How to pull a round ball, after its center is pulled out...

M

mckutzy

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
8   0   0
Location
bc
I have a traditions Hawkin woodsman, in .50 cal.
Long story short, lent the gun to another shooter whose gun took a bad turn and can be shot.

Buddy dry balled. After using a sturdy rod and puller I believe the center is pulled out.
I have a bigger screw comming to try to get a bigger bite... aswell as a thorough clean down afterwards....


Whats peoples methods to combat this.....This is a first for me.......
 
not sure if there is a hole completely through the ball if so try the larger screw as you alluded to.If that doesn't work you may have to remove the breech plug and finish pushing the ball down /through the barrel
should use padded vase and a crescent wrench to remove breech plug
do not know what else to suggest ?
 
Yeah... im pretty sure the ball puller made it though and pulled a "slug" right out of the center...
I got a brighter light and see a patch.... so she's in there good....

Its an european made barrel... I doubt if I could pull the plug... itll ever go back together right.... plus, it has a pattent breech... so theres more than one elements of geometry going on....
 
try a larger diameter screw and before pulling, pour warm water (you can also try adding a bit of dish soap down the barrel) i have found this makes whatever lube is already on the patch extra slippery and the ball typically comes back out with far less effort than it took to ram it down in the first place.


I feel your pain, dry balls are no laughing matter...
 
Take the nipple out (assuming it’s a caplock) and poke as much powder into the breech as you can. Poke it in with a vent pick or something similar. Gst as
Much as you can in then replace the nipple, cannot snd fire in a safe direction. It may not come out but that is ok. Run the ramrod down the bore to see where the ball is, if it is still in the barrel but nudged off the breechplugs, remove the nipple and refill the breech with as much powder as you can. When you can’t get anymore in, run the rod down the bore and reseat the ball and shoot it out. I’ve never had success with a ball puller.
 
LTK has the best approach. If that fails, I would try a CO2 ball discharger, although that might not work if there is much of a hole through the ball. I would only try a larger screw if those two approaches failed, and pulling the breech would be the last thing I would consider AFTER THOROUGHLY RESEARCHING HOW THE BREECH IS INSTALLED ON THAT PARTICULAR MAKE AND MODEL.
 
We tried to pop it out several times and that was a no go. the puller typically has been a good success to pull out....till now.
It has a hole through the ball.. so I cant get anything like a grease air or whatever, as it wont have any compression.

I have the screws now... so that and a good dose of dish soap, hopefully will be able to pull that out.......

I think buddy might have put a .495 instead of .490......
Ive never had good loading experiences with the bigger ball...
 
mckutzy said:
Yeah... im pretty sure the ball puller made it though and pulled a "slug" right out of the center...
Click to expand...
if that is the case, adding powder thru the vent wont work at all, your RB has a thru-vent that wont build pressure...your stuck with bigger threaded puller or removing breach plug ( that would be my choise....if it was threaded on it should thread off just as easy).

i see you already know most of what i typed...was typing at same time
 
you don't need "a larger screw" you need an MUCH LARGER screw - trying to go up incrementally (say from #8 to #10) is just gonna carve away at the existing hole (if it's really stuck that bad)

Personally I would have just pulled the breech soon as I realized there is a hole in the ball .... 10 minute job and you get to inspect and clean your patent breech while at it.
 
mckutzy said:
I have a traditions Hawkin woodsman, in .50 cal.
Long story short, lent the gun to another shooter whose gun took a bad turn and can be shot.

Buddy dry balled. After using a sturdy rod and puller I believe the center is pulled out.
I have a bigger screw comming to try to get a bigger bite... aswell as a thorough clean down afterwards....


Whats peoples methods to combat this.....This is a first for me.......
Click to expand...
Don't lend buddy your Hawken
 
20 plus years ago I had a Safari Arms 58 cal double rifle , I shot that thing a lot practiced all summer shooting across a small lake, when you hit a deer with a 58 cal with a mini , a hole the size of your thumb in and out. they do not walk more than 3 steps... I was on a moose hunt in the Interlake area of Manitoba brought the double rifle and my first BPCR a Martini 577/450 had .457 500 gr lee bullets paper patched up to fit..LOL
the double rifle was my main gun for the hunt, after the day was done I would fire off the charge to have a fresh load the next day. I would clean the barrels every day until...:oops: my cleaning jag with patch pulled off the ram rod down in the barrel.. now what! buddy was 10 yrs older more experience suggesting pulling the nipple and stuffing 3fg in there... worked like a charm... never use a wood ram rod as a cleaning rod..
 
Wooden, plastic, fiberglass....ect.... ramrod id never trust....especially for a pull....
I only load/clean with a 1/4" rod, with brass head and muzzle protector. Do the same for my musket and Whitworth....
And these barrels dont have the plug that can come out... with out basically ruining the threads or the like.....


So I cant see much about 1.5 feet down in a small hole, but can accurate get on target at 300yds..... crikey...

I did a thorough douching with the bucket and soapy water.... tried to see if I can loosen things up, nothing is grabbing.... but the colours are different from what I had expected down the bore....
After using a breech face scraper... im getting back black... not lead...... after a good scrape.... I dont think there was a ball that was present the whole time......or at least till when we last popped it.... it actually went out.

So... odd.. never had a scenario occur like this..... looked like a ball, felt like a ball.... but no ball.....:oops::oops::oops:......
So the breech area is now cleaned much better... the Whitworth too....

Totally Weird thing.....ohh well..... no harm no foul...
 
Ive seeen the ball with a hole before, it fortunatly was able to be extracted, and I can for the most part see down bore, just not well....
enough now to see no ball, but at the time, it looked like so.

In the case of the .495, In this barrel, is super tight to load, and one time... extracted. I dont use them at all...
 
Yeah... a flint traditions is somewhere around $900 last I checked...its insane....

With that being said..I got mine like ~17 years ago and it ran great... till the frizzen wore a hole... now its on the back burner... L&R lock wont fit(even though it says so... it doesnt... at all...)

A traditions cap lock I got a few years ago(this one of this topic) I got for ~$350 I think... thereabouts... so there out there.... But for a decent flintlock... go for Pedersoli(or better), they are pretty decent guns overall...even though you spend a bit more....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom