“Ruined” My First Barrel

Hello,
I’m sure everyone has ruined a good barrel at some point, and today I (presumably) ruined mine on my favorite percussion pistol. Or at least got it stuck beyond my current means!
For starters, there’s a dry ball down near the breech that’s been expanding pretty heavily due to a failed attempt at using a ball puller. I then proceeded to try an air compressor threaded into the drum, which didn’t work even with some oil for compression.
Then I moved onto the grease gun method, threaded it into the drum and pumped. That seemed to move the ball about a 16th or so forward, but I guess my fittings were bad and grease kept flowing out through the nozzle and “zerk clamp”. I tried at it off and on for about an hour, adjusting the fittings as I went.
After no more progress, I decided to give the grease gun a rest. As I loosened the “clamp” to pull it off the zerk, the whole zerk pulled out of the gun breaking the threads of where the nipple goes. So now I’ve got a greasy stripped barrel with a tightly stuck ball.
Looking back I should’ve tried to put some powder behind the dry ball and shoot it out, but I was afraid to try it since I haven’t done that before. I’ll have to retire the pistol to the shelf of curiosities for the time being.
I imagine it would cost more than the gun is worth to get the barrel sorted out or to purchase a replacement in the unlikely scenario I come across one. Although I could try my hand at re-threading, but that may have to wait a bit while I practice.
Oh well, failure is the best teacher after all! Thank you for reading my misadventure!

People shove 100 grains of powder into a muzzleloader and pull the trigger but are afraid to remove a nipple or vent and stick 5 grains of powder in there. The human mind is a curious thing.

Take a deep breath.

Then go repair the barrel.

Are you talking the threads in the side of the barrel itself? Or, the threads of the drum? How about a couple of pictures. There could be a couple of potential fixes, depending on exactly which threads are ruined.

64Springer said:

People shove 100 grains of powder in a muzzleloader and pull the trigger but are afraid to remove a nipple or vent and stick 5 grains of powder in there. The human mind is a curious thing.

Take a deep breath.

Then go repair the barrel.

Click to expand...

It truly is! In my head I imagined that I wouldn’t be able to get enough powder behind the ball to push it out, but instead have the nipple blow out or something along those lines. I imagine that scenario is unlikely in reality, just a newbies over cautious mind in play.

jmull4609 said:

Are you talking the threads in the side of the barrel itself? Or, the threads of the drum? How about a couple of pictures. There could be a couple of potential fixes, depending on exactly which threads are ruined.

Click to expand...

It’s the threads that the nipple is threaded into. I can get some photos in the morning.

Relax. It's unlikely you've done damage that can't be fixed.

Sometimes the dragon wins. Mostly when I get in a hurry or frustrated. Stuck a one-piece steel ramrod. Clamped barrel in my bench vise, tied a rope to the ramrod w/ other end to my garden tractor. Vise broke in half, but the patch started moving and finally got it out. No internet in those days. Good luck.

Here are photos of the barrel. I believe it was from a kit gun from Turner Kirkland, pre-Dixie gun works.

Measure the original thread.

Look at Track or DGW and find the next thread size up from yours.

Drill and tap for the bigger nipple.

Just watch your angles so the new nipple lines up with your hammer.

It would appear that the nipple thread into the bolster was already over stressed from either a cross thread or over tightening.

Hard to tell from the pictures, however, you should be able to oversize drill, and tap it for an oversized nipple.

I do not have a ready link for one, but they are available.

Also make sure that you can find an appropriate zerk in the threading, for once down the rabbit hole with the grease, you need to continue the process. They too are available

Well, it looks pretty troublesome, but not hopeless. OK, you mentioned a failed attempt with the ball puller... not surprising really, you also mentioned a "dry ball". Did the ball puller fail because the threads in the lead stripped out, because you couldn't get the ball puller to screw in or because you could not pull it out? What do you mean by "dry ball"? Is the ball patched or did you force an oversized ball into the bore without a patch?

Is there any powder behind the ball, or did you forget to charge it before ramming the ball?

Also, I am unfamiliar with that pistol. Is the breech plug removeable? Not suggesting that you do this, but if all else fails, this procedure might cure the problem.

Dale Allen Raby said:

Well, it looks pretty troublesome, but not hopeless. OK, you mentioned a failed attempt with the ball puller... not surprising really, you also mentioned a "dry ball". Did the ball puller fail because the threads in the lead stripped out, because you couldn't get the ball puller to screw in or because you could not pull it out? What do you mean by "dry ball"? Is the ball patched or did you force an oversized ball into the bore without a patch?

Is there any powder behind the ball, or did you forget to charge it before ramming the ball?

Also, I am unfamiliar with that pistol. Is the breech plug removeable? Not suggesting that you do this, but if all else fails, this procedure might cure the problem.

Click to expand...

I couldn’t get the ball puller to screw into the lead, it would only go maybe about an eighth or so deep and then spin freely no matter the force applied.

It’s a patched roundball, it was relatively easy to get down the barrel before I accidentally compressed it. There’s no powder behind it, auto pilot kicked in when I was loading if ya know what I mean.

I imagine the plug could be removed, there’s a visible “seam”.

chorizo said:

It would appear that the nipple thread into the bolster was already over stressed from either a cross thread or over tightening.

Hard to tell from the pictures, however, you should be able to oversize drill, and tap it for an oversized nipple.

I do not have a ready link for one, but they are available.

Also make sure that you can find an appropriate zerk in the threading, for once down the rabbit hole with the grease, you need to continue the process. They too are available

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, the nipple thread was already in bad shape when I got it. I believe the thread is 1/4-28. I’ll take a look and see what I can find.

Make sure you get a plug tap AND a bottoming tap. Plug to get the threads going, bottoming tap to get the threads all the way down so you can fully seat the new nipple and zerk.

Many make the mistake of only using a plug tap and then can't get the nipple fully screwed in and when they tighten it strip what few good thread they have.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/64/3
https://www.guhring.com/BrowseProducts/Products/Oversized-Taps-Cut-Taps

DiMarco_Mercantile said:

I couldn’t get the ball puller to screw into the lead, it would only go maybe about an eighth or so deep and then spin freely no matter the force applied.

It’s a patched roundball, it was relatively easy to get down the barrel before I accidentally compressed it. There’s no powder behind it, auto pilot kicked in when I was loading if ya know what I mean.

I imagine the plug could be removed, there’s a visible “seam”.

Click to expand...

How did you compress the ball?

I still think that the best bet would be to attempt to use the ball puller again... maybe with a new puller that is a bit narrower?

Removing the breech plug from a gun that old would be nothing for the average bear to attempt. You really could ruin the barrel that way.

My suggestion, since there is no powder, is to send the barrel off to a competent gunsmith and request that he remove the stuck ball and drill and tap for a larger nipple. It'll cost you something, but there really are some jobs that should be left to the professional. This may be one of 'em.

As to loading a projectile before charging it... well, there are two kinds of muzzleloader shooters: Those who have never seated a ball without first charging the gun, and those who have not done this YET. Anyone who has been shooting muzzleloaders for any length of time will have done this or perhaps done something equally lame-brained. I once fired a pistol with probably a triple charge of powder in it. Thought my hand was broke.

Dale Allen Raby said:

How did you compress the ball?

I still think that the best bet would be to attempt to use the ball puller again... maybe with a new puller that is a bit narrower?

Removing the breech plug from a gun that old would be nothing for the average bear to attempt. You really could ruin the barrel that way.

My suggestion, since there is no powder, is to send the barrel off to a competent gunsmith and request that he remove the stuck ball and drill and tap for a larger nipple. It'll cost you something, but there really are some jobs that should be left to the professional. This may be one of 'em.

As to loading a projectile before charging it... well, there are two kinds of muzzleloader shooters: Those who have never seated a ball without first charging the gun, and those who have not done this YET. Anyone who has been shooting muzzleloaders for any length of time will have done this or perhaps done something equally lame-brained. I once fired a pistol with probably a triple charge of powder in it. Thought my hand was broke.

Click to expand...

Fair enough. I’ve yet to double or triple charge, but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens!

I believe the compression was due to the puller, I’ve read thats sometimes a result. I’ll take a look online for a narrower puller, see if that could work.

DiMarco_Mercantile said:

Fair enough. I’ve yet to double or triple charge, but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens!

I believe the compression was due to the puller, I’ve read thats sometimes a result. I’ll take a look online for a narrower puller, see if that could work.

Click to expand...

Put some oil in the bore first and let it soak a while. The bore in a gun that old is most likely pitted from rust and pulling the ball might be problematical.

Is it possible that you attempted to remove the PRB w/o first doing a couple of things ?

Like;

Running a lubricant downbore prior to applying the ball puller tip

and/or

Seat the business end of the puller, then tapping the tip enough to get it started into the (softer) lead prior to attempting the pull.

BTW, I've found it easier to clamp the puller's shaft in a vise after it's fully engaged with the ball and pulling the barrel of the puller, than it is to secure the barrel and yanking on the puller's shaft.

We all need lessons like this so that we don't dry ball again....because all of us have been a little "extra" when we were new

I'd honestly just take it to a gunsmith I trust and tell him to take his time, just to get it out of my sight for a while and keep myself from further screwing with it

He can probably EZ Out the nipple piece and get all that manure out of the bore, then hand you a bill for $100

Make sure your ball puller is the type with deep sharp threads. A T-handle like this one can really help, too.