OK- IT'S official... I'm an IDIOT!!

[PatMarlin]

I dusted off my TC Hawken 50 Cal percussion rifle, and some 365gn Mini's I casted up from a friends Lyman mold.

Lubed the boolits up with wonder pine, and dropped in 60gr of powder, after checking the barrel, and firing a few caps.

I fired it off at 35 and it hit dead center 4" high.

Excitedly, I went to load up again. I was concetrating on this lube jig that holds 5 boolits, and has a screw lube system on it, and I was jazzed because I had thought I lost it, and found it today after 7 years!

Well I was so happy, I rammed another boolit down, and realized... uh- no powder.. :roll:

Should I really be allowed to own firearms? :shock:

Anyway, now what in the heck do I do? I have a boolit puller, that has about a 1/2" screw on it. I lubed the barrel, and screwed it into the boolit as best I could, but would not grab without pulling loose.

This is a tight fitting Lyman mini. I was thinking maybe make up another longer screw welded to a steel rod, so I could put that screw all the way through the boolit, to get a better grip.

Any ideas?.. :(

[kenjuudo]

I think everyone has done it, and most pullers with a brass thread are junk. You could try to trickle/push some powder through the cleanout hole and fire it out, just make sure the round is seated all the way down after the powder is in.

jim

[Mk42gunner]

Pat, take the nipple out and dribble, (technical term), in a few grains of powder. You might have to do this a couple of times. This has always worked better for me than the ball pullers.

Robert

[Maven]

Pat, I've done that too, but I haven't had the dubious pleasure of using the ball puller. (Unless you can center it in the bore and projectile, you risk damaging the bbl. itself.) There are two remedies, both work, but one costs $$. First, remove the nipple and add perhaps 10gr. of BP via that route. Clean the excess powder from the threads, re-install the nipple, point the bbl. safely downrange, etc. If the Maxi-ball moves forward, but doesn't exit the bbl., be sure to reseat it first and repeat the procedure using a bit more BP. Second, T/C sells a CO2 device that fits over the nipple and uses gas pressure to blow the projectile out of the bbl. If you happen to own a compressor, you can do the same thing, but you'll need some kind of fitting for the nipple. Hope this works for you! And yes, I suspect I know exactly how you feel after having done such a thing.

[Mel-4857]

Another thing to try ;find a grease nipple that fits in place of your normal one and pump it full of grease til it comes out. Grease nipples come with standard and metric threads. I've seen several barrels ruined by bullet pullers . Mel

[PatMarlin]

Thanks for ALL the tips fellas..

I sprinkled about 20gr of powder in the nipple hole, sat the boolit down, and let her rip.

Done deal.. [smilie=w:

[waksupi]

Pat, there are only two kinds of ML shooters in this world. Those who have, and those who are gonna.

As far as those CO2 dischargers, you can go to a bike shop, and get the same thing for about ten bucks less than T/C. Pick up a basketball inflation needle at the same time, and you are also covered for flinters.

Sixty DRAMS? Any idea how much powder that is?!!!!!

[PatMarlin]

I shoot 60 Drams all the time- don't you Waksupi?

Sorry- I meant grains.

I thought they called them gaduations drams on my measure, but no- it's grns!

[Buckshot]

..........Pat, I have loaded many dry Minie's. Unless the barrel is pretty dang clean it's a bearcat to pull a ball. A Minie' isn't so bad as they're a bit undersize to begin with. I have a ball puller that is a round disc a bit smaller then the bore, with a coarse threaded screw in the center. The disc keeps the screw from wedging between the ball and bore.

I have never yet to this day fired my ramrod out. I have seen it done several times though! The most recent was 2 years ago pre-deer season. I forget the ML'er other then it was an inline and the charge was like 130grs of Pyro RS. The ramrod was a black anodized aluminum shaft with with a screw on brass rammer head.

When the cap went off it just about rolled the guy over backwards off the stool, and he got a nice scopecut. The ramrod was found out at about 175 yards and was very interesting to look at. A classic example of inertia had taken place. The heavy brass end had expanded to take the rifling. The aluminum shaft was twisted for about a foot of it's length. The closer to the brass rammer, the more twisted the ramrod was. About 4" in front of the brass head, the rod was twisted for a full turn!

Obviously the long shaft had resisted the twisting force, but back where the rammer had expanded to take the rifling, it had taken the brunt of the twisting force which eventually overcame inertia and the strength of the aluminum shaft. Educational!

The one before that was my buddy 3 Band Bob launching his ramrod from an 1855 Springfield. He was shooting offhand and when the hammer fell it lifted his right foot off the ground and the muzzle swung up to almost point straight up. We never did find his ramrod. It amde an peculiar warbleing whistleing sound as it flew away.

..............Buckshot

[PatMarlin]

Somehow I don't feel so idiotic now.. :lol:

[waksupi]

Just to keep everyone up to speed, a dram of powder, equals 27 1/2 grains.
60 drams of powder would be 1650 grains. Recoil? Ya think?!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Been there, done that. A little FFFg down the nipple hole did the trick for me also.

I did watch a pard at a match do the same thing. He'd also lost his bullet puller down the barrel. It was in the bullet but came off his ramrod and he couldn't get it back on.

The guy put a boat cushion up against his truck tire thus to keep his puller from leaving. When he pulled the trigger, the truck sank slowly to the ground with a long sigh (big hole). That guy's an idiot.

DD-DLoS

[KCSO]

Do like my brother...
He came into the shop one day with a ball down the bbl and wanted to blow it out. I gave himBye the attachment and sent him over to the compressor and told him to POINT it at the woodpile and blow the ball out. I heard the compressor chunkin' for like 10 minutes and then Pshssss as the relief valve goes and then Whoomph and the wall in front of me shows a hole and the drill press and the lathe are ringing from a ricochet. Prety soon bro sticks his head in and looks around and says "120 pounds of air is too much"???

[Junior1942]

I have one of those CO2 blow-out thangs and I like it. Last year when I went to unload my rifle I stuck the muzzle in a kitchen-size trash can so it would catch the projectile and the powder. The rifle unloaded with a WHOOMP, and the bullet went through the side of the trash can and knocked a chunk out of the linoleum rug.

[shooter575]

We allways have a CO2 fire ex. refilled with just the gas to blow out stuck minnies on the line at our shoots.A 500 gr minne will go about 20-25 yards downrange.Install a piece of flaired brake line into end of hose.Pair of hoseclamps will hold it.We find that 3 people work best at clearing.1 on the ex. 2nd to hold hose on cone[nipple] 3rd holds the rifle but on the ground and muzzle downrange.
We allways fire 3-5 caps before first shot from storage or after wet cleaning.Real easy to have oil or bp solvent in the vent and or cone stop the fire..Brake clean or like will blow out any oil there also and dry up real quick too.Use the hose and keep off finnish.

[RussB]

I first read this about two weeks ago, and I was thinking at the time just how lucky I've been, because it's been literally years since I dry balled a Muzzleloader.

Well, guess what happened this morning at the range?

I always have a co2 thingy in the range box...never had to use it myself since I got it, but a few of the fellers I shoot with have been blessed by it's presence on the range....so when this happened I thought, "haaaa, not to worry! I'm the man with the right tool".

Well I had the tool alright, and it had a co2 cartridge attached...but it had all leaked out, and all I had was a Discharger with no co2.

It took 4 attempts at removing the nipple by "dribbling" powder in before I got that thing out. I finally used a nipple pick to pack, or feed enough powder in there to get the ball all the way out the bore.

I have never had the breech plug off this particular rifle, but you can bet I am going to take it out and see why I couldn't get enough powder in there.

I have promised myself never to laugh again when somebody gets a ball hung up that they can't get out!

Russ

[MT Gianni]

I remember an old movie where someone, Kirk Douglas perhaps, shoots an attacker with his ramrod just over powder and no ball at a distance of 10 feet or less. As a 7 or 8 year old the first time seeing it I thought it was way cool even though Dad told me about it beforehand. Anyone remember the movie? Gianni.

[TCLouis]

I think it was Fess Parker in the old Daniel Boone series on Disney. Probably done more than once by more than one actor though.

I had made it through many pounds of powder before I did it, but if one shoots front stuffer long enough it will happen to them too.

[Scrounger]

I remember an old movie where someone, Kirk Douglas perhaps, shoots an attacker with his ramrod just over powder and no ball at a distance of 10 feet or less. As a 7 or 8 year old the first time seeing it I thought it was way cool even though Dad told me about it beforehand. Anyone remember the movie? Gianni.

I'm going to go with Clark Gable in "Missouri Breaks", but no guarantee. A friend says he saw one of our acquaintances shoot a cleaning rod out of a .257 Roberts. Said it made the weirdest sound going downrange. Did not blow gun up, and that's hard to believe... [smilie=l:

[PatMarlin]

Bwaaaaaaahhhaahaha.... Hee, hee.. I'm still an idiot- :shock:

[fiberoptik]

Bwaaaaaaahhhaahaha.... Hee, hee.. I'm still an idiot- :shock:

Ever watch the Ren & Stimpy cartoon? Ren is a little wirey ugly chihuahua (the brains) & Stimpy is the dumbest cat on earth. Ren is always saying, "You're STuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuPid IiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiDiOT!" Love that cartoon.
Thankfully, I have yet to enjoy that sensation of sensations, launching fletchless arrows from my frontloaders! [smilie=l:

[44man]

I knew a guy once that would remove the shot from a shotshell and put an arrow down the barrel during squirrel season which by coincidence, overlapped archery deer season. Never heard of him getting a deer though.

[Bret4207]

A 70's or 80's remake of "The Red Badge of Courage" had John Boy Walton kill one of the Darells from the Bob Newhart show with the ramrod. I don't know the actors names but I sure got the characters down. Jeeze, I kinda miss Newharts show..... 'specially Mary Fran after her augmentation!

[versifier]

I suppose there might be a few regular front stuffers who haven't loaded a powderless charge, but I don't believe I've ever met one. If you're an idiot, all I can say is you're in good company. While I've become pretty good with a ball puller (takes practice - I guess some of us are bigger idiots than others), everyone should have one of those little CO2 gizmos. They're not just good for bullets. I recently had a defective ramrod shed its tip while running a patch down and back between shots. It was a brand new first time to the range Green Mtn drop-in for my Renegade. Just to see what they'd do, I gave them a call, explained what had happened. I got an actual human person on the phone who connected me to one of their engineers who said "Omigodwe'resosorryandwe'llfixit. Where do you live? We'll arrange shipping!" Not bad, I thought. "I live about a mile down the road." "Then bring it right down." It took less than five minutes and they blew out patch, jag, and tip, gave me a new ramrod and sent me on my way with a smile. I feel confident that even if I lived in Elbonia they'd have gone the extra mile. Did I mention that the very first three amIevenonthepaper test shots formed one ragged hole at 50yds? Later testing did the same at 100, better than most new centerfires. So I'm a satisfied idiot....

[9.3X62AL]

No idiocy involved, EVERY M/L shooter seats a dry ball sooner or later. Part of the game, that's all. Revolvers are easier, just unscrew the cap and use a small brass rod to tap out the ball. I've used the powder dribble bit to launch both PRB and Minie (one of each) from my caplock faux pas.

[Throckmorton]

so you think YOU are an idiot.
We can claim that title as well.
Being newbies,and having inherited a hawken percussion rifle,we headed to the range with almost all the required gear.
Fresh,not lumpy,Pyro wold have been a goood idea. :???:
Remembering to buy a screw would have been another one. :-?
On the way home after not firing a shot,we picked up a screw.It grabbed the ball but not well enough to pull it. so we cut off about 1/4" of it to have better 'grab' and VOILA!!! out she came.!!
we now carry a new one with the point and the cut down one....
just in case. ;-)

[fiberoptik]

I got an inline .50 CVA on trade that needed a good cleaning. On inspection at home, I found it had a dry ball. On more inspection, it wasn't a dry ball after all. Stupid had loaded it with powder & PB, THEN loaded it AGAIN with powder & PB! I'm here to say it was not fun getting the two of them (and powder) out! Still has a pair of rusty rings in the barrel, but other than that it's cleaned up good. They should disappear after shooting some. 8)

[Frank46]

I think it was The Mountain Men with Charleton Heston and another actor. Frank

[PatMarlin]

This thread needs to DIE!... :mrgreen: [smilie=b: :mrgreen: