Not sure if any of you guys

[George-CT]

shoot old black powder rifles or pistols but I've been working on trying to get a stuck ball and charge out of one my uncle left me. He had a tag on it that just said, loaded and has stuck musket ball in it. Be careful. This is a .45 cal TC Hawken rifle. Yesterday with all the cold here i decided to get back on that project down in the basement. I had tried adding powder in the nipple hole after removing and replacing it. Did it 5 times,no help, then tried the cork screw device, would not grab it. Ball might of been to hard cast. I took some PB Blast and put that thru the nipple to kill off the black powder charge them tried to move it with air compressor attached to nipple... still no luck.... Then replaced the cap nipple with a grease fitting and tried forcing grease into it and push the entire charge out the barrel. It worked. Took a picture of it to post on another black powder and cast bullet site I go to and though some of you might find it useful and shoot black powder. It opens up a lot of new areas to hunt if you do, at least in this state and also gives you and extended season on deer.

Anyhow here is the mini ball, patch, and charge of powder to where the grease made contact. Get one stuck, it happens to most, here is a way to get it out when all else fails....I had heard this was done, but had never tried it. It works fine.

George-CT

 

[Wayne in BC]

nothing like hydraulic pressure to move things plus grease the way.

 

[TigerNed]

That friend ( George ) of mine is a very smart guy. Glad you didn't shot your eye out George..hehehehhehe

Ned

PS: It's like Christmas here today, just recieved my Tesoro Piranha......hehehehehhehe Dam lake is frozen over though...

 

[Micheal_R]

n/t

 

[Nimrod]

n/t

 

[George-CT]

Lets hope we get a thaw before you leave for the far east. Geo

 

[George-CT]

not trying to thread a screw device into it while in front of the barrel. Doing the final cleaning up on it today. Fun to shoot them except for the cleaning.

 

[George-CT]

5 years. He was and avid hunter, sheet shooter, trap, you name it. He was pretty old and though he might of forgot the charge. I don't take anything with guns for granted. Check and recheck. This had a charge in it. Then again, it was oil soaked, by me but looks like it may have been when I got it from him also. My buddy has a bore scoop he uses on engines. Pretty sure it will go down in there so I can see if any major pitting in the breach. The breach plug comes off hard on these so don't want to do it unless I have to. I couldn't feel any thing grabbing on the cleaning patches. Another little trick I learned is I used the under the barrel ram rod, wide front brass piece so I was able to force the grease back out the nipple threaded hole. That alone took out I'd say 95 percent of it. Numbers indicate it was made around 1968 in New Hampshire by Thompson Contender folks. These were their traditional Hawken in .45. They only offer it in .50 and .54 now I think. They have a pretty much lifetime warranty also. Not sure if would cover the breech plug if pitted but if so, I will sure ask.

Do you hunt Black Powder Nim?

Geo

 

[Nimrod]

Both are fairly modern designs. One is a bolt action, and the other is a break open design. I had to unload one that would not fire. But being a bolt action design I just soaked the charge really good with oil and then removed the breech plug. It was a gooey mess, but I was able to unload the gun and clean it. I use mine for hunting the extended seasons. And being basically pretty lazy by nature, I use the modern designs because they are so much easier to maintan.

 

[George-CT]

they have a stainless breech plug you can remove with your fingers. I like shooting the lead balls. Been around a long time and shoot pretty decent as long as they are clean. Used to have a Zuave .58 cal I used to take woodchuck hunting for kicks. Used the conicals with the hollow base in it. Pretty good shooting gun. I still have a big box of them down stairs and the mold for them. Sold the gun years ago to a buddy, and he still shoots it from time to time. He is active in a fife and drum core does a lot of the replica shows. Just had a big doe wander down thru the woods about 100 yards out. deep snow, with frozen snow on top is not helping them much. I see he was stopping at all the low hanging hemlocks for a snack.

Geo

 

[mudpuppy]

My first experience with that problem...took the nipple off and sprinkled in a couple of grains like you mentioned, then was going to take the whole mess outside and shoot it at a big old cottonwood tree in the yard, but since we lived in the city limits, I thought better of it. The wife had a carpet runner rolled up on the back porch that I was supposed to shake out, so I thought, I'll just fire the gun into the carpet, and no problem...WRONG! blew as many holes through the carpet as it was rolled, and shot a big .54 cal hole in the porch floor to boot! Sure wish I knew of the greasegun fix back then!
Thanks Geo!

 

[Royal]

n/t

 

[Cupajo]

George, your story would be much appreciated in black-powder Mag's "tips section" and the NRA mags too.

Great solution to an old problem!

An old friend of mine has been a member of the American Black Powder Shooting Team for years.

They travel all over the world to competitions.

Holland and Germany have long been their toughest competitors.

He told me that their shooters live and breath competition and our team usually is fortunate to place 2nd in a shoot!

I've been supplying him with lead pipes etc. for quite a few years.

I'll be sure he learns about your bullet removal method.

I have a Lyman Great Plains 50 Cal. with a Three Rivers Barrel.

It's been a long time since I have had any of my guns out, but you shooters out there have got me thinking!

CJ

 

[George-CT]

I took it down on the range, stuffed the butt inside a discarded tire I had and tied the front down with a rope to hole it on. Then added the real hot caps, ffff powder, real fine stuff, figured might wake it up, but nada. Just the cap sound. From then on in it went down hill until grease gun trick. I had a bunch of extra grease fittings here for the equipment and had one with and offset on it so the grease gun itself was away from the flared piece around the nipple. I was amazed on how easy it made it. For moving it full length of 28 inch barrel it took 51 pumps.... I will make a movie clip up of it when I touch her off...

Geo

 

[George-CT]

For whatever reason I like the smell of them and the smoke. I like true black powder to the new stuff like Pryodex. There is a new one called Blackhorn 209 that reads well. I have not met anyone who has used it yet. All Black powder pretty much formed this country. Your BP shooter sounds like he is on top of his game for sure. I'm trying to get my son Andy interested in it.

Geo

 

[George-CT]

grease gun like in a gas station. Really was not sure if the hand grease gun for the backhoe would do it. It sure did. This one is low pressure so you don;t blow out the seals on the rollers....

 

[Idaho PRB]

My forum name is because I like to shoot traditional black powder guns. Idaho PRB = (Patched Round Ball). I have a couple of .58 caliber round ball guns that I hunt Deer, Elk and Antelope with. They have slow twist barrels 1:66 inches and 1:70 inches. I cast my own round balls, cut my own patches and make my own patch lube. I also only shoot real black powder. It's ignition temperature is much lower that the synthetics and makes for positive ignition with standard percussion caps. I find it cleans up much easier as well, with just warm water.

 

[Cupajo]

An old timer I used to know would put in a few grains of Red Dot with his black powder in a .50Cal. rifle.

The dulpex load burned hotter, shot truer and cleaned up a lot easier than straight black powder.

Before I would try such a thing I would do a lot of research, but he never had any problems,

CJ