My gun has been at the gunsmith since the incident I had the second weekend of october during youth season. The ball was stuck and I had tried shooting it out with pyrodex and pulling it. However he tried pulling it with his ball puller and it broke off inside the barrel attached to the ball. Then he said he put some 3f black under the nipple and shot out with the ball puller still attached. I am just glad to have it fixed finally. He said it came out easy since he greased it before he did that. He thinks I should use more bore butter on the barrel. I doubt he knew that I had shot it once a month ago and couldn't clean it because of the ball. Would not cleaning it do permanent damage to the barrel? Oh and I was using pyrodex.