Trouble…

[Marshhawk]

I put a dent in an aluminum door (across the shop) blowing a jag out of my GPR barrel with shop air hose!

Yep. I put a dent in a cabinet door just using one of those little CO2 muzzleloader discharge kits. Whoa!

 

[FishDFly]

I'm glad I bought my first black powder gun before I joined any forums dedicated to the sport. If I'd have seen all the derogatory comments about the rifle I bought I might have been deterred from buying it, and then if I thought I needed to spend thousands of dollars to get started maybe the whole idea would have been scrapped.

Lucky for me I already had bought the gun and soon found out I really liked it regardless of what some others thought about it.



I've been a member of various online forums for more than 20 years and it still amazes me how many people will post things that make no sense within the context of the thread simply because they have not read many if any of the previous posts.

I try not to be that guy so I read the entire thread or refrain from commenting. And yes I've read this entire thread.

So, who bashed your gun here?

 

[Baggy270]

Someone have a stuck ball?

 

[Whitworth]

There is no such thing as a stuck ball, only insufficient seating force .

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

Whenever reading " stuck ball" threads i am always reminded of the "story" of guy a long time ago who was using surplus civil war musket barrels to build an iron fence. Apparently he was using a forge to heat the breech end prior to shaping it for fence use...................................!

So, what happened? Praytell.

 

[Greenjoytj]

Here my second post on this thread:

First to recap the OP problem:
He has a large powder charge in the barrel and the ball is stuck about 6 inches from the muzzle.
Further complicating the situation is a patch remover snagged on the patch. Plus there is a short length of broken ramrod that still screwed onto a ball pulling screw.

The OP doesn’t have a grease gun or the necessary length Zerk with the correct thread style to fit the nipple hole.

Air compressor method sounds promising but without the proper attachment fitting to the nipple hole and and air compressor it probably won’t work.

The grease gun trick sound the best like the best method. But the lack of grease gun and the need for long Zerk of the correct size is going to cause a delay along with the OP work schedule.

I can see where pushing the bulk of the grease back out the nipple hole would not be a problem and the final grease removal with a light solvent will result in barrel that’s very clean.

This thread has taught be l must buy a Zerk to fit my GPR 54 flintlock and a high pressure grease gun.
I frequently dry ball my rifle at the range. Luckily my rifle has an easily removable flash hole liner so it’s simple and easy to pour powder into the small anti chamber of the patent breach and shoot out the ball.
But one day I might get into a similar jam as the OP and the grease method will get used never say never.
My range rod is brass the hunting rod is Delrin supposedly unbreakable (jinks) and I have cross pined the end fittings.

 

[Mangonboat]

This is more fun than liars poker, but all good things come to an end.
A) The easiest and fastest solution 1) remove nipple, 2) remove as much powder as gravity will enable through nipple hole 3) replace nipple with Zerk fitting of same thread size 4) apply grease gun filled with cheapest grease available, 5) pump grease into barrel where combination of grease and/or air compressed in front of the grease will easily, safely and under controlled variables, expel the ball and attached implements. While pumping POINT THE BARREL into a 5 gal bucket filled with water as it might come out slowly, might come out less slowly.

B) A safe but not as easy solution for folks with no grease gun or zerk fittings, which works only because your broken rod is only a few inches from the muzzle ( PS, Ive done this and it worked like a charm): AFTER you have removed the nipple and as much powder as will come out with gravity and gentle shaking 1) Cut off the end the remaining long portion of your broken rod square, 2) using your broken rod as a guide, find or make what will be a 12-18 inch long ferrule of PVC , pex , bamboo cane or similar tubing that will slide snugly over the broken rod end in your barrel but the OD also slides easily into your barrel... leave it at least 12 inches long so you can have something to hold onto . If you cant get a good fit with what's on hand, you can bore out your tubing with a drill or sand down the OD to fit . When you have a ferrell the right fit, the ID will slide snug but not tight over your broken rod and OD slips easily down the barrel. You dont have to worry about the 6-7 inches sticking out beyond the muzzle. 3) Put a wrap of masking tape around the open end of your ferrell that will go into the muzzle..over lap the end of the ferrell 1/8" and then push that 1/8" flap onto and into the end 4) Hang your rifle securely in a muzzle-down position, but with a cord or chain so the muzzle is at least 24 " from the floor and it can swing out from vertical to horizontal position. 5) Tear off a 4-6 inch piece of Gorilla tape and gently attach one corner to your stock, as you will need to be able to reach it with one hand while holding the end of your muzzle with the other, 6) make a VERY LOOSE wad of dry tissue about an inch long and stick it in the open end of your ferrell that fits over your broken rod end and push it in about an inch 7) mix a 50 cent piece sized glob of quick dry epoxy ; 8) using a popsicle stick or any narrow old piece of flat wood or stiff carboard , hold your ferrell upright, fill the open end of your ferrell with enough epoxy that it the glue is about 1/2 inch short of the end of the ferrell, then prop it so it stays upright, glue at the top 8) pull away the masking tape from the upper end of the ferrell so there is no glue on the outside or end of your ferrell ,9) pulling your muzzle away from vertical as little as is necessary to see what you are doing, carefully slide your ferrell upward into the muzzle and JUST over the exposed end of your broken rod ..DO NOT PUSH YET. 10) Keeping your ferrell as close to parrallel with your bore as possible, SLOWLY push the ferrell upward and onto your broken rod, twisting as you push and thereby spreading the glue evenly over the end of the broken rod rather than extruding it into the bore and pushing the tissue down into the ferrell as you go, Push until you hit stop , then pull back about 1/2 inch. 11) Use your loose hanging piece of tape to secure your ferrell to the end of your barrell, thus keeping it in position. 12) put a pice of cardboard on the floor and leave rifle hanging with ferrell in place to let glue dry overnight. 13) the next day, when its dry, take rifle down - RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO TRY TO PULL THE BALL WITH THE FERRELL ! Instead, secure rifle in a vertical position, butt down, and gently TWIST the ferrell in a counterclockwise direction...you are (trying to unscrew the broken rod from your ball puller without pulling the ball puller out of the ball, but if that happens, it will make the next step unecessary) so that you can then reinsert your metal rod and twist it onto the threads of your ball puller , so try to get a sense of how close to center of the bore the threaded end of the ball puller is . It should turn easily and you'll know when it comes all the way off. 14) Position rifle to as vertical a barrel as possible, muzzle up, and insert metal rod ,using a hand at the muzzle to guide it toward the threaded end of the ball puller. It may take a few tries but in vertical position you will eventually get it over the threads and then thread rod end over the ball puller threads. 15) When metal rod is threaded onto ball puller, give it a few more clockwise twists to make sure ball puller is seated fully into ball and didnt come part-way out while removing broken wooden rod 16) Using your preferred technicque ( I favor securing the rifle in a vertical position and using a drop-hammer on my metal rod rather than securing my metal rod and using the weight of the rifle as a drop hammer), pull your ball and marvel over your handiwork.

 

[vintovka]

So, what happened? Praytell.

Story goes he was holding barrels by muzzle and did not survive his error.

 

[CyrusP]

Dang, some folks here need to get their meter checked. Obviously melting the ball out with 120 grains of powder in it is a bad idea. The better solution is to pull the nipple and continue to trickle powder in until the ball is fully seated against it.

I’m assuming this is sarcasm? The ball is 6” from the muzzle. Assuming a 40” barrel that would be a column length of approximately 34” of black powder.

 

[DixieTexian]

 

[FishDFly]

I’m assuming this is sarcasm? The ball is 6” from the muzzle. Assuming a 40” barrel that would be a column length of approximately 34” of black powder.

Huh?

 

[CyrusP]

Meaning if you stuffed enough powder from the nipple to the ball (which is 6” from the muzzle) you’d have 34” of powder going up the barrel. He was being sarcastic.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I’ll reply to this misconception for a second time. The op originally wrote his post as if it was a dry ball. He later edited his post stating it was loaded with 120 grains of powder. Read the entire thread before commenting to save yourself the effort of being a smartass. My first comment on his post stated to put a little powder in and shoot it out. I’m not an ***** to inform him to put more powder into a barrel that already had 120 grains in it. It’s because his original post didn’t say there was powder in the barrel. If you look at the time stamp of my initial post to his stuck ball you can see the time stamp on his post as being edited after I made my comment. Instead of editing his post he should have replied to my comment with “I forgot to mention the barrel was loaded with 120 grains of powder” . In doing that it’s gotten me bombarded with comments from the peanut gallery that I’m gonna get him killed. Ive already explained this earlier In this thread. Read the entire thread before commenting.

He never said it was a dry ball. He said it was stuck 6 inches down. You jumped to the dry ball conclusion, YOU failed to consider that there may be a charge of powder beneath the stuck ball, further miss assumed that it was a dry ball. and gave dangerous advice. There is enough of that crap on internet forums.

 

[Dude]

Pilgrim - I've read through the whole thread and unless posts were removed, don't see it as being anything to get angry about. Yes, there's a bunch of joking around, and if it was me, I'd maybe be a little red faced, but honestly, I see guys with honest help, and others joking around. Pick out the honest help and laugh at the rest.

Frankly, the first page had your answer and the obstruction should have been out shortly afterwards. Other than getting upset by the guys joking around, what progress have you accomplished?

In my opinion, forcing it out with grease (after removing as much of the powder as possible - because I'd rather save it than trash it) is the optimum solution. It's the most gentle of all other approaches.

I've repaired and rebuilt disc brake calipers. The pistons need to be removed, but being separated from the hydraulic system, they can be trouble. And sometimes they're just plain stuck! I'd use compressed air, but I'd have to be careful because the pistons would exit quite forcefully. And any brake fluid and crud left in there would splatter everywhere. About half the time compressed air wouldn't do it. Then I found out about forcing them out with a grease gun. That was the way to go. Very definitely.

So stop focusing on the negative and communicate to those of us who are honestly interested in helping and seeing a successful resolution. What steps have you taken and what were the results?

By the way, guys, for those of you who haven't read the whole thread, it was pointed out a few pages back that the original post didn't contain the data that it wasn't a dry ball - there is a full charge down there! The OP edited his post sometime later, adding that data.

 

[deerstalkert]

 

[BadDaditood]

The first page has enough solutions, the next 10 are for entertainment purposes only.
There are are Two forces at play here:
Half adhere to Ma’s admonition “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything”
The rest of us side with my Aunt who said “if you don’t have anything nice to say, sit next to Me!”

 

[jim mencken]

that video helped a lot, should be watched by all.

 

[JCKelly]

some people have all the luck?

One good reason to never, ever buy a used percussion rifle.

 

[stikshooter]

How so? And what expensive, proper tooling do you speak of? I was going to suggest pulling the breechplug, pouring out the dry (ungreased powder) and driving the ball out the front. I've done it with no harm to my rifle.
I don't know if the pederasoli can even be unbreached by the common man. Some production guns are breeched so tight it's hard to break them free.
First thing I do when starting to inlet a new barrel is remove the breechplug. It is a simple process. I use a vice with tapered jaws to fit the swamped barrel and an adjustable wrench with the jaw teeth ground off then wrapped with duct tape.

Please look up the (PROPER TOOLS ) to remove breach plugs , you know like some gunsmiths that do that work and not getting sued for ruining the clients barrel have . And then there are those that are not ever supposed to be removed (but you know that right) /Ed

 

[Idaho Ron]

Out of respect for you Ron I will pardon your moment of lack of foresight. You seem to be under some kind of perverted view of the kind of energy required to shift the ball. No need to replicate a pogo stick at all my friend.
I sad you have taken it personally.
Also I was not arrogant enough with my suggestion so as to not grant a user of my suggestion the common sense move to protect the bore. I also hinted at a rod being near to bore size. Brass would be best.

I was really yanking your chain about the pogo stick method. But the fact that all the junk in the barrel attached to the bullet, using the rifle as inertia to pound it the rest of the way just seems like it would open the possibility of damaging the gun.
Your reluctance to the grease gun and writing it off as a poor way to remove it when more damaging ways are recommended just baffles me.
I in no way have a perverted idea what it takes to remove bullets. In fact I wrote in this thread that I unload my gun with a compressor at times. When I do that I rarely use more than 50 psi. But this one was stick enough that the rod was broken with other attachments were stuck inside.
The first rule of fixing anything is don't damage the thing your working on. A nice slow push out the end is far better than shooting it out the end.
The fact is guys on here are giving him advise that could not only damage the gun but could kill him.
I take offense to that. The grease gun will not blow up the gun. The grease gun will not damage the rifling. The grease gun will not damage the muzzle.
The grease gun might have more push than is required. But it is a safe push that will not hurt the gun or the guy doing it.