did something stupid, need suggestions..?

short of it is this. dry balled. installed puller. puller came loose. ball now stuck 4 inches from top of barrel, can't get puller to hold. used long deck screw with bailing wire attached. thought screw was centered. was not. scored rifling in the barrel.(did get the ball out). :youcrazy: :shake:
looking for suggestions on what to do with barrel.

If it's not terribly gouged and really only scratched it may be just fine...the degree will also determine if you want/need to wrap some steel wool around a bore brush and go over that area.

For the future, some other choices would be to reseat the ball, keep the muzzle in a safe direction, and bloop it out with a CO2 ball discharger.
Or if at the range, work 10-15grns powder in through the nipple or vent seat, reseat the ball, and bloop it out right there.

it is gouged pretty good.

-----SHOOT IT--see how well it groups--may group just fine-----

the Black Spot said:

it is gouged pretty good.

Click to expand...

I'd find a cliff to go jump off of......

if it doesn't shoot well,shorten the barrel, or possibly cone the barrel.

TTC

Can the gouge be lapped?

Lapping removes metal in 10,000 inch at a time, rather than even a thousandth of an inch. I don't think lapping is going to help if the damage is to the lands and as severe as claimed. It would take a lot of force to do that kind of damage. What were you thinking?

You may have to replace the barrel. Shoot the gun and see what happens. It might still shoot accurately, in spite of your concerns.

Once you move a stuck ball forward, just pour powder into the barrel by removing the nipple, and running some powder down through the flash channel. It doesn't take much - 5 grains -- to push the ball out the muzzle. Do, push the ball back down onto the powder, so you don't ring the barrel by leaving the ball forward to act as a bore obstruction. In guns with the Nock-style breech powder chambers, you want to use enough powder to fill that chamber. That may require as much as 20 grains of powder depending on make and caliber.

Remember that the gun is usually shooting PRBs, and the ball itself never touches even the lands. If you have a major scratch across a land, only the patch is going to touch it. Yeah, powder residue may build up in the groove of the scratch, but that is cleaned out with soap and water.

thanks for all the input.

this is the first time i have dry balled in a flintlock. like i said, i thought it was centered. my mistake was not making a wooden bore guide to center the screw on the ball. but again i thought the screw was landing in the big gouge left by the ball puller.

well i will shoot it and see, maybe it is not as bad as i think it looks.

i have been wanting a .54 so maybe i can have it re-rifled to that(not sure of the cost on such a project).

as a last resort i will cut the barrel off and recrown.

As others have said take it out and shoot it. I've seen some really messed up bores that shoot quite well.As long as the damage is not in that last inch of the bore you may be surprised how well it still shoots. Don't panic just yet.

Paul,

I wasn't so much thinking of removing the gouge completely as I was of smoothing it out to where it could be loaded without snagging.

I have shot some pretty rough bores over the years, and while cleaning them can be an issue, most of them didn't really suffer much from loss of accuracy.

Also,without actually seeing the damage, I suspect that while it looks bad, it's probably not as bad as it looks. Rifle bores, when you drop a light down one, tend to magnify a problem out of proportion in my experience.

If it is visible from the muzzle, reach in with a needle file and smoothe it out, steel wool it and shoot it.

It's "NEVER AS BAD AS IT FIRST LOOKS" :v
Take it out and shoot it before doing any thing else.
Then, take a few days, to think about the results. Before deciding what to do.

Shoot it, see how it goes. Don't worry too much. Can be shortened or replaced (It's only money). I have no idea how much I've spent on this kind of education and although irritating it is worth the cost in the long-run. You learn and hopefully the rest of us learn as well. Don't beat yourself up about it (most of us have done far worse) :wink:

-----not a muzzleloader but---I bought a new 243 savage--first thing I did was break off a very tight fitting cleaning jag in the barrel--bought a new rod and had to actually hammer the rod through the barrel to clear it--thought the barrel was ruined--shot it--nickel size groups at 220 yards--worked great-----SHOOT IT FIRST-----

Let us know how it turns out and what u finally did. Never saying I've done the same thing :shocked2:

rubincam said:

-----not a muzzleloader but---I bought a new 243 savage--first thing I did was break off a very tight fitting cleaning jag in the barrel--bought a new rod and had to actually hammer the rod through the barrel to clear it--thought the barrel was ruined--shot it--nickel size groups at 220 yards--worked great-----SHOOT IT FIRST-----

Click to expand...

Nickel size groups at 220 yards!... :hmm:

-----yes it was a savage or stevens 243 bolt laminated stock--factory loads were a little bigger than my hand loads--think the scope was 4x12--don't have it anymore--sold it to a so called friend that fouled the rifle and scope up-----well I did use sandbags-----

Nickel size groups at 220 yards!... :hmm:[/quote]


Not that unusual for a Savage shot off rests especialy a 243

well, i shot the flintlock today. the scoring of the barrel did not mess up the accuracy in my book anyway. i am a hunter so i fire two shot groups as i figure i will only get that many shots off before game disappears. from sitting on the ground with elbows on knees and the gun resting on a rest in front of me, i fired at:

25 yards a two shot 5/8" group
50 yards a two shot 1.25" group

this was a hornady .490 roundball backed by 60 grains of schuetzen 3f with a linen patch greased with mink tallow(from TOTW).
(the gun is a cabelas kentucky flintlock by pedersoli)

i appreciate all the advice, and i am glad i shot it first before making a decision. :thumbsup: