Unfowling a barrel

[USMC2828]

Hey y’all,

This is the first post of what I’m sure will be many. The other day I picked up a very cheap Dixie gun works kit gun from 60-70’s. It’s a single barrel smooth bore that was put together by someone who had no idea what they were doing. However, the price was more than right and I brought it home. However, the barrel is clogged. It isn’t loaded. I have run the original metal ram rod down it and it ends flush with the barrel. I ran a ball puller down it and couldn’t catch anything. I even put it in my gun vice and fired off a few caps and nothing. Even when I put my air compressor hose down the barrel I don’t get any air coming through the nipple.

So, any advice on how to proceed? I was thinking some sort of solvent in the barrel like acetone, but I figured that I would consult the experts before I start doing that. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Kansas Jake]

Can you remove the nipple? If so can you see any obstruction?

 

[BoomStick]

Remove the nipple and try your air compressor through the drum. Maybe a bit of old cleaning patch, or a gob of bore butter...see if you can push it out.

 

[sheriff john]

I'd lay the ramrod atop the barrel to determine the ramrod's long enough to actually reach the fact of the breech plug. Or, used a different, longer ramrod and do the same thing because some ramrods (even original factory ones) are not long enough. If it doesn't go all the way, suspect barrel obstruction.

Pull the nipple. Examine nipple. Gotta see light through it. Look down the hole below the nipple. Fouling, unburnt powder, old oil/grease, etc. can block the channel. Then, I'd try a pipe cleaner first to see if it will snake into the barrel. If so, be thankful. At that point, any good black powder solvent will hopefully dissolve the problem. Continue cleaning the channel (I like pipe cleaners).

Yours is a common problem with muzzle loaders stored butt-down for long periods of time. Oil, solvent, unburned powder, lint, etc. settles in the breech and can get really hard (shellac hard). Good luck. Don't panic. Don't get overly creative (that's the point I screw things up).

 

[oldwood]

Sounds like might be an abandoned shotgun wad stuck down in there. Would take a long dowel rod , or ramrod , and insert into muzzle and mark the end of the barrel w/a pencil. Lay the dowel on the outside of the barrel , and see how far it reaches down the length of the barrel on the exterior , at the breech. That should be a clue as to if it's plugged. Another gun came to me from a modern gun store rack. The r/r would only go half way down the bore and stop. One clue was when I inserted the r/r into the bore as far as it would go , there was ash on the tip end. Evidently , it's previous owner , had fired salute shots with it until it would not fire any more. That one was easy....Plugged the breech , and poured water into the muzzle and allowed the gun to sit muzzle up , over night. The next morning , the powder ash was black goo , which easily cleaned out with a r/r and some patches and WD-40..
Forgot one thing......There is a r/r end that looks like a wine cork pulling end. That's the right tool to remove most anything that has got stuck down the hole. Any shotgun shooter , or musket shooter has one of those nasty r/r cork screws for his r/r.

 

[Grimord]

Just for information, I have found that the small nozzle brushes used to clean paint guns work well for cleaning the nipple channel. I get mine from Harbor Freight, and they come on a ring with different sizes of brushes (thing small bottle brushes). Usually the smallest ones will work to clean out the nipple channel. They aren't expensive, about $3.00.

 

[USMC2828]

Update.

So after running patch pullers, bullet pullers, soaking in acetone, WD-40, and hitting it with the air compressor, I finally got the nipple off. I tried to bust out whatever was lodged in the barrel with a pick from the bolster but couldn’t dislodge it. So I added roughly 15 grains of FFF powder, put the nipple back on, clamped the gun into my vice and fired it using a string. I put paper at the muzzle so that I could find evidence of what came out.

It certainly wasn’t a bullet, because my paper had about 15 little puncture holes and a lot of black gunk on it. However, my barrel is now free of obstructions.

I certainly don’t recommend this method but it worked.

 

[Kansas Jake]

A wasp or bug of some kind may have made a nest in there.

 

[hawkeye2]

When I saw the title to this thread I thought you might have a chicken stuck in your barrel.

Glad to hear you got it cleared.

 

[USMC2828]

When I saw the title to this thread I thought you might have a chicken stuck in your barrel.

Glad to hear you got it cleared.

Yes, autocorrect let me down. I noticed the misspelling as soon as I posted it but I couldn’t edit the title of the thread. Lesson learned to always proof read.

 

[BoomStick]

Good to hear you cleared the obstruction. I thought an air compressor through the drum woulda pushed it out but I guess it needed more oomph.