Barrel Obstructions

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tiriaq

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This topic comes up quite often.
Every time it does, someone will suggest using a wooden dowel to poke the thing out.
This is really bad advice.

I just cleared the barrel of a USM1870 .50 Trapdoor rifle. Fired case had stuck. Someone tried to dig it out unsuccessfully. Damaged the chamber in the process. Then drove in a wooden dowel, breaking it off about 4" in from the muzzle.
I removed the barrel from the receiver, so I could get at the case. Put the barrel in the lathe, center drilled a hole in the casing. Ran in a brad point drill mounted on the end of a rod, through the hole in the case head. Got a hole through the dowel. Removed the case. Mounted a brass slug on the end of a 3/8" steel rod. Turned it to just under bore diameter. Drove it in, collapsing the dowel. Drilled some more. Drove the slug in some more. Kept at it until the remains of the dowel were driven out. The dowel was there long enough that the bore may be rusted beyond salvation, in addition to the damaged chamber. I could install a short sleeve in the chamber mouth to repair the damage, if the bore is usable.
Suppose the thing could be sleeved or smoothbored. .410 sleeved or 24ga bored out might options.
 
It's amazing what some owners do to their firearms... almost as amazing as the repairs required...
 
Worst one that I had was a muzzle loading barrel that I think had been dry balled, the owner tried to shoot the ball out (pretty standard method) but only got the ball 1/2 way down the barrel and decided to pull it out with a screw tipped ball puller on wooden ramrod. The ramrod broke leaving several inches of wood in the barrel. The breach plug came out easily (wonders never cease) but I could not move the ball and rod. I tried briefly drilling it out from the front with a drill in a bushing to keep it centered but there were problems with that method. I also tried both front and back with a 3/8 brass rod but the obstruction would not move in either direction. I ended up heating the barrel around the ball and struck the barrel vertically on a block of wood which melted the ball and the melted lead came out. Also charred the wood so that it ceased to be a problem. Barrel would have been 7 - 800 F and well below red hot. Finally drove the ramrod tip out with the brass rod. What created so much grief was that the ball puller was thin sheet metal around the screw portion (commercial product). When I and the previous owner tried driving the ball out, the screw was forced into and expanded the sheet metal portion so that it was completely jammed into the bore.

The amazing thing is that after all of the above, after cleaning the barrel, the gun shot OK and the barrel remained straight.

cheers mooncoon
 
Ii
tiriaq said:
This topic comes up quite often.
Every time it does, someone will suggest using a wooden dowel to poke the thing out.
This is really bad advice.

I just cleared the barrel of a USM1870 .50 Trapdoor rifle. Fired case had stuck. Someone tried to dig it out unsuccessfully. Damaged the chamber in the process. Then drove in a wooden dowel, breaking it off about 4" in from the muzzle.
I removed the barrel from the receiver, so I could get at the case. Put the barrel in the lathe, center drilled a hole in the casing. Ran in a brad point drill mounted on the end of a rod, through the hole in the case head. Got a hole through the dowel. Removed the case. Mounted a brass slug on the end of a 3/8" steel rod. Turned it to just under bore diameter. Drove it in, collapsing the dowel. Drilled some more. Drove the slug in some more. Kept at it until the remains of the dowel were driven out. The dowel was there long enough that the bore may be rusted beyond salvation, in addition to the damaged chamber. I could install a short sleeve in the chamber mouth to repair the damage, if the bore is usable.
Suppose the thing could be sleeved or smoothbored. .410 sleeved or 24ga bored out might options.
Click to expand...

Holy fvck thats a sad story.
 
mooncoon said:
Worst one that I had was a muzzle loading barrel that I think had been dry balled, the owner tried to shoot the ball out (pretty standard method) but only got the ball 1/2 way down the barrel and decided to pull it out with a screw tipped ball puller on wooden ramrod. The ramrod broke leaving several inches of wood in the barrel. The breach plug came out easily (wonders never cease) but I could not move the ball and rod. I tried briefly drilling it out from the front with a drill in a bushing to keep it centered but there were problems with that method. I also tried both front and back with a 3/8 brass rod but the obstruction would not move in either direction. I ended up heating the barrel around the ball and struck the barrel vertically on a block of wood which melted the ball and the melted lead came out. Also charred the wood so that it ceased to be a problem. Barrel would have been 7 - 800 F and well below red hot. Finally drove the ramrod tip out with the brass rod. What created so much grief was that the ball puller was thin sheet metal around the screw portion (commercial product). When I and the previous owner tried driving the ball out, the screw was forced into and expanded the sheet metal portion so that it was completely jammed into the bore.

The amazing thing is that after all of the above, after cleaning the barrel, the gun shot OK and the barrel remained straight.

cheers mooncoon
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'd trust a barrel heated to 450C, I guess it depends what type of steel it was
 
One other obstruction that I cleared was a muzzle loading rifle which was thought to be dryballed. In actual fact it was completely empty. The owner had a 3/8" steel ramrod with a #12 wood screw welded on the end and he put that down the barrel to pull the ball. Because the barrel was empty, the screw went into the recessed breach, jammed and twisted off from the rod. Luckily I knew what size the screw was. The rifle was a TC, the breaches of which approach impossible to remove in my experience so I made a steel ramrod with the last 3 or 4 inches made of drill rod. Drilled and swaged a square hole in the drill rod portion, dropped it over the broken screw and tapped the rod 2 or 3 times and twisted the rod counter clockwise 1/4 turn and voila the screw unscrewed (to my great relief)

cheers mooncoon
 
All too often, the gunsmith is a last resort to a solution of neglect and abuse.
Most abuse I've seen is usually the result of hot or bad ammo and neglect due to lack of cleaning and storing firearms in cold damp sheds.
When I tell them about the cost of a new barrel and installation eyes become wide open then when I could have had the stuck casing out in 5 minutes.
 
with muzzle loaders, one of the more common abuses is either cross threading a nipple and forcing it in anyway, or in the case of antiques, not measuring the thread pitch and diameter of the recess for the nipple and using a modern nipple that will screw in. Nipple threads are usually only about 3 threads engaged and a 1/4 28 thread will screw into a slightly larger 26 tpi thread hole but not safely. Most european nipple threads from the 1800s are 26 tpi. Diameters can be quite variable and it is not uncommon to find nipple sockets which have apparently been damaged and the threads chased out larger but still with the 26 tpi

cheers mooncoon
 
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