This is more of a "What would have done"? question

[Steve French]

My first gun ever was an EIG-EIBAR .35 cal. percussion rifle, that I got back in the early 1960's while I was still in high school. I had an old Harley springer front end with the handle bars and my bike was a Honda, not a good match. A school buddy of mine had a Harley and wanted the springer and offered to trade his muzzleloading rifle for it. After the trade, we both had the best deal, he had a Harley springer, and I got my first gun.

After I got it I went to the library and did some research on shooting BP guns, got a horn, round balls, a mold, patches, made a bag, and got some fffg powder and took it shooting a few times with no problem. One time I had it out and knowing what to do, I didn't do it, that was to run the barrel after a couple of shots to remove the fouling. I poured in the powder, patched and started the ball, and ran the ball home, but... the ball only went half way down and got stuck. I couldn't force it down and I couldn't remove the ramrod, the ramrod is steel and stuck... won't budge and it's sticking half the way out of the end of the barrel.
I did another thing that I knew better not to. With the ball and ramrod stuck, I tied my shoe strings to the trigger, raised the gun up to make sure the powder is at the end, capped and cocked the rifle, set it on a dirt mount and pointed it at the dirt berm, got down and yanked the string.

It shot and the gun was fine, it did take me a few minutes to straighten out the ramrod, and when I did I ran a few patches down the tube and cleaned it. I reloaded and shot it several more times with no problem.

What would you have done? Shoot it out or???
Just something for thought.

Keep your powder dry :grin:

Pustic

 

[rabjr]

I've actually done that before, getting a ball stuck halfway and wayy before CO2 Dischargers. Knowing you can ring and ruin a barrel I always poured in T/C 13 cleaner at the time to really soak it. Put in a vise and using a worm, always was able to pull the ball. Now in your case, not sure what caused your ramrod to get stuck but you would have either pulled it out alone or with the ball with a good soak like I did.

 

[Snow on the Roof]

I would pour gun oil or solvent down the bore. Left a few days and pulled the ball and ram rod out. Worst case senario I would pull the breech and remove both that way. A sturdy vice would be helpful. However when I was young I was impatient and thought I was immortal and probably would have tried the same as you. Now that we are old men we should know better :shake:

Snow

 

[luieb45]

So the ramrod stuck and the ball stuck in the middle of the barrel? If I read that right I would have hammered it down to not bulge the barrel because that's what can happen if you shoot a ball that's not seated all the way.

 

[gus13]

had somethin' like that happen, I took a pair of pliers, had my wife hold the end of the rifle (she was thrilled to help :shake: ) and then took and braced my feet and yanked with everything I had! got the ramrod out, then took some lube ran it down to the ball, and used the ball puller to get the ball out- again with the help of my "overjoyed wife"! unfortunately the pliers teeth kinda didn't take with the wooden ramrod, so there was quite a few bad gouges going through it!

 

[Tom Compton]

Pull the breech plug, lube the barrel and push it out the muzzle.

 

[Rogue River]

When I was a lot younger I did about the same thing :youcrazy: . When you're younger you going to live forever! Sometimes I wonder how I made it this far. When I cleaned the barrel that night I noticed a bunch of very fine hairline fractures along 1 flat :shocked2: . I sent the barrel to CVA with a letter explaining :idunno: what happened. A few weeks later a new barrel came in the mail stating :idunno: . I still have that rifle.

 

[rawhide]

had this happen on my flinter. tried to pull the ball out and the rod broke! :cursing: so I used the old man air compresser and blugh it out that way it worked out.

 

[2172]

I'm with luib..if I were a kid, I wouldn't have had access to some of the tools others have mentioned...I would have had some kind of rod, and a mallet...Hank

 

[longcruise]

I'm with luib..if I were a kid, I wouldn't have had access to some of the tools others have mentioned...I would have had some kind of rod, and a mallet...Hank

Me too. Might require going after the tools needed, but in the end would have been the best solution, IMO.

It shot and the gun was fine, it did take me a few minutes to straighten out the ramrod, and when I did I ran a few patches down the tube and cleaned it. I reloaded and shot it several more times with no problem.

Your barrel probably has a ring in it even if not measurable from the outside. I have a section of .45 barrel on my bench that has a ring about five inches in front of the flash hole. It cannot be seen or measured from the outside. I had it cut and re-threaded, however the fella I got it from had been shooting it for over 15 years and won many a match with it. He had no idea when the ringing had happened.

If your gun shoots ok, ring or not, it's no big deal.

 

[mr.flintlock]

In the past I have had a ball get stuck when loading a dirty barrel. I have used a rock or what ever I could get my hands on to use as a hammer to seat the ball on the powder. I never hit the ramrod very hard, just tap, tap , tap.
In your case if the ramrod didn't come loose, I would just shoot ball, ramrod and all out.

 

[Ketchakah]

A slide hammer works really good for stuck balls and rods. Both pushing in and pulling out.