Jag stuck in Barrel

[VTdeerhunter]

Hi all, just wanted to share a frustrating afternoon with those who would appreciate it...hope it might help one of you if you find yourselves in the same spot.

After a recent afternoon of shooting I started to clean my ML as usual. Pulled the lock, hot water down the barrel, scrub with jag and patch, all typical...until the jag got stuck down near the breech. Stuck real good, when I pulled out my rod puller the jag snapped of the rod :cursing:

With most of my ML's I can unscrew the breech plug and just push/pound it out, but this was an older Traditions Shenandoah rifle my dad left me and you can not unscrew the breech plugs without ruining them.

I tried to put in a few grains of BP, but the jag was down fully and I couldn't get anything behind it. Tried anyway, didn't do anything.

Next I tried to use my CO2 blowoff discharge kit. Again it didn't move, probably because the jag was down flush???

BTW...both of these methods have worked for me in the past on "friends" rifles.

3rd attempt....I had to modify a zerk fitting that I had, by turning down the shoulder so it would fit in the counter bore of where the touch hole was. Once that was in and screwed down flush, I slid a 1/4" brass rod all the way down and marked it at the end of the barrel (to see if the jag moved). My regular grease gun did not work as the grease pushed back and out at the nozzle, so I grabbed my high-pressure grease gun (it has a screw down tip on its nozzle to lock around the fitting). It took awhile and a lot of pumping to get anything to happen, but right when I was going to give up and cut the end of the barrel off...the rod moved, a few more pumps and it was moving inches at a time...finally got it out, had a barrel full of grease to clean, but still had a barrel :grin:

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Pictures showed in preview....will figure it out and repost

 

[nhmoose]

Nice buck by the way!!

Cleaning grease out is easier and faster than re-breaching. :applause:

 

[Vaino]

Your patched jag got stuck in the crud ring which is located on the forward end of your powder charge.

I eliminate this problem by using a bronze wire brush...but, of course some who use a wire brush get that stuck too.

At the range when many shots are taken, I only use a wire brush as needed and dump the debris in lieu of swabbing. The crud ring never builds up because of the wire brushing.......Fred

 

[Kansas Jake]

Flehto, I have a couple of Traditions rifles including a 36 Flint Shenandoah. I have to be real careful with both or they will grab a patch or brush. I don't have a good bore light, but suspect there are rough spots on patent breech on these things. None of my other rifles are "grabbers" like these two. I can swab up and down, but if I turn a patch or brush when it is at the breech they both will tend to grab the patch or brush. I ended up forcing powder through the drum in one to shoot out a brush and patch. The grabbing was below the area of any powder ring.

 

[Vaino]

Perhaps there's a burr at the flash channel of your patent brecches....I have 2 patent breeches and haven't had any problems.....Fred

 

[Walks with fire]

I have gotten them stuck before and I just pour some water down the bore to moisten things up a bit and pull it out. I never had a stuck one that this didn't work like a charm.

 

[rushlake1]

Good save..Bet you wont do that again !
Had an issue with a dry ball...pulled the breach plug..AMEN!

 

[wmaser]

Last year, a fellow brought a flintlock plains style, half stock rifle, .50 cal. into my shop with something stuck in the breech end of the barrel. Apparently, a friend of his bought the rifle from a little old lady at a yard sale. The two of them tried "every trick in the book" to remove the object with no success. I,too,tried all of the conventional methods to no avail. The hook breech plug wouldn't budge. I wasn't about to give up, but I had run out of tricks. I finally removed the barrel, laid a piece of 2x4on the floor and began rapping the muzzle of that barrel on the 2x4. After a minute or two, checked the bore with a ramrod. That obstruction had moved to a point, halfway down the barrel. After rapping for another minute, a Maxi bullet of some kind, literally, fell out of the barrel followed by some sludge that had once been a powder charge. There was a hole chewed through the center of the bullet, preventing a ball puller screw from getting a bite. I have never heard of this "inertia" method working so easily.

 

[Keb]

Just proves my theory of never buying guns I can not remove the breech plug on.

 

[Ames]

Can you clear out a crud ring in the field by using a brush one size smaller than the caliber so it wont get stuck?

 

[Grimord]

That has been my solution too! With my .36 Shenandoah, I have taken a .36 jag and filed it down in a drill press to about .33 diameter. With this jag, the patch goes down pretty easy, but grabs on the way out to pull out the fouling. That is the way a jag is supposed to work, but I find that most of the commercial jags are too large in diameter and tend to push the fouling into the breech area instead of pulling it out.

 

[Vaino]

Many won't use wire brushes for fear that they'll get stuck.....I honestly don't understand why this happens. I just buy wire brushes w/ the correct cal. on the label and they always work w/o any complications. My son uses then also w/o any problems.

Don't think that wire brushes one cal. undersize would rid the bbl of the crud ring.

My son while deer hunting uses 2 RRs....one in the gun and one hanging w/ a string from either a nail or broken off branch which has a wire brush attached. Very handy.

One of the complications w/ stuck RRs is that the RR fitting isn't secured properly and detaches from the RR....mine are epoxied and pinned and never come off....Fred

 

[mooman76]

I generally use well used brush that doesn't fit as tight.

 

[Henry2357]

Not to sound like I'm joking but, how do you get them well used.

It sounds like a good idea, that the diameter would be just a bit smaller.

 

[Ames]

One of the complications w/ stuck RRs is that the RR fitting isn't secured properly and detaches from the RR....mine are epoxied and pinned and never come off....Fred

Ugghhh. Always pin the tip. You reminded me of a bad day. I was building a SMR and was checking the ramrod final fit in the drilled hole. The ramrod end was a tight fit and just slightly less than perfect on the rod. I elected to polish the metal on the end of it to reduce the high side where it would hang up. I worked slowly and it slid in further with every fit. I wanted to get it bottomed out to mark and cut the length. So I bottomed it out.
A snug fit. Without ever pinning the tip. :cursing: Pulled out the rod with no tip. :cursing:
Can't get it to grip. Can't get a bit of epoxy on it for fear of gluing the rod and tip permanent if one dot of glue squeezes out on the channel. Not going to do a C section under the lock to retrieve the metal tip. :cursing:
Thought the build was ruined.Took a while for the light bulb moment to kick in.
I took the now naked end of the ramrod over to the sink and ran it under water for 60 seconds. Then I fed it down the hole twisting as I went. You could feel it feed back into the loose tip. Satisfied, I went to lunch. Over that half hour the rod swelled inside the tip and with one slow twist it broke free and came out.
It's pinned now! Lesson learned. Never making that mistake again.

 

[Vaino]

You kept your cool and solved the problem....some would have panicked and can't blame them. That could actually be a very serious problem.....Fred

 

[Ames]

Yep. Dodged a round ball on that one for sure. :haha:

 

[charlie44gs]

I had a stuck brass brush in a Traditions 50 cal. It was rusty when I bought it and the brush stuck on the "ring" in the breech. So tight that the threaded end of the brush broke from the brush. After several failed attempts I purchased a 15/32 brass tube and pinned a threaded plug into one end. Attached it to my range rod and slide it down the barrel and over the brush. Brush came out with the brass tube. Was an easy fix.

 

[mooman76]

Not to sound like I'm joking but, how do you get them well used.

It sounds like a good idea, that the diameter would be just a bit smaller.

I'm cheap and throw nothing away. I have brushes I've had for many years. If the brush is a little too small, I wrap a cleaning patch around it. It makes it tighter without causing the bristles to bind and helps wipe out the bore at the same time. I also have many guns in many different calibers which helps also.