Thompson Center Breech Plug Wrench

[The Crisco Kid]

I have a 32 cal caplock I built in 1976 using a TC breech plug. Not the inline style but the patent hooked breech type. I want to pull the plug but over the last 43 years it seems to gotten pretty tight. Is there an inexpensive wrench made to fit a 7/8" TC plug? I haven't tried heat on it yet. I tried a little pressure with a crescent wrench on the end of it but quit before I buggered things up.

Thanks,
JS

 

[bubba.50]

If you used a T/C breech plug it will be either 13/16ths as used on the Cherokee/Seneca, 15/16ths as used on 45 & 50 cal Hawken as well as White Mountain Carbines, or 1 inch as used on Renegades and 54cal Hawkens.

You’ll hafta look on auction sites and forums like this one to find a used/new old stock one as they’re no longer produced.

A couple just sold here for a very reasonable price.

 

[Robert an saa fan]

T/C made a breech plug wrench in various sizes. They can be found on ebay at times; perhaps on some other websites as well.

Suggest you post a Wanted To Buy ad here on the MLF classifieds.

 

[Eric Krewson]

There is a guy reproducing these wrenches from thicker metal and selling them on eBay for less than $25, he will make whatever size you want.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Breech-Plu...m=282331965477&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

Your plug didn't get tighter, TC put them in with some serious torque so a novice couldn't get them out.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

There is a guy reproducing these wrenches from thicker metal and selling them on eBay for less than $25, he will make whatever size you want.
Your plug didn't get tighter, TC put them in with some serious torque so a novice couldn't get them out.

The problem is that I was the novice who put the breech plug in the Douglas barrel. I guess I was stouter then than I am now.

 

[waarp8nt]

A nice accessory for your new breech plug wrench would be some aluminum vise jaws for octagon barrels by Rice Barrel Company.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

I have a pretty good vise that uses inserts and lead sheathing. It will hold about anything without any marring. It's been a long time ago but I think what I did was use a 15/16" TC plug and filed it down to fit my 7/8" Douglas barrel. I think the smartest thing for me to do is to just leave well enough alone. The barrel feels smooth when I load it and the patches come out fine. The only reason for pulling the breech plug is to look down the barrel out of curiosity to see how it looks after all these years. The front end looks good with a bore scope anyway. If I had it to do over again I wouldn't use the hook breech type plug. I've been told and it makes sense that a solid plug will be more accurate since there is no movement like there is with the hook breech.

JS

 

[Grimord]

With a good endo-scope, you should be able to see the condition of the barrel all the way down to the breech plug. I use my scope to take pictures of the bores of my rifles every 200-300 shots to see if I am doing a good job of cleaning and to see if there is any wear in the bore.

 

[shootrj2003]

Because ya don’t know what one looks like taken apart until ya take it apart,it will eat at yer insides and gnaw on yer curiosity bone until ya do,so get it over with …do it!…..do it! Ya know ya want to! Someone else takes em apart so you can to! This is what I have said to myself every time I have a mechanical contrivance that I want to understand…solenoids,relay switches distributors gun barrels ,guns if they weren’t so simple I would have tried to take apart a hand grenade fuse to see why it burns approx. 4 seconds,I worked on an sks trigger to make it a target trigger- til it went full auto then worked it back to safe and legal and figured out how to make a select fire switch for it,I never made it but figured out how….just in case! The point being you will not ever know how anything works or is unless you take it apart yourself even if it can’t be reassembled ( solenoid) at least you know with your own eyes what it is about or isn’t ,not just because someone says don’t or you should not ,that’s the difference between tinkerer,gun mechanic and gunsmith. Just be willing to ante up and eat crow if you can’t fix it and have to take it to the gunsmith or mechanic to fix your foul up!I have a small cookbook on crow.

 

[user 34300]

"I have a pretty good vise that uses inserts and lead sheathing. It will hold about anything without any marring."

Mayb not a TC. Some of them are crazy tight. The lead will deform, then the vice jaws will spread. The flats will be trashed, the plug won't budge.

Use steel V-blocks and a business card with powdered rosin. A hydraulic barrel vice is the only sure thing.

The last one I broke loose took all my weight on a 4" wrench then several wacks with a big hammer to bust it loose. 400 foot pounds??

Unless you have a compelling reason and proper tools I suggest leaving it alone.