Wondering what i need for cleaning and shooting a .50 caliber Renegade Hunter?

[William]

Break Free CLP will be good for a rust preventative and lubricant for the metal to metal parts inside the lock.  It shouldn't be used as lube for your shooting patches though.

[pathfinder]

WOW......13 pages! I didn't think cleaning a .50 cal was that difficult! Guess I'll stick to my.32's!   

[SierraMan]

    Amen, Pathfinder.

[isaacdavis1214]

Lol it isn't,you can thank me for asking various questions (and some repeats.),But i want to make sure i have the best to clean my muzzleloader and do it properly.If everything pans out i shpuld be able to shoot my gun on one of my days off this week.

[beowulf]

WOW......13 pages! I didn't think cleaning a .50 cal was that difficult! Guess I'll stick to my.32's!   

who`da thunk it ?  thats the nice thing about owning a bess , the bore is so big you just climb on in and scrub her down with a brush and a bucket of water !

[isaacdavis1214]

Hey everyone just thought i'd let you know the stuff i ordered from thegunworks.com arrived earlier today.100 182 grain .495 lead balls from Buffalo Bullet Company,100 0.010 pre lubed Ox-Yoke patches pre lubed with Wonder Lube 1,000 Plus,a snap-on nozzle for my Pyrodex Powder can and Triple 7 cans,and a patch puller along with the wedge puller/nipple wrench and other goodies Renegade was nice enough to send me also arrived conveniently today.

All i need is a cheap can of Break Free CLP to clean the gun,so i will FINALLY get to shoot this gun next week!A couple of impressions though,the snap on nozzle stays on the can VERY well,which is great.But it required a little effort on my part to remove said nozzle from my powder can (i was trying it out) and i spilt a little of my powder when i finally got it off lol.And in my opinion the .50 .495 caliber ball is smaller than i thought,but HEAVY for it's size,and the fact it flattens out to the size of a quarter when hunting is insane.That is all for now.

EDIT: the 100 shooting patches pre-lubed with wonder lube 1,000 plus smells like spearmint or other minty smell in my opinion lol.

[isaacdavis1214]

Hey guys,i'm wondering how am i supossed to get a .495 (un-patched) round ball out of the bore of my rifle?I read online where people had their .490 un patched round balls and it would role in and out of the bore,well i dropped mine in (just for the hell of it).....and let's just say it's all the way down the barell and will NOT come out!I've pointed the gun down and gave the butt part of the stock a couple of whacks...and nothing!I'm going to be shooting it this Wednesday so i need to know how to get this ball out of there,the balls i have are 182 grain .495 Buffalo Bullet Company Round balls,and i don't have a ball puller  

[Watauga]

 Do you know someone close by with a Co2 Ball Dis charger ?
OR a Mechanic friend with a Compressor and a Rubber tip Blow Gun take out the Nipple and see if you can dislodge it that way.
Point it in a safe place before you try it
Make sure to tell them in advance about the NO Powder thing so they don't run when they see you bring it in!

[William]

I will assumne that there is no powder in the bore, correct?  IF you are sure that there is no powder in the bore then snap a cap or two while the barrel is pointed downrange and see if that dislodges the ball.  You must do this at the range or somewhere that it is safe because the RB can still be deadly, even going slow.  If this doesn't get them out then remove the nipple and dribble a few grains of powder into the hole, gently knock the side of the lock do settle the powder or use a paper clip to get the powder into the chamber, then replace the nipple.  Again, this should be done at the range because the RB can still be deadly, so don't cap until you are pointed downrange and then snap one off.  This should do it, but if not then you're going to have to borrow a ball puller or a CO2 discharger.  

[flintboomer]

I will assumne that there is no powder in the bore, correct?  IF you are sure that there is no powder in the bore then snap a cap or two while the barrel is pointed downrange and see if that dislodges the ball.  You must do this at the range or somewhere that it is safe because the RB can still be deadly, even going slow.  If this doesn't get them out then remove the nipple and dribble a few grains of powder into the hole, gently knock the side of the lock do settle the powder or use a paper clip to get the powder into the chamber, then replace the nipple.  Again, this should be done at the range because the RB can still be deadly, so don't cap until you are pointed downrange and then snap one off.  This should do it, but if not then you're going to have to borrow a ball puller or a CO2 discharger.  

Like William said, DON'T just point it at the ground in front of your feet. Do point it downrange about 10 feet if you try just a cap,or 10 yds if you use CO2 or powder to fire it out.
and before you load and shoot, run a cleaning patch down the bore. Use alcohol or spit patch if you had to use powder to shoot the ball out or a dry patch will do if you used a CO2 blower.

One thing to try first tho', try putting several layers or cardboard or some old jeans or something like that on the floor so you don't damage the floor and bump the muzzle on that several times. It should be enough to dislodge the ball.

[isaacdavis1214]

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone,i am 100% sure there is NO powder charge in the barell,as i have fired 3-4 caps before this at a later date just dicking around.I'm going to try and bump the muzzle but i have a feeling that won't work,i hope the cap or powder method works....if not i know of no one with a CO2 discharge kit or anything like that.So i guess it's off to a gunsmith,this is the last time i try to see if an unpatches RB will roll in and out of a barell without getting stuck lol.

[isaacdavis1214]

Well i am glad to say the stacking blue jeans and whacking the muzzle in a downward motion on said stack of blue jeans worked lol,i did try before this to get in unstuck though,just didn't think to stack something soft and give it a couple of whacks to see if that would dislodge the ball.When it was stuck i even tried to get it out with a patch puller,i didn't hurt the patch puller obviously but figured lead being a soft metal that it might work since the patch puller has two steel wires jutting out the front,so now this lead ball is deformed lol.

And i can guarantee you it will be the first ball i shoot ever out of this muzzleloader just for being a pain lol.Thanks everyone for the helpful tips,at first i felt dumb since the blue jean method worked,but i am just glad it did and i didn't have to try more drastic measures.It had me worried there for a second,now i can shoot this thing when planned!Once again thanks everyone!

[William]

Glad you are back on track!

[Red Badger]

Hmmmm...  Sounds like you might have learned a valuable lesson...   I had to pull one ball after the powder charge got wet... I was at the store buying the CO2 discharger the next trip into town.... 


repeat after me:

1. powder

2. Patch

3. Ball

4. Never put anything down the barrel of my rifle gun until I am ready to shoot it!

repeat 1-4 for about 1 million times .... 

[flintboomer]

Glad it worked. I think I learned that one the hard way too.

Its amazing what you can learn (and sometimes forget) in 40 plus years of doing this. Good luck with the shooting, and believe it or not that ball will shoot just as good to about 25yds as the best ones you have.