Rifle plug removal, field removal

[SDSmlf]

I unscrewed the nipple and replaced it with a same thread grease fitting. A few pumps seemed to budge the old load, but then it jammed tighter and the only thing I got is a stuck load with a ball puller and broken ramrod inside a rusted barrel, now full of grease. My next try is a 6' breaker bar on a smooth jawed pipe wrench to try and remove the breech. I feel like a nitwit already.

A standard hand pump grease gun should get you about 7000 psi of pressure. Assuming you have a 50 caliber gun, that 7000 psi would put a little under 1500 pounds of force on a .50” diameter roundball. Unless the grease is somehow leaking past the roundball or you have an undersized or defective grease gun, it is hard to understand how it is not moving. Did you have your ramrod or similar resting on the roundball so you could observe the movement or lack of movement of the roundball as you pumped up the grease pressure? Watch this video by @Idaho Ron

Granadier, The rifle is a Thompson Center 'White Mountain Carbine'. I'm not at home, but I think it is a 22" long barrel. I don't see a seam where the breech and barrel come together like I have seen on other T/C's.

Yes, your breech plug can be remove with the correct tools and process, though I would only suggest it as a final option for a stuck ball or bullet. It’s easy to muck things up.

 

[treetophunter]

A standard hand pump grease gun should get you about 7000 psi of pressure. Assuming you have a 50 caliber gun, that 7000 psi would put a little under 1500 pounds of force on a .50” diameter roundball. Unless the grease is somehow leaking past the roundball or you have an undersized or defective grease gun, it is hard to understand how it is not moving. Did you have your ramrod or similar resting on the roundball so you could observe the movement or lack of movement of the roundball as you pumped up the grease pressure? Watch this video by @Idaho Ron


Yes, your breech plug can be remove with the correct tools and process, though I would only suggest it as a final option for a stuck ball or bullet. It’s easy to muck things up.

 

[treetophunter]

I think I'll just look for another barrel for that gun. If'n I find one, I might just try pulling the breech off the old barrel, for the experience. Thanks to you all for your suggestions.

 

[smoothshooter]

For some time now I've been considering doing some work on my Hawkin replica rifle, a 54 Cabela's, so that I can remove the plug from the end of the barrel,

I don't have a ball stuck in there and don't really need to remove it right now but I always had the perception that it , the threaded plug in the rear end of the tube, could be removed in the field with a couple of wrenches , one on the barrel and one on the plug you could thread it out,

I have heard of several cases over the last few years where the person had a ball stuck in the tube and was having a terrible time getting it out,

And I thought well why don't you just unthread the plug and then put in a fresh charge of powder, and solve the problem and have some fun at the same time.
But then I disassembled mine to have a look at it I realized that the plug has been threaded in , and such a manner that it's not designed or intended to be removed by hand, or in the field

It'll be quite a process to get it removed and then come up with some type of a plug that can be threaded in and taken out occasionally if ever needed to.

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Leave it alone. There is almost never a good reason to remove a breech plug.
There is no telling how many have been damaged because some amateur just had to see if they could do it.

 

[smoothshooter]

Probably will end up doing that, it seems like in the back of my mind I've always had the perception that that breach plug could be threaded out for maintenance.

Local libraries don't have any kind of books on such things anymore, searching the tangled web doesn't bring up a whole lot but it seems as though during the construction of rifles the threading was simply done because it was the only really mechanically sound apparatus available to put a sturdy breech plug in that wouldn't ever come out.

Breech plugs don’t need maintenance. Ever.

 

[SDSmlf]

I think I'll just look for another barrel for that gun. If'n I find one, I might just try pulling the breech off the old barrel, for the experience. Thanks to you all for your suggestions.

I’m half looking for a TC 15/16” WMC barrel to rebore. Send it this way and I’ll video and post using a grease gun to unplug things, as long as there is no hole through the projectile.

Honestly, if you have a standard grease gun filled with grease (or take barrel to a local quick oil change place) and a longer Zerk fitting, it is quite easy to clear the bore. No need to remove the breech plug. And I have to ask, how do plan to generate more than the 1500 pounds of force that a grease gun will once the breech plug is removed?

 

[Taevers]

Red Green and Patrick McManus are my role models!

I knew this was my kind of group. I’ve got you all beat. I have a repurposed school bus with a wood stove I named the possum bus. God bless all you soot burning saints!!

 

[flconch53]

I knew this was my kind of group. I’ve got you all beat. I have a repurposed school bus with a wood stove I named the possum bus. God bless all you soot burning saints!!

I certainly hope you have plenty of duct tape
Remember if you can't be handsome at least be handy.

 

[Mike in FL]

I have never and have no plans or reason to ever remove a breech plug. I think it ludicrous.

 

[The Miner '49er]

This.

Now if I am interrupted while loading I just hold up a finger for a second and finish reloading. Then I am happy to answer a question and respond to what the other person wanted.

Bob

@Horizontal Hunter, what you said is a great idea, in theory, but . . . The other day I was shooting alone and dry balled both barrels of my smoothbore SxS pistol. There just isn't anyway on earth to 100% of the time prevent dryballing. Anyone who thinks he's immune just hasn't had his number called, but it's coming!

 

[Horizontal Hunter]

@Horizontal Hunter, what you said is a great idea, in theory, but . . . The other day I was shooting alone and dry balled both barrels of my smoothbore SxS pistol. There just isn't anyway on earth to 100% of the time prevent dryballing. Anyone who thinks he's immune just hasn't had his number called, but it's coming!

Without a doubt it will happen again….But it won’t happen again because I let myself get interrupted. Murphy always sneaks up when you least expect him.

Bob

 

[TechMoron]

The closest thing to filling this bill would likely be the TC Firestorm. It's a sidelock but it has the removable breechplug. It's also stainless and in a plastic stock.

 

[sethwyo]

I have never and have no plans or reason to ever remove a breech plug. I think it ludicrous.

Never say never

 

[smoothshooter]

Leave it alone. There is almost never a good reason to remove a breech plug.
There is no telling how many have been damaged because some amateur just had to see if they could do it.

Same goes for vent liners on flintlocks.
There are actually people out there with OCD that want to remove the vent liner every time they clean the gun.

 

[SDSmlf]

Same goes for vent liners on flintlocks.
There are actually people out there with OCD that want to remove the vent liner every time they clean the gun.

Does this also apply to removing nipples from percussion guns?

 

[Fitzhugh Williams]

No reason to have a vent liner, unless there has been some damage to the original vent hole.

 

[sethwyo]

Same goes for vent liners on flintlocks.
There are actually people out there with OCD that want to remove the vent liner every time they clean the gun.

What is an OCD ?

 

[smoothshooter]

What is an OCD ?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

 

[smoothshooter]

Does this also apply to removing nipples from percussion guns?

No. Not at all.
Percussion guns were often shipped with a nipple wrench.
None were ever shipped with breech plug wrenches.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Does this also apply to removing nipples from percussion guns?

Not to removing the nipple but very definately no to removing the "clean out" screw.