pnic pnic
My first getting to know the rifle session for my nice used flinter almost turned into a disaster tonight. After a casual visual inspection I almost thumbed back the hammer to see the pretty sparks fly, while in the basement. Having seen some really bad things walk into the gun shop it seemed prudent to drop the ram rod down the barrel to evict any lurking spiders and such. WELL, after taking a deep breath when the ram rod stopped in it's travel a couple of inches short of the breech it seemed like a good time to REALLY check things out. (susp) Yeppers, it was mailed to me loaded! Not only that but a second charge of powder was tamped down on top of the ball. :-& So the barrel has been pulled from the stock pending pulling the breech plug, since my ball puller keeps stripping out of the lead ball. Moral of this rant is to always, always verify that a muzzle loader is not loaded. Good thing I'd had the rules of gun safety pounded into my skull. Now I'm wondering just how many times the former owner did load the darn thing!! Oh yes, there is powder visible through the vent hole so it doesn't seem to be a dry ball load.
Thank God you didn't pull the trigger! The first thing I would do is alert the seller of this grievous error, then I would either buy or borrow a Co2 discharger with flintlock adaptor. Those should develop enough pressure to expel the two loads already in the barrel. If that doesn't do it, only then would I pull the breech plug. Again, glad you are safe.
PS- the person who sent the package could have gotten into serious legal trouble for shipping the rifle in it's present state.
Otter, what gun is it? Production or custom. Do you have a vent line that can be removed or a drilled vent? Have you tried some spray oil down the barrel and an air hose with a rubber tipped blow gun to blow it out? Give us a little more info so we can try to help.
Otter
When you get a CO2 discharger make sure there is an addapter for a flinter not all of them will have it in the kit and you have buy one separately, Make sure you are out side and have a clear area just like you are shooting a live shot. 2 weeks ago we cleared one on the fireing line and hit the 70 yard target.
Just a word to the wise from the saftey nut
One of these days I gotta get me one of them C/O2 units.
Voy
William, Believe me I have thanked Him!! Trying to contact the seller now that my ire has died down enough for me to be civil.
Deaddawg, It's a Traditions with the short barrel and synthetic stock. Have already dribbled some Kroil down the barrel and onto the breech plug. Am going to try some compressed air if the oil hasn't loosened the ball up enough. Yes there is a vent liner that can hopefully be removed.
Old Salt, Thanks for the heads up about the flintlock adapter. You advice about being outside is very well taken. It will be interesting to have a .50 caliber air rifle, just not inside!!
Pull the vent liner, it will allow more air volume in to push the ball out. If it doesn't come out by air, go to the auto parts and pick up a metric grease zirc. Thread it in where the vent liner was and pump it out with a grease gun. A little messy, but the hydraulic pressure will push out the most stubborn ball as long as the ball doesn't have a hole in it from trying to pull it.
UPDATE
Persistence, Kroil and soapy water have finally paid off!! Got the ball to move just a smidgen but the ball puller would strip out. Figured that the second powder charge might be holding up the works so hot soapy water was dribbled in the barrel and many attempts later the foul ball was out of the bore!! Thanks for all the suggestions and safety tips. Now to go shoot it. Huh, oh yes right after helping the Mrs. clean the house, as I had promised. hdslp
Hey, that's great to hear! How does the bore look? Let us know how she shoots.
So far as the areas I am able to focus on the bore looks very good. There is a small area of what i believe is roughness that can be felt with the cleaning patches. Nearly to the end of the bore and probably the result of being stored with a load in it, uh make that two loads. Hope to go shooting this coming week. Thanks for the support and good thoughts.
I'm just paying it forward, this forum has been more helpful than I had ever hoped for and got me shooting muzzleloaders again after a nearly 15 year break. For smoothing out the bore, you can use several methods such as steel wool, scrub bright pads, fire lapping or special purpose bore cleaning/polishing pastes. If you don't have one of those drop in bore lights you can pull the nipple and shine a bright light into the hole, it will often illuminate the bore enough to actually see where the roughness is. Of course you can go to a gunsmith and pay (a lot) to have the bore inspected with a bore scope, but this is muzzleloading on the cheap!
I have afriend who actually went to Home depot the other day and bought a bore scope for a bout 75 dollars, I don't know if it is oing enough to go all the way down a barrel but it is pretty cool.
Quote from: Uncle Rooster on October 17, 2010
I have afriend who actually went to Home depot the other day and bought a bore scope for a bout 75 dollars, I don't know if it is oing enough to go all the way down a barrel but it is pretty cool.
Your local Home Depot sells bore scopes?
One real cheap way to check out the bore, is to wrap a smaller ball in tin foil. Drop it down the bore and shine a flash light down on it. I use a .375 pistol ball wrapped in tin foil. I can see everything, but the patient breech as the ball covers it up. When you are finished looking, just tip up the barrel and the ball rolls right out. Cheap enough.
Draw a fine bead on em Son! Bobby
Thanks Spitpatch, I'll give that a try.
Update,
Removed the vent liner and used a lot more hot soapy water with a brush and patched to really, really clean the bore. Not a pretty sight when I looked at it. The last 2- 2 1/2 inches of the breech end is heavily corroded and rough. It might clean up with enough steel wool and oil, or at least smooth out a bit. Thought about making some lapping patches but the muzzle end is not bad at all. Still might pull the breech plug to work out the major part of the pitting. HEY, I seem to recall from somewhere that there were chambered muzzle loaders. Wonder if that would work on a flint lock?? That way I could just lap the good parts of the bore. Yeah I'm dreamin' now.
Oh, the seller from Gunbroker has yet to reply to any e-mails. Go figure. Have discarded the shipping packaging so it'll be tough to prove to the Postal Investigative Service that the guy even shipped the rifle.
live and learn
spitpatch, great idea I will be using it and telling my friends.
As a P.S. to this whole thread (and mostly for future reference, since the original series of posts is a year-and-a-half old and any action that might have been taken is over and done with) -- IMHO the last thing someone like Otter wants to do is notify the Post Office that a gun of any kind was shipped loaded.
First off, if the gun is bought through GunBroker it's much more effective to contact the seller directly and give him a heads-up regarding his mistake. If there is no reply or the reply received is snotty, GunBroker's feedback feature allows the buyer a much more effective means of damaging the seller's credibility. I would counsel a cool and courteous tone in contacting the seller, too, because especially with muzzleloaders mistakes can happen. I've received more than just a couple of complete guns and barrels with loads still snugged down against the breechplug. There are a lot of dealers in used guns for whom muzzleloaders are more a curiosity than a major portion of their business, and the degree to which such a person might be forgiven not knowing how to check to see if a barrel is charged, IMHO, depends on the degree to which the recipient was born knowing everything and the last time he walked on water. In other words -- a huge mistake was made but in the absence of clear malicious intent I'd advise cutting the seller some slack, because we each and every one of us tend to be less than perfect ourselves and might need some slack cut in turn, one of these days.
Secondly, while to some folks mistakes and misdeeds MUST be reported and punished, bringing the Post Office into the matter will do far more harm than good for all of us as a whole. To begin with, what is expected to be accomplished by such action? That the shipper of the loaded gun will be fined? Possibly jailed? Have a federal finger wagged vigorously in his direction, accompanied by a SERIOUS scolding? And if any of the above, what precisely will that accomplish, particularly when combined with the fact that the Post Office and UPS and other shippers already allow their employees to take an entirely too disapproving view of the shipping of firearms? Do you WANT a mandatory HazMat fee attached to the shipping of every gun, same as for primers and gunpowder, due to complaints about a relative few being shipped in an obviously dangerous condition?
Matters of this sort ought to be kept "in the family" so to speak. The bureaucratic answer to things like loaded guns being accidentally shipped is to impose even more restrictions or outright bans than we're already dealing with, and for the satisfaction of being able to say "That'll teach you to ship me a loaded gun, nah nah nah nah!" that is, once more IMHO, a mighty poor trade-off.
You were lucky that it didn't go off on ya.. I check to make sure mine isn't loaded unless i'm shooting.My uncle's in Kentucky taught me about guns and safety!!
a firearm is loaded!!!ALWAYS LOADED!!! treat it as loaded and once you yourself have established it is not loaded always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. old boyscout teaching
Quote from: dusty hill on April 19, 2012
a firearm is loaded!!!ALWAYS LOADED!!! treat it as loaded and once you yourself have established it is not loaded always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. old boyscout teaching
What are the top 2 rules to safe gun handleing....
1. Always treat a gun as loaded
2. when in doubt refer to rule 1
whipping