when I fired off a cap to check it .It went off as normal.
I was able to fire it 2 to 3 times and that was it.
I have pictures of the rifle bore and it looks like I have removed enough pieces of the squished ball to see the primer hole.

Having trouble uploading the pictures.
Dan
Still confused how it fired 2 to 3 times with a stuck ball in the barrel . Maybe I'm missing something in the wording, or maybe I need a nap.
 
I think what happens is that the ball is rammed all the way in to the breech plug. Thus you could place a load in front of it and it would fire off. The flash hole is just far enough forward to still let one fire the gun. But there can still be a ball up against the Breech plug.

I would have unscrewed the breech plug and pushed the ball out of the barrel via the breech end.
Not on a CVA. Very bad advice.
 
have some pictures i will try again to upload them. I do like the 54 a lot. actually, better than my 50 Hawken.
 

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Are you sure that is a ball? Might it be the hole bored into the drum like shown in the diagram? Really hard to tell from the attached photos as there is no depth to it. You might be perceiving a "convex ball" when it is really a "concave bowl". That would explain the ability to fire and why the "bullet puller" got stuck when trying to pull. It was stuck on the drum. A rod inserted then measured will tell you yes or no. Measure from the edge of the drum to the muzzle, then measure the rod marked at the muzzle after it is inserted with a jag on. If the measurements are the same or very near the same (1/4" or less) then you likely do not have a stuck ball.

Just a wild hunch/guess based upon your ability to fire it several times, the photos and all the other things that seem to not work.

I just verified it on my 54 cal CVA with 24" barrel. 1/8 of an in or less difference.
1666474268883.png
 
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Still confused how it fired 2 to 3 times with a stuck ball in the barrel . Maybe I'm missing something in the wording, or maybe I need a nap.
Like I said it happened to me. Bought this 50 cal. T.C. came with powder ,96 balls ,patches and more. Tryed shooting it,and it would hesitated then fire. Cleaned it and found ball and patch in . Got that out ,great shooting gun.
 
-These are the pictures of the barrel of the 54 CVA Hawken.
serial no. 88-580269.
 

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Button, breech, hook breech, the "innards" are still the same. Did you measure to see if it really has a ball in it?

I have a cva 54 that is very finnicky about crud. It it isn't fairly clean, you don't rap the butt on the ground after you you load the powder, it will hesitate ever so slightly after the cap goes off before the bang.
 
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