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dryball?

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jdw276

40 Cal.
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Okay, pedersoli 45 cal percussion pistol. Guy at the range, gun quit shooting. Figured dryball.. tried, co2 discharger, ball puller, powder through nipple, bore lite through nipple. Nothing comes out and gun won't fire, no lite through bore and no air coming through when blowing down the muzzle. Tried water as well and did not come out the nipple. Conclusion: dryball. Now used a larger screw ball puller, two yutes on the pistol, two pulling the range rod. Nothing, no movement, nothing.

So my question is, can a ball and patch go all the way into the powder chamber, get expanded in the larger chamber than the bore and be impossible to pull out through the barrel?

Only option I can think of is remove breech. Antbody got some ideas from my description? Six experienced bp shooters were trying to figure it out.
 
Don't think that will work now. I think we poked a hole through the ball.
 
If ya put water in there you need to get it out and clean the gun before it rusts. I'd shoot it out myself.
 
What if you got a bigger self tapping screw than the one on the ball puller & screw that into the hole poked through the ball. Then shoot it out ?
O.
 
If the breech of the barrel is dry, working 4-6 grains (by volume) down thru the flame channel under the nipple will blow the ball out even if it has a hole thru it.

The burning powder will create many hundreds of pounds of pressure so fast that it can't all blow out thru the pierced ball.
 
I have pulled a number of rifle balls with a woodscrew looking thing threaded into my loading rod, and sometimes the ramrod. I always give a cleaning jag and ball puller with any muzzle loader I build. If you plan to shoot much, you need a stainless steel loading rod, then this is a minor inconvenience rather than a serious problem. Most ML supply houses sell them. I usually get them from TOW. If you have a tap and die set, you can make one.
 
Zonie said:
If the breech of the barrel is dry, working 4-6 grains (by volume) down thru the flame channel under the nipple will blow the ball out even if it has a hole thru it.

The burning powder will create many hundreds of pounds of pressure so fast that it can't all blow out thru the pierced ball.

Do this.
 
If the breech of the barrel is dry, working 4-6 grains (by volume) down thru the flame channel under the nipple will blow the ball out even if it has a hole thru it.

Works well for me.

There's a pan primer in my range bag in case someone dry balls their rifle.

Use a nipple pick or thin wire to work powder into the flash channel and patent breech. The ball will come out.
 
Just make sure it is pointed in a safe direction. Even a few grains of powder is enough to blow the ball out with some force....
 
Zonie said:
If the breech of the barrel is dry, working 4-6 grains (by volume) down thru the flame channel under the nipple will blow the ball out even if it has a hole thru it.

If that does not work, I would take it to a professional



William Alexander
 
Are you sure it's still there? I couldn't get a rifle to fire once. I added powder and fired it and it barely popped so I figured nothing. I did it 2 more times before I found out it actually did shot out.
 
There's "tried powder thru the nipple" and there's "tried enough powder under the nipple". :hmm:

If a person fills the tiny little hole at the top of the nipple with powder, there will only be about a tenth of a grain of powder there.
That's not enough even if the ball doesn't have a hole thru it.

That's why I made a point of saying 4-6 grains of powder.
That's at least a .22 longrifle cartridge case full of black powder or more.

I mentioned working the powder down thru the flame channel hole because there isn't enough room for 4 or more grains of black powder in the threaded hole for the nipple.

Knowing there is already a hole thru the ball, if I was doing this I would try to work all of the powder I could thru the flame channel hole with a wire, filling it completely.

It might turn out that I would end up with more than 10 grains in there. That's about equal to a .32 pistol load so whatever the gun is aimed at needs to be stout.

Speaking of the shot being stout, I'm sure I am not alone in trying to get my percussion rifle to fire and hearing only the "pop" of the cap.

After popping 3-4 caps, I've convinced myself I must have dryballed so out comes the nipple, the powder horn and the wire.

Working the powder down into the flame channel and replacing the nipple I've recapped it, pointed the gun downrange and pulled the trigger.
BOOM! :shocked2: :shocked2: :doh:

Yes. Sure enough, I didn't forget to load the powder and I touched off a full load.

That's taught me, Never assume the gun isn't fully loaded when shooting out a dryball. :grin:

By the way, if the shooter puts oil or water or alcohol or any other fluid into the flame channel they have just screwed the pooch as far as getting a small powder charge to shoot the ball out.
The fluid will contaminate the powder and it won't fire. :(
 
in all the barrels with something stuck in it. I would say 90 percent I just shot out. that includes dry balls stuck cleaning rods and broke off dowels. the rest were cleared with air pressure or pumping it out with grease. those were after some one put oil or water in the breach. only ever had to unbreach three barrels. two were old muskets that I was not going to try to shoot out.
 
There's "tried powder thru the nipple" and there's "tried enough powder under the nipple".

This is very true.

Many muzzleloader shooters are reluctant to stuff enough powder into the flash channel.

One shooter had loaded his New Englander with BH 209 powder. The rifle failed to fire.

The shooter made two efforts to stuff powder under the nipple and failed. Then he attempted to pull the very tight ball. He and two others broke the ramrod in two.

My assistance was accepted an i removed the nipple. The flame channel was obstructed with oily moist crud. Cleaned the flame channel with bristled pipe cleaners, stuffed a bunch of 4F into the channel, re-installed the nipple, capped and fired.

The BH 209 did not ignite, it was blown from the bore along with the ball and broken ramrod. i've never had this method fail to blow the dry ball out of a percussion gun.
 
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