Pinned barrels?

For those who remove the barrel when cleaning the muzzleloader, do you ever have problems with these pins? Like getting them out or back into the stock, any damage ever done to the stock, over time do the holes become enlarged and bigger pins needed? :bow:

Almost all my barrels are pinned. I never pull the barrel unless I need to pull the breechplug, bend the barrel or something else equally heinous. I recently had out one barrel that had been in the stock for 30 years. Minimal surface rust and crud had accumulated. I steel wooled it off and oiled it well and reinstalled it.

I see no reason to pull a pinned barrel for cleaning.

Many Klatch

I don't pull my barrels for cleaning either, but I do coat the parts that remain unseen with a synthetic waterproof grease, you know, the really good and totally HC/PC stuff ...

All the things you mentioned will happen over time the more you remove your barrel. So most of us limit those instances. I take mine out once a year, when I strip the entire rifle and polish all the brass and rewax the stock.

Leave the pins alone. There is no need to remove the barrel for cleaning.

My rifle is pinned and I have had it for 8 years. I took the barrel off about 2 years ago and everything was O.K. gave it a good wipe with B.C. Barricade and repinned. Just as long as you don't get crazy with the cleaning (such as using a super soaked patch that gets water between the barrel an wood) you should be fine. But like alot things in muzzleloading each person has their own way of doing things.

I only occasionally remove a pinned barrel. As far as I am concerned, it is not necessary for routine cleaning. When the need or desire does arise, there is a distinct potential for damage, which can be minimized with careful procedures. Two gunsmiths that I respect gave me the following advice which has worked for me:

1) remove lock & tang screw using properly fitting screwdrivers. If improperly fitted screwdrivers are used, the screws will become "buggered up" and there is also a higher risk of the screwdriver blade slipping & marring the finish. Buy a set of gunsmith screwdrivers or grind regular screwdrivers to fit each size screw.
2) use a properly sized brass drift punch to gently push the pins out of the barrel lugs. the pins should have rounded ends to avoid catching and chipping out any stock wood and the pins should be a bit shorter than the length of the hole in the stock where they fit (the pins may well be of different lengths & if so, should go back in the same hole). By sitting slightly below the surface, the pins will not catch anything like a cleaning rag or hand that rubs over them and, the bit of hole in the stock wood past the pin acts as a guide for placing the drift punch. Trying to center a punch on a flush set pin is almost a guarantee of wallowing out the hole. My habit is to always push out from the left and in from the right.
3) with the gun upside down on a padded surface, lift the butt a bit & with the muzzle on the padded surface, gently "bump" to encourage the barrel to drop out of the stock breech end first.
In examining guns, you will often see where the stock is chipped out just behind the tang. This can be caused by heavy loads in a gun with a very tightly inlet tang or by removing the barrel by lifting the muzzle end, thereby making the tang a lever against the wood behind it. Be very careful with the stock once the barrel is out - they can be very thin and fragile. Swinging the empty stock into a ceiling or a light fixture could be a disaster.

Others will likely have their own tips - if un-necessary removals are avoided & necessary removals are done with care, you should have no problems.

The only pinned barrel that I have which I regularly remove for cleaning is on my Brown Bess. The pins have rounded ends, which makes it pretty easy to reinstall them. Cleaning my other guns does not require removing the barrel and the only reason I pull the musket barrel is that it seems easier to clean it thoroughly out of the stock. Barrel keys, which I have in two of my rifles, make removing the barrel for cleaning very easy too, but I do not really have to take them out to clean. The musket is 27 years old and pulling the pins has not enlarged the holes in the stock.

I pull the barrels on my flinters every time. I only assembled / disassembled them about 100 times during the building process, so another 6-8 times a year won't matter. But I seldom shoot the same gun that much each year. The other ones get jealous if I neglect tem too much!

Like Col. Batguano I pull the pins every time from my flinter after shooting in order to clean the barrel. I made this rifle so she's dear to me and after shooting her for 5-6 years there is not one ding or enlarged hole around the pins. All it takes is a little care when placing the punch on the pin. I can typically push them out with a thin punch; if sticky I tap the punch with a wood mallet. Adds about 10 minutes overall to my cleaning time but my barrel gets very clean and I don't need to worry about a toothpick popping loose and getting black water pouring into and over the stock. Plus, in the limited space of our laundry room there is more risk of me dinging up my stock trying to maneuver around a longrifle to fill, shake and tip water from the barrel

Pulling a pinned barrel is risky and I only do it for necessary maintenance, maybe once a year on average.

i bought a 1979 Pedersoli Brown Bess in a bad shape. since this gun was fist a shooter, then a collectors item, then used for reenecetments, than a shooter again all that before i got it, i pulled the barrel just for safety reasons. i checked it carfully, and after reworking the stock, i put a good amount of grease in the stock an put the barrel back over it.
the grease prevents water for getting between the wood and the barrel.
there will be no reason to pull the barrel again...

I removed the pins of my Bob Watts .45 that I bought in 1977 in 1989....I replaced it with and Ed Rayle, .40 caliber and haven't removed it since...

With the .54 that I completed in 1990, I've never removed the barrel...

I too am in the camp of removing the pins and cleaning the barrel good and proper.

I don't understand someone not taking the barrel off. All it takes is a little care. If the pins get too loose for you rub on some beeswax it'll act like glue.

If you look at antique rifles it appears the pins were also removed pretty often. They must of had a reason to reomove them.

So what you are saying is that other than taking the pins out there is no way to clean the barrel properly? Is that correct? None at all, is that right?

A lot will depend on what you call "thorough". If by thorough, you mean cleaning the bottom of the barrel, then the answer is a simple NO. In order to clean the underside of the barrel, you must remove it from the stock. However, this is not necessary. The underside of your barrel does not need to be cleaned. You need to clean the bore and the part of the outside of the barrel that you can see when it is in the stock but the part that is covered by the stock does not need cleaning. Removing the pins from your barrel will eventually result in the pins becoming loose from the holes in the stock being wobbled out. This will effect your accuracy. When I am building a rifle, before pinning the barrel in place, I heat it up with a propane torch just until it is hot to the touch and then I apply Johnson's Paste Wax to the bottom of the barrel. When it cools, I pin it into the stock and never remove it unless it needs to be done to remove the breach plug or other major work. Other than that, leave it in place.

I use RIG on the underside of my barrels before putting them back in the stock but think unless the wood is sealed with epoxy filler that sooner or later the wood is going to absorb the petroleum and turn black and punky. I've seen this aplenty on old guns stood in the corner for decades as the petroleum drifts down by gravity eventually soaking and rotting the wood. A good reason for standing your guns in the safe muzzle down.
I'm starting to think along the lines of something like Ezzox which coats and protects over long periods of time like nothing I have ever seen.
I've seen some salt spray tests on it and nothing else is as good ,even my beloved Break free which I have used on my guns in the salt skiff environs of Kodiak while deer hunting with very good success. MD

I have one pinned gun and it always gets fouling blown under the forearm requiring pin removal and they are getting hogged out from the repeated treatment. I think my remedy will be brass escutcheons for the pins to nest in when they finally get so loose as to effect accuracy. MD

I properly clean my barrels by putting a toothpick in the touch hole, pouring a few ounces of water in and going from there...

Both of my flintlocks are pinned and I have never removed the barrels on either and may never. Unnecessary for cleaning. If they get soaked in rain while hunting I put Sheath on a bit of thin cardboard and slide it along the barrel channel.

I removed the barrel once on my Bess in 15 years. Decided it unnecessary and that has been my policy since.