So my neighbor Charlie comes over with what looks like an inline muzzleloader and says, Mr. Glenn can you help me get this back together...
Charlie is a great guy, but he probably should not work on guns.
It seems that he tried to take it apart a few years back without a breech plug wrench and really screwed up the slot and nipple threads trying to twist it out with a screwdriver. He also lost all of the internal parts.
I found http://www.deercreekproducts.net/ and ordered a breech plug wrench and a conversion kit to change it to a 209 ignition system. They didn't have the correct bolt for the Buckhorn. The guy on the phone said that it would fit the action, it just wouldn't allow you to put the bolt handle into the safety slot. I got a new bolt spring and a threaded end cap.
The parts showed up in just a few days. I put the barreled action in a padded vise and soaked the breech plug with Kroil for a couple of days, then took the new wrench and pounded it down into the buggered up slot. I pried, beat and pounded and could not get the breech plug to budge. I only succeded in twisting the corners off of the new wrench.
It appears that Charlie left it loaded, or I would have tried to apply some heat to the action around the breech plug.
So I decided to see if I could salvage the old breech plug. There was a big burr in the threads for the nipple. I couldn't get a tap down inside the action with an extension long and small enough to fit, so I took a M6x1 hardened cap screw and ground a flat on one side to act as a D reamer of sorts, to clean up the threads. I applied a little oil and ran it in and out a few times and in short order had the threads cleaned up. I ordered a new stainless nipple and it went right in.
The next item up was the bolt. It would slide in and engage the trigger sear just fine, but wouldn't slide all the way forward. Charlie had buggered the inside of the action with his screwdriver. So I used an assortment of files and a round sanding drum to clean things up.
Now that the bolt slid easily in the action, it needed to look at the safety slot. The bolt had a flat cut on the bottom to engage the sear, but would not allow the bolt handle to be rotated up into the safety slot. So with the help of Mr. Mill Bastard file and the sanding drum I cut a radius on one side of the bottom of the bolt to allow for clearance of the sear when the bolt was rotated slightly.
I put it all together and function tested a few times and everything was great.
Now all that's left is to dribble a little fresh BP in the nipple hole, replace the nipple and test fire it to clear the old charge and ball.
Any thoughts on anything I might have missed?
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