Charge not going off, help

[Carbon 6]

Why do you bring up motor oil and 3 in 1? I never mentioned either. You said to use Ballistol. Ballistol is mostly mineral oil. Mineral oil is made from petroleum. You said Ballistol is good for your bore, but don’t use any product containing petroleum in your bore. Can’t have it both ways. Just quoting your posts.
QUOTE="Crow-Feather, post: 1691462, member: 297"]
A mixture of ballistol and water does a darn good job of preventing this problem. Never ever put oil, or any product containing petroleum in your bore.

[/QUOTE]

Ballistol has other ingredients, Alcohols, emulsifiers, soaps etc, that allow you to get away with using it compared to motor oil. However, yes it is still a petroleum product. So is bore butter.

 

[JohannesKepler]

OP, hopefully you find these fascinating debates about organic chemistry useful in your task of removing a stuck ball from your bore.

How’s that actual problem going, by the way?

Haha, that brought a smile to my face, first one since this whole ordeal started.

I'm not seeing any way I'll be able to shoot it out, even the alcohol drying wouldn't work since I swabbed with some Ballistol last night, and that's probably in with the powder now. It isn't looking good, there seems to be a fair amount of rust in the bore already. Idk what to do apart from wait until the ball puller arrives and then hope I can clean all the rust out. Not sure how to go about doing that either, will probably try WD-40, apparently it cleans rust

 

[Carbon 6]

even the alcohol drying wouldn't work

Are you speculating or did you actually try it ?

 

[rdlowe]

Haha, that brought a smile to my face, first one since this whole ordeal started.

I'm not seeing any way I'll be able to shoot it out, even the alcohol drying wouldn't work since I swabbed with some Ballistol last night, and that's probably in with the powder now. It isn't looking good, there seems to be a fair amount of rust in the bore already. Idk what to do apart from wait until the ball puller arrives and then hope I can clean all the rust out. Not sure how to go about doing that either, will probably try WD-40, apparently it cleans rust

Man, hate to hear it. Worst case scenario: you're unable to get the thing out for a few days and you get some rust. CLP or WD40 on a bit of fine steel wool will sort that out. Can wrap it around your jag as well in little tufts.

I’ve dry balled more times than I care to admit, so I’m kind of an unfortunate pro when it comes to fixing that problem. I’m still pretty confident you can fix your problem the same way. But, worst case, you’ll still be ok. Just be careful and smart. If you were local in DFW I’d come help you out. Some things are just easier to demonstrate than explain on a forum.

 

[Carbon 6]

I’ve dry balled more times than I care to admit, so I’m kind of an unfortunate pro when it comes to fixing that problem. I’m still pretty confident you can fix your problem the same way. But, worst case, you’ll still be ok. Just be careful and smart. If you were local in DFW I’d come help you out. Some things are just easier to demonstrate than explain on a forum.

X2 well said.

 

[Carbon 6]

Have you tried a red hot poker in the vent hole ?

Wear a welding glove.

 

[JohannesKepler]

Man, hate to hear it. Worst case scenario: you're unable to get the thing out for a few days and you get some rust. CLP or WD40 on a bit of fine steel wool will sort that out. Can wrap it around your jag as well in little tufts.

I’ve dry balled more times than I care to admit, so I’m kind of an unfortunate pro when it comes to fixing that problem. I’m still pretty confident you can fix your problem the same way. But, worst case, you’ll still be ok. Just be careful and smart. If you were local in DFW I’d come help you out. Some things are just easier to demonstrate than explain on a forum.

I'd just been worried it wouldn't be salvageable at all, so if the worst case scenario still results in my gun being fine in the end, that's really reassuring. I think I'll give shooting it out a try, and if not, then steel wool and WD-40 it is, and I'll just try not to think about too much in the meantime lol.

Thanks so much man, you've been really helpful to a newbie like me with several of my questions on this forum, you've helped getting into this hobby be a bit less daunting.

 

[Carbon 6]

What's your plan if the ball puller fails ? I've had a lot of ball pulling failures over the years.

 

[JohannesKepler]

What's your plan if the ball puller fails ? I've had a lot of ball pulling failures over the years.

If shooting it out and pulling it out don't work, then idk. Is there even anything else I could do at that point :/

 

[Carbon 6]

If shooting it out and pulling it out don't work, then idk. Is there even anything else I could do at that point :/

There are many options yet, what have you tried ?

 

[rdlowe]

If shooting it out and pulling it out don't work, then idk. Is there even anything else I could do at that point :/

Yes, but it’s ugly. Removing the breech. I’d recommend *if* that became necessary that you have a gunsmith do it for you.

 

[JohannesKepler]

There are many options yet, what have you tried ?

Haven't tried anything as of yet, didn't want to make it worse so I've been waiting to get a general consensus. It's a fair drive for me to go shoot so I wanted to know before going out there and trying to shoot it out, and the puller isn't here yet etc.

Yes, but it’s ugly. Removing the breech. I’d recommend *if* that became necessary that you have a gunsmith do it for you.

Yikes, yeah I guess. I'd definitely go to a gunsmith for that, I'm not messing about with that when the breech isn't meant to come out. Hopefully it won't come to that though. Ball pullers exist for a reason hopefully it will work.

 

[Carbon 6]

Haven't tried anything as of yet, didn't want to make it worse so I've been waiting to get a general consensus. It's a fair drive for me to go shoot so I wanted to know before going out there and trying to shoot it out, and the puller isn't here yet etc.

I wouldn't wait for the puller, with the mail problems, covid and general shipping delays it could be weeks before it shows up.

Just remember to practice good gun safety when attempting to shoot it out. always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

 

[rdlowe]

I agree with C6 on this one. You’ll sleep better knowing you’ve fixed it, even if you have to drive a bit out of your way to get it done. Just chalk it up to part of the learning curve and don’t beat yourself up over it. Think about what went wrong, how it went wrong an what you can do differently. Smaller shot, swabbing between, having all your tools at hand, etc.

For now this is just a nuisance. Nobody’s injured and the gun’s not ruined. It’s fixable.

 

[Carbon 6]

First thing I would do (at the range ) is meticulously pick the vent then try to fire it. If that doesn't work wait 15 minutes then re pick. The inject some yellow bottle HEET into the vent hole and wait 5 minutes. Then try to fire. If that doesn't work then more methanol (HEET) and red hot poker time
If that doesn't work I'm going to take a half hour break then pack the vent grain by grain full of powder,.

If the gun has a removable vent I would remove it, clean out as much powder as i can and replace with new and reassemble. Being careful not to leave powder in the threads when screwing back in.

I've had guns take as much as 20 tries to fire.

I probably should have asked this first but ? Are you sure there's powder in there ? Real black powder ?

 

[JohannesKepler]

First thing I would do (at the range ) is meticulously pick the vent then try to fire it. If that doesn't work wait 15 minutes then re pick. The inject some yellow bottle HEET into the vent hole and wait 5 minutes. Then try to fire. If that doesn't work then more methanol (HEET) and red hot poker time
If that doesn't work I'm going to take a half hour break then pack the vent grain by grain full of powder,.

If the gun has a removable vent I would remove it, clean out as much powder as i can and replace with new and reassemble. Being careful not to leave powder in the threads when screwing back in.

I've had guns take as much as 20 tries to fire.

I probably should have asked this first but ? Are you sure there's powder in there ? Real black powder ?

Picked the vent fairly good yesterday back when it first occurred, but I will try and clear it out even better. The HEET will dry it out right? Hopefully allowing everything to ignite. I'll try that and then pack it with powder. Hoping this will work, will head out in a bit. I'll report back later.

And yes, only loaded it with GOEX, and that's all that will ever go in.

 

[Carbon 6]

The HEET will dry it out right?

Yes, but let it dry. You may even want to do it twice, before attempting.
Good luck, be safe.
Remember, alcohol flames are invisible in the sunlight.

 

[smo]

Go to the Smoothbore section on this Forum.....

Back in June of 2020 Topic.... Bareballs in the Backwoods

Page #2 Read what Spence 10 posted about" Wet Powder"

 

[smo]

Aug 12, 2013

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When I did this first time around my immediate thought was that this put a different light on the idea that a little water from the patch would have significant bad effect on the powder charge. I then wondered if that might include oil. So, I repeated the test on paper using oil. I stirred oil into a charge until completely wet, and it fired up even better than with the water, ignited quicker and left less residue. I didn't try oiled powder in the gun, but I don't know why it would behave any differently.

There's not much chance clearing a wet gun in this way will ever have any practical application, but I think it's reasonable to think of contamination of charges as less of a problem than some would have us believe.

Spence

 

[JohannesKepler]

Go to the Smoothbore section on this Forum.....

Back in June of 2020 Topic.... Bareballs in the Backwoods

Page #2 Read what Spence 10 posted about" Wet Powder"

Oh wow, so some dry powder in the touch hole will ignite the wet powder?? Ok I'll definitely be trying it, thanks!