Dryballed a .69

[Moloch]

Today I dryballed my Springfield rifled Musket .69 today with a VERY tight fitting ball / patch combination. :cursing: Lesson learned: Never talk to somewone while loading a rifle!
I cannot pull it out, I drilled through the ball but ripped its rifling off I drilled into it. So now I have a very tight .69 ball with a clean hole in it sitting in my rifle. My plan is to get a few grains of swiss FFF powder under the nipple, but I dont know if its enough to move the ball because its sitting in the end of the barrel without any powder space.
I hope I get the ball moving fowards with a few grains to get space to pour enough powder down the nipple to get the ball completely out. (After ramming it back to the powder charge.)

I hope I wont blow my gun or myself up.

 

[rabjr]

Get one of those CO2 dischargers, should pop it right out of there.

 

[Darkgael]

Hmmm. I'm sure that you'll get some good advice. This is what occurs to me, though it may sound goofy and desperate. If you have a good ball puller - with an "almost" bore-sized disk to keep it centered - and you already have the ball drilled. Put some epoxy on the screw, carefully lower it and screw it back into the ball. Let it set and then try pulling.
Of course, the idea of putting epoxy down a barrel may be something that you'd rather not think about. With care, though, it may well work.
Or - CO2?
Another idea, in case shooting it forward and out doesn't work. Once, I had a jag/ramrod stuck so tight that even a ramrod puller didn't help.
I poured some Ballistol (any fine oil?) into the bore and let it sit. I put the gun in a padded vise and THEN the ramrod puller worked.

Pete

 

[J.D.]

My plan is to get a few grains of swiss FFF powder under the nipple, but I dont know if its enough to move the ball because its sitting in the end of the barrel without any powder space.
I hope I get the ball moving fowards with a few grains to get space to pour enough powder down the nipple to get the ball completely out. (After ramming it back to the powder charge.)

I hope I wont blow my gun or myself up.

The way your post is worded it sounds as if you plan to dribble powder through the nipple. Remove the nipple and pack as much powder as you can get behind the ball. Replace the nipple and fire.

Each attempt will move the ball a little bit, so
this procedure will probably have to be repeated several times before you get enough powder behind the ball to blow it out.

The only damage has been to your pride since such a small amount of powder won't generate enough pressure to damage the gun. :v
J.D.

 

[Stubert]

You got it easy, I dryballed my 62 cal. flinter last year while I was talking . I had to get enough powder thru the touch hole. Mine does not have a removable liner. Had to get it into a 5/64 hole. You got a big 1/4 hole to fill.

 

[jbullard1]

I used a 6mm grease fitting in the nipple hole, hooked up my grease gun and pumped a ball out that had been loaded for fifteen years. I first soaked the bore and scrubbed it. After it moved about 4 inches the ball puller finished the job and this bore was RUSTY. Grease fittings come in several thread sizes, might work if nothing else does :thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

If you take your time working as much loose powder as you can down behind the ball it should blow the ball out. You should be able to get over 5 grains of powder down there.
Be sure to point the gun in a safe direction when you fire it. The ball may just come out with more energy than you plan on and could damage things.

I doubt that a CO2 device will work if you have bored a hole thru the ball.

zonie

 

[Parzifal]

Hi zonie sir!
Could he maintain the seal with a looser "slightly" ball atop the drilled one??
to push that load through ??????

You know to maintain the seal....


Rob

 

[Zonie]

bessbattlesystem: If you are suggesting putting a small ball down into the hole thru the stuck ball to seal it, I doubt that one could swage the stuck ball down to capture the small ball without swaging it outward into the bore thereby making the existing tight ball fit tighter.
If you suggesting putting another bore fitting ball down on top of the stuck ball it IMO wouldn't actually seal the stuck ball. It would just be another object that would blow out of the barrel from the gas that passes thru the hole in the stuck ball.

Actually, if actually firing the ball out of the gun with a trickled powder charge isn't desired, the grease gun method will work but it is a pain to clean up when the ball is finally out of the bore.

 

[Moloch]

Thanks for your great help!

Of course I tried the ball puller, but I pulled so hard that after the third attempt I drilled through the ball ripping the rifling I cut into it apart. So thats a no go right now.

You got it easy, I dryballed my 62 cal. flinter last year while I was talking . I had to get enough powder thru the touch hole. Mine does not have a removable liner. Had to get it into a 5/64 hole. You got a big 1/4 hole to fill.

Unfortunately the rifle (Armi sports) has a welded on ''nipple holder'' (without removeable screw)'' so I have to drip powder down a .15'' hole. I am afraid that the nipple gets blown out and the charge is too weak.

To make it more effective I'll use FFFG powder to get the ball going until I can set bigger charges of FFG to blow the ball out. The ball is sitting very tightly so I think it will be a hard task tomorrow and I doubt that a charge of 5 grain swiss FFG powder gets the fat ball going.

A friend of mine once used his CO2 thingie, but he said after two attempts the Co2 capsule was empty and no store he knew carried C02 capsules with a flange. (not the C02 capsule you use for airguns!)

Wish me luck! :shocked2:

 

[Zonie]

If there is a hole that connects the threaded nipple hole with the bore, use a paper clip or something similar to work the loose powder down thru it into the bore.
Leave only enough powder in the threaded nipple hole to cover the bottom of it so that it permits screwing the nipple back in place like it should be when it's properly installed.

I think if you take your time and shove the powder down thru the hole until no more will fit, you will be surprised at how much powder you can actually get in there.
I also think you will be surprised at how rapidly the stuck ball comes out on your first attempt to discharge it.
zonie

 

[Moloch]

Thanks Zonie, that sounds pretty good.
Tomorrow I'll post how it worked out. :thumbsup:

 

[Many Klatch]

Moloch, I've had that problem before. I now carry graduated sizes of ball pulling screws in my shooting pouch. I start with the smallest one and if that works, great. If it strips out and a lot of the really small one will, I pull the rod and put on the next larger sized screw. That will enter the stripped out hole and it usually does the job because the threads are bigger. If that doesn't work the final largest screw tip should do the trick.

You can find all sizes of ball pullers at gun shows and rendezvous. Buy all the sizes that you can find so that you will have a graduated set from now on. Maybe some of your shooting buddies have larger sized ball pulling screws in their bag that will help you pull the ball.

Many Klatch

 

[Tumblernotch]

I would just take the barrel out of the stock, put it in a padded vise and unscrew the breechplug. Using a rod with an end larger than the hole you drilled in the ball, tap the ball toward the breech. If it is still too tight, enlarge the hole in the ball and try again. When hit, the ball should collapse on itself enough to release from the rifling. And pouring water around it won't hurt either. That will loosen any fouling that's present. And remember to drive the ball towards the breech. You may tap it towards the muzzle at first to loosen it up a little. This worked very well with a stuck Minie.

 

[Moloch]

Well, that was easier than I thought! I did it exactly the same way as described yesterday. It worked after the third attempt, with the first powder charge the ball barely moved but the gap was big enough to drop a few gains behind it. Than the ball moved 5'' or so, packed 50 grains of powder behind it through the nipple and seated the ball. And bang, the roundball got out!
I completely underestimated the power of one grain powder which got the ball moving.

I also discovered that my patches are still too thin, the patch went downrange burning and smoking - or maybe the patch lube dried overnight.

However, thanks for your kind advice and help. :applause: I hope I can return the help someday.

BTW, I really like the idea from Many Klutch having several different sized ball pulling screws.Sounds like a neat idea.

 

[bart_anastasi]

Ok now I am getting dizzy.

I have had this problem every day of my shooting life or so it seems.

The object here is not to fire out the bullet 100 yard or even 50.

If it took 10 lbs of pressure from your hand to push the bullet down the bore you need 10 or at most 20 pounds of pressur to push it out.

Do not try to push a full load through the nipple. 5 grains of 2f is more than enough to do the job.

The last time I did this last week on my flinter I put two loads of 4f from my pan primmer pulled the trigger and yahoo.

If you have drilled thru the bullet and there is no seal there will be no problem.

Seat the ball dribble 5 to 10 grains of powder and do not worry about seating gaps or air space this is 5 grains of powder we are talking about.

Put a cardboard in front of the muzzle 5 yards is enough so you can be sure the ball hit it andis clear.

 

[guncobbler]

Grease guns are great for dry balls. I used it to pump water instead of grease and the cleanup was slick. Water is cheap too! Just who was Zerc and when did he invent that fitting Maybe he was Zeus's less powerful brother? GC