Stuck rammer thimble

[sherpadoug]

I have a Brown Bess from a Riffle Shoppe kit. The rammer sticks in the entry thimble (the long one nearest the trigger) so I want to remove it and see if there is mold flash or something stuck in it.
The other thimbles come off easily by removing the pin and giving a whack with a light mallet. This thimble seems to only have one pin and I can move it with the mallet about 1/16" fore and aft, and up and down, but it won't come out.
By the pictures in the Track catalog this thimble should be like the others except for the long tang. Are Riffle Shoppe Bess thimbles built differently from Track's Bess thimbles? Might there be a screw underneath the barrel?
I could just get a long rammer drill and try to clear it out that way, but I would rather get it out where I can look at it.

 

[jmckenney]

:m2c:You don't want to try drilling out the thimble while it's mounted on the stock, if the drill binds it will more than likely tear out wood and really leave you with a mess to fix. Figure out how it's mounted even if you have to dissamble the barrel from the stock. The thimble is either attached with another pin your not seeing or a screw from the barrel channel, worst case-somebody glued it into place with too much adhesive.
My speculation would be that the thimble is mounted at a slight angle to the ramrod entry hole and needs to be tilted at the tail end.
What you might try doing is take a small soft wood dowel and coat it with some lampblack/prussian blue and run it into the hole and see how/where any rubbing is taking place.

 

[Herb]

I routinely drill into the stock with the rod pipes and entry pipe in place. Just go slow.

 

It's time to remove the barrel pins and lift out the tube. You need to see what you are doing and what you are up against.

I have a sneeky feeling that your entry thimble has an excessivly long flange that is protruding into the barrel channel and binding in some way. Do not attempt to force anything until you have complete visual confirmation that nothing is crimped by the barel and the pins are all clear.

:thumbsup:

 

[Birddog6]

Several ways of doing this, here are some thoughts:

1. Remove the pipe & see if it has a burr in it or whatever. If you are goig to drill it out, use drills that goes up a few thousands at a time as if not the bit will grab & rip the pipe right out of the vice.

2. Rather than using a drill bit, take a rattail file of 3/8" or appropriate dia. & chuck it in the drill, run it in Reverse & ream out the pipe. This is allot less risky than a drill bit. Also you can take a carbide reamer and open up the inside of the hole where it goes into the twood of the forestock. Usually that is where they bind as the entrypipe is not sitting in allignment & the rear of it is high. Do the part you cannot see is usually the problem.

3: I have done this on LOTS of them. Take a 40" piece of allthread of approtriate diameter, slice the end of it straight down the middle about 3". Not take a piece or coarse emery cloth & put the edge of the cloth in it & wind it around it. (we are going to hone out the hole) Now I do this with all the pipes out but the end one, (entrypipe) I put the entrypipe back in & now run this down "hone" into the pipe & hone it back & forth. I have the stock in the vide, a leather glove on my hand holeing the rod down into the RR groove, and a varible speed drill running the honing rod. Now it has to be snug but not overly tight & just keep honing, take it out, try the RR, back in hone some more. Do it SLOW & listen to the drill & you can feel & hear it if it starts to bind & if it does, run the drill while pulling the hone out, take off maybe 1/4" of paper, rehone. Do Not reverse it as if you do it may bind & rip the pipe out. You wind the emery clockwise & run the drill the same way. Sometimes you have to chamge the emery a few times but this I feel more comfortable than drilling with with a drill with the pipe in the stock. Have see disaster from that & don't even like the thought.....

This is generally a easy problem to fix, however some care muct be taken in doing so.

Good Luck !

:results:

 

[rich pierce]

Don't throw away the baby with the bathwater. I'd be very reluctant to run a drill through the pipes on a finished gun- it will be very difficult to preserve the finish of the ramrod channel. Like said above, get the barrel out and see what's up from the barrel channel side. If the tab of the pipe extends to the barrel channel, you have a good chance at getting it out and working with it outside the gun. If not, I'd tape the ramrod channel in front of the entry pipe to protect it and use a rat-tailed file, dowels of various diameters with emery cloth glued to only the "top half" of the dowel, etc. and not mess up the wood. If you force the pipe out, there's a good chance it could tear out a splinter and you'll be unhappy about that.

 

[sherpadoug]

The emery paper on a stick techniques seem very safe and easy to try. If I do anything with a drill it will probably be with a tapwrench or electric screwdriver to turn it so it won't get out of hand. I can get the wooden ramrod in place, just it gets scratched up.

I will probably use a steel rod about 5/16" dia for the 3/8" ramrod hole. I will split it and wind in some emery paper to build up the diameter till it starts working. It may take some time but the chance of catastrophe is small. The worst would be getting the emery paper stuck in the hole, and I am getting good a worming out lost patches.

Thanks to all for their help :hatsoff: