• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Be careful with unknown hardware.

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bob K

36 Cl.
Joined
Oct 13, 2022
Messages
82
Reaction score
81
Location
South Carolina
New member to this forum and really getting great information and unvarnished opinions !

I wanted to pass the following on since it caught me by surprise.

Recently I purchased a used 50 cal barrel from an unknown source online. It arrived and I started to fit it to my stalk and decided to give it a good cleaning. Pouring boiled water down the barrel revealed a blockage since no water was coming out the nipple. Took my ball puller and pulled out a maxi ball and a big clump of powder (probably 70 grains). Looks to have been in the barrel for years. Moral of the story, be careful out there!
 
The presence of a long-forgotten load in a muzzleloading firearm is not that uncommon. It is a common admonition to check an unknown muzzleloader for the presence of some bore obstruction such as a previous load, wasp nests, old hiding place for something that can be rolled up and stuck in the barrel.

@Bob K, thanks for the reminder.
 
New member to this forum and really getting great information and unvarnished opinions !

I wanted to pass the following on since it caught me by surprise.

Recently I purchased a used 50 cal barrel from an unknown source online. It arrived and I started to fit it to my stalk and decided to give it a good cleaning. Pouring boiled water down the barrel revealed a blockage since no water was coming out the nipple. Took my ball puller and pulled out a maxi ball and a big clump of powder (probably 70 grains). Looks to have been in the barrel for years. Moral of the story, be careful out there!
Not uncommon. Thanks for sharing.
Walk
 
My buddy purchased several at a gun shop and they were loaded on the rack.
Yup … bought a flintlock w/ not 1, not 2, but 3 charges down the barrel! The agate flint was still in the lock. I presume the loads were Pyrodex that wouldn’t ignite …
so they loaded it AGAIN :doh: !
 
The obstruction doesn't have to be a load. I had T/C Renegade that was obstructed with a piece of cleaning patch. The used barrel came from a reputable online seller. The height of the ramrod let me know it wasn’t loaded, however it gave me no clue to a rag being in the patent breech plug. I loaded the rifle and took it to the woods with me. Decided to shoot the rifle on the way back to the house, but it didn't go off. Put on a new cap, but that didn't help either, pulled the nipple and trickled in some powder, reinstalled the nipple and a cap yet it still didn't fire. Once home, I pulled the ball and dumped the powder. Tried to blow air through the barrel, but no luck. I used the ball puller to remove a section of cleaning cloth left behind from the previous owner.
 
I've bought two that were loaded, one at a local gun show the other off gunbroker. And a while back I bought I think it was 15 or 17 horns as a lot off of gunbroker. I've got a baby powder can half full from the 3f powder that was in one of them.
 
I bought an old Springfield earlier this year. The seller reported the bore was "so full of crud we could only get a rod in about eight inches." It turned out the bore was stuffed with rags of some sort, some kind of frilly stuff like your grandma's table doily, or a city girl's underwear. Anyway, I got it all out of there with a strong rod and a gunworm, but it was a chore. I did find the gun was not loaded. Maybe the rags were put in there to keep somebody's kids from loading it. No telling.

Notchy Bob
 
I recently bought a repro 1803 that came with a free .530 rb, 70 grains of ffg and they were even kind enough to include a lubed linen patch.

ochit.JPG
 
Back
Top