I have a TVM Early Virginia and would like to remove the barrel from the stock. Since I have never done this before, I would like a little advice on the correct procedure to avoid running into problems. I assume that you start by removing the lock and the tang screw, and then push the barrel pins out. Do you always push the pins from the same direction? After the pins begin to come out can you pull them by hand or do you grab with pliers and remove or possibly use some other technique? When reassembling do you need to reinsert the pins in the same direction as removed? Is there any trick or problem getting the barrel to release from the stock once this is done? Any other tips, tricks, or methodology for accomplishing this task would be much appreciated. Thanks!! :bow:
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Long Rifle Barrel removal
- Thread starter kenfoerst
- Start date
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Ken, the answer is yes, you pretty well got it, and rather than get answers from all the X-perts here, please call TVM, for the right answer ( they'll be happy to give you the right answer) then let us know what they said.
Bill
Bill
I asked this question on ML Forums a few years ago and compiled all the tips that came from members here on the MLF and the ALR Forum.
They work perfectly and I've used this approach at least 15-20 times on several TVM Virginias and Lancasters.
================================================
Pinned Barrel Removal Guide, tips from multiple members consolidated into a list for convenience.
( from tips offered by many members on the ALR and MLF muzzleloading Forums )
1. Firmly secure muzzleloader so it can’t move
2. Remove the lock and tang screw
3. Tips of barrel pins should be rounded so they don’t catch / splinter wood
4. Use 1/16" (for small pins) or 3/32" (for large pins) straight punch, no taper, “cupped face” if possible, same size or smaller than pin diameter
5. If barrel pins are ”˜tapered’ they must be installed / driven in from the correct / same side each time.
6. Pins are driven in until they’re flush on their entry side then gently recessed.
7. Their length should be so they’re barely also recessed on the opposite side
8. Pins are removed by pushing them back out towards the side they entered from
(if straight pins are used, it’s less important, although possibly a good regimen to follow regardless)
9. Coat the bottom of the barrel and the channel with a good wax/rust preventative grease like RIG
10. Coat pins with beeswax to protect holes and help keep pins from sliding out
11. (Optional) Use a hand squeeze clamp with rubber ends and a scrap piece of “soft” wood about 4” long. Clamp the wood over the pin hole on the exit side of the stock.
Drive pin slightly into the softer wood just enough to grab it with fingers or pliers. Remove backer wood and pull out pin. Before reusing pins check and re-polish as needed
12. When pins are removed, maintain their position and direction as they are usually different lengths
13. Go slow the first couple of times you remove the pins. Barely start them out, and look to ensure you’re not raising a chip-out. If you are, apply glue and press the chip back in place. After it is dry, hold the area in place with a piece of wood and carefully try to ease the pin out. Once the pin is out relieve the interference slightly.
14. Now that the pins are out (tang screw should already be out) while holding the barrel firmly in place in the stock, turn the gun upside down (stock up barrel down) on a padded workbench or table. Gently bump the butt of the stock UP. The object is to get the tang to drop free of it's inlet before the muzzle end moves.
If the muzzle end is lifted first, the wood at the end of the tang inlet may be chipped out / damaged, particularly if it is a tight inlet or barrel has moved back a bit after firing heavy loads.
================================================
The above are the tips supplied by other good people willing to help...I just put them into a quick reference list for this very purpose.
They work perfectly and I've used this approach at least 15-20 times on several TVM Virginias and Lancasters.
================================================
Pinned Barrel Removal Guide, tips from multiple members consolidated into a list for convenience.
( from tips offered by many members on the ALR and MLF muzzleloading Forums )
1. Firmly secure muzzleloader so it can’t move
2. Remove the lock and tang screw
3. Tips of barrel pins should be rounded so they don’t catch / splinter wood
4. Use 1/16" (for small pins) or 3/32" (for large pins) straight punch, no taper, “cupped face” if possible, same size or smaller than pin diameter
5. If barrel pins are ”˜tapered’ they must be installed / driven in from the correct / same side each time.
6. Pins are driven in until they’re flush on their entry side then gently recessed.
7. Their length should be so they’re barely also recessed on the opposite side
8. Pins are removed by pushing them back out towards the side they entered from
(if straight pins are used, it’s less important, although possibly a good regimen to follow regardless)
9. Coat the bottom of the barrel and the channel with a good wax/rust preventative grease like RIG
10. Coat pins with beeswax to protect holes and help keep pins from sliding out
11. (Optional) Use a hand squeeze clamp with rubber ends and a scrap piece of “soft” wood about 4” long. Clamp the wood over the pin hole on the exit side of the stock.
Drive pin slightly into the softer wood just enough to grab it with fingers or pliers. Remove backer wood and pull out pin. Before reusing pins check and re-polish as needed
12. When pins are removed, maintain their position and direction as they are usually different lengths
13. Go slow the first couple of times you remove the pins. Barely start them out, and look to ensure you’re not raising a chip-out. If you are, apply glue and press the chip back in place. After it is dry, hold the area in place with a piece of wood and carefully try to ease the pin out. Once the pin is out relieve the interference slightly.
14. Now that the pins are out (tang screw should already be out) while holding the barrel firmly in place in the stock, turn the gun upside down (stock up barrel down) on a padded workbench or table. Gently bump the butt of the stock UP. The object is to get the tang to drop free of it's inlet before the muzzle end moves.
If the muzzle end is lifted first, the wood at the end of the tang inlet may be chipped out / damaged, particularly if it is a tight inlet or barrel has moved back a bit after firing heavy loads.
================================================
The above are the tips supplied by other good people willing to help...I just put them into a quick reference list for this very purpose.
And its important that you note both of the qualifying comments that I made...thanks goes to many members for the technical input...I just typed it all together.
I don't EVER want to appear to take credit for information that was put forward by others as if its my personal knowledge...to do that would be about as low as a human being could go.
I will add my personal emphasis to the caution to go slow...think through each step you're about to do, visualize it, understand it, etc, before doing it.
I will toss in things that I do to help ensure the stock isn't dinged when returning the barrel to it:
1) I put a very slight bevel on the under side edges of the tang tail so there's no sharp edges to catch the edges of the of the tang mortise.
2) I lay the stock belly down on my carpeted workbench and drape a 25lb bag of skeet shot over the butt stock to hold it solidly immobile;
You could do the same with a hefty sand bag, something like that...because having both hands free to guide the barrel is obviously very important;
3) I slide a piece of wooden dowel into the muzzle, leaving several inches sticking out from the muzzle as a handle...thumb pressure down on top of the barrel flat in front of the front sight.
The other hand is holding the barrel further back guiding the tang tail into place.
The above 3 items make a simple, safe, controlled way to return the barrel to a rock solid stock.
I don't EVER want to appear to take credit for information that was put forward by others as if its my personal knowledge...to do that would be about as low as a human being could go.
I will add my personal emphasis to the caution to go slow...think through each step you're about to do, visualize it, understand it, etc, before doing it.
I will toss in things that I do to help ensure the stock isn't dinged when returning the barrel to it:
1) I put a very slight bevel on the under side edges of the tang tail so there's no sharp edges to catch the edges of the of the tang mortise.
2) I lay the stock belly down on my carpeted workbench and drape a 25lb bag of skeet shot over the butt stock to hold it solidly immobile;
You could do the same with a hefty sand bag, something like that...because having both hands free to guide the barrel is obviously very important;
3) I slide a piece of wooden dowel into the muzzle, leaving several inches sticking out from the muzzle as a handle...thumb pressure down on top of the barrel flat in front of the front sight.
The other hand is holding the barrel further back guiding the tang tail into place.
The above 3 items make a simple, safe, controlled way to return the barrel to a rock solid stock.
The pin direction is important. I once was firmly of the school that believed only insert and remove from the right was the correct and historical method. Others chimed in that left was right. 
....Uh...correct. I did some research and found there is no 'rule'. It is wat the maker did that counts.
Something not mentioned yet. For a slender longrifle like yers, once the barrel is removed the stock is very vunerable to breakage if mishandled. I dissassembled my long rifle once and nearly had a heart attack when I discovered how light the stock was sans barrel. And being a highly figured maple it really had very little inherent strength. So, have an ample work area where no one else will be around and limit the handling of the stock once the barrel is out. I'll betcha one of the built in costs of a good rifle is to recover losses from the occasional stock breaking disaster. :shocked2:
Actually, my advice is: if you really don't HAVE to remove the barrel, don't. I've done mine only the once since 1976.
....Uh...correct. I did some research and found there is no 'rule'. It is wat the maker did that counts.Something not mentioned yet. For a slender longrifle like yers, once the barrel is removed the stock is very vunerable to breakage if mishandled. I dissassembled my long rifle once and nearly had a heart attack when I discovered how light the stock was sans barrel. And being a highly figured maple it really had very little inherent strength. So, have an ample work area where no one else will be around and limit the handling of the stock once the barrel is out. I'll betcha one of the built in costs of a good rifle is to recover losses from the occasional stock breaking disaster. :shocked2:
Actually, my advice is: if you really don't HAVE to remove the barrel, don't. I've done mine only the once since 1976.
RM's post is a good reminder about the lightweight forestocks.
FWIW, my approach is to always leave my ramrods in the stocks to serve as a spine...all the rods in my long guns are strong rigid brass which is probably a plus for when the barrel is out.
FWIW, my approach is to always leave my ramrods in the stocks to serve as a spine...all the rods in my long guns are strong rigid brass which is probably a plus for when the barrel is out.
Yes, it's "scary" when the bbl isn't in the stock and because of this, I stick a RR drill into the hole and groove and tape the drill at the muzzlecap when shaping the upper forestock upper "edge". Also during the build, the pins are removed many times from whatever side is handier. Same goes for a completed LR. A 45 degree chamfer is on both ends of all the pins and the pins are short enough so they're at least a 1/16" below the surface and colored shoe polish fills the remainder of the holes.....Fred
I am going to add a few things to this just to insure you don't have a mishap... Just food for thought for removal on all ML rifles.... I don't own a TVM & this is not pointed at them, just kinda thinking out loud about barrel removal......
1: Always remove the RR before ya start any of the procedure. Sometimes the front lock retaining screw has a notch or groove cut in it to clear the RR. If you don't remove the RR first, you could damage the ramrod.
2: Put the lock on Halfcock.... On some older rifles the mainspring is below the lockplate. Have also seen this happen on lock guys have built from kits & they had now idea of what they were doing. Best to be sure. Not allot of locks like this, but I have seen it, so will mention it. If you pull the lock out with the spring below the lockplate, you can damage the lock inlet & tear out a chunk of wood. Putting it on halfcock will usually pull the spring up & clear the lockplate & lock inlet. I have a lock from The Rifle Shop that was built this way. Don't know if they build it or someone else built it. Regardless of who belt it, I think it was built wrong & this should have been corrected, but it is how it is...
3: If you have a sling swivel on the forestock of the rifle, insure the retaining screw from the swivel is removed. Allot of times this screw goes in thru a Underlug mounted into the barrel. You have to take the screw out to get the barrel & wood to separate there or you could break the forestock.
4: If the barrel doesn't have wedgepins or round pins, if could be retained by screws up thru the RR pipes, these have to come out to get the barrel off.
5: One time I saw a rifle (can't remember who built it) and the nosecap was retained with a screw under the RR, screw was threaded into the barrel at the muzzle, this has to come out to get the nosecap loose.
6: DO NOT grab the muzzle of the barrel & start pulling it out...... Real good chance of breaking the forestock this way. I turn my rifle upside down, left hand under about where the entrypipe is, right hand on the lock area, I bump the butt area as the buttplate (heel) on the carpeted floor & gently ease the tang/breech area out first. Once it starts I turn it over & start working it in a see-saw motion & work muzzle & breech & work the barrel out.
7: If it is hanging up.... DO NOT FORCE IT !! :shake: Investigate Why... it is hanging up & insure you have everything loose before proceeding. Some barrel had 2 pins, some 3,4, saw one with 5 round pins retaining it. so be sure you didn't miss one.
Keith Lisle
1: Always remove the RR before ya start any of the procedure. Sometimes the front lock retaining screw has a notch or groove cut in it to clear the RR. If you don't remove the RR first, you could damage the ramrod.
2: Put the lock on Halfcock.... On some older rifles the mainspring is below the lockplate. Have also seen this happen on lock guys have built from kits & they had now idea of what they were doing. Best to be sure. Not allot of locks like this, but I have seen it, so will mention it. If you pull the lock out with the spring below the lockplate, you can damage the lock inlet & tear out a chunk of wood. Putting it on halfcock will usually pull the spring up & clear the lockplate & lock inlet. I have a lock from The Rifle Shop that was built this way. Don't know if they build it or someone else built it. Regardless of who belt it, I think it was built wrong & this should have been corrected, but it is how it is...
3: If you have a sling swivel on the forestock of the rifle, insure the retaining screw from the swivel is removed. Allot of times this screw goes in thru a Underlug mounted into the barrel. You have to take the screw out to get the barrel & wood to separate there or you could break the forestock.
4: If the barrel doesn't have wedgepins or round pins, if could be retained by screws up thru the RR pipes, these have to come out to get the barrel off.
5: One time I saw a rifle (can't remember who built it) and the nosecap was retained with a screw under the RR, screw was threaded into the barrel at the muzzle, this has to come out to get the nosecap loose.
6: DO NOT grab the muzzle of the barrel & start pulling it out...... Real good chance of breaking the forestock this way. I turn my rifle upside down, left hand under about where the entrypipe is, right hand on the lock area, I bump the butt area as the buttplate (heel) on the carpeted floor & gently ease the tang/breech area out first. Once it starts I turn it over & start working it in a see-saw motion & work muzzle & breech & work the barrel out.
7: If it is hanging up.... DO NOT FORCE IT !! :shake: Investigate Why... it is hanging up & insure you have everything loose before proceeding. Some barrel had 2 pins, some 3,4, saw one with 5 round pins retaining it. so be sure you didn't miss one.
Keith Lisle
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