Trail Guns Armory Kodiak - Lead Stock

[Old Footman]

Good morning everyone,

I recently purchased a Trail Guns Armory (Pedersoli) Kodiak .58 that really needs to be brought back to life. I will share this story later with photos. The stripped stock itself is very heavy and I observed that the rear stock was filled with a lead plug. It appears that the lead was poured into the stock and it weighs 3.2 pounds on my bathroom scale. Has anyone on this forum owned this Trail Guns Armory Kodiak model and removed this lead plug? If so how did you do it?

Thank you,

Old Footman

[rancher1913]

is this a double rifle? if it is the lead is a recoil buffer for the second shot, helps the gun stay on target. i have a competitive m16 that the stock is lead weighted and the fore arm as well, its deadly in the 3 round shoot because it stays on target even with the recoil.

[Old Footman]

Rancher1913,

Yes it is a double .58 caliber rifled barrel ML. From what I could find on line it appears that the barrel twist is 1-48". With that I'm hoping that it will shoot patched round balls (.570"). I understand about the recoil and staying on target, but the rifle weighs 10+ pounds. I'm hoping to lighten it up. I found this post on a different forum with a photo of a 6" long lead plug that was removed from a stock.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/t...-50cal.121800/

Thank you,

Old Footman

[rancher1913]

if your not going to be hunting deadly game, should be no problem removing the lead. if you can see the lead, try using a drill and remove what you can then heat up the rest and let it drop out. a heat gun might do it.

[725]

Drill, baby, drill.

[stubshaft]

1 - for drilling it out.

[dondiego]

Send a deck screw half way into the lead and use pliars to pull out the lead rod.

[BLAHUT]

If of you remove the lead plug. Be forewarned, this animal will beat you unmercifully, like it owns you, with full loads>>

[Texas by God]

Recoil is temporary; gravity is constant.
Get the lead out and restore the balance of that hunting gun.


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[Sig]

Automotive slide hammer dent puller can probably be rigged.

[RU shooter]

If you can’t pull it out drill out all that you can don’t try to melt it out you’ll just burn up the stock . I have a 24 ga (58 cal) smoothbore with a 30 “ barrel and it only weights 6 lbs and the recoils isn’t that bad with a RB. Even with a 1.25 oz of shot it’s more like a shove than a kick

[Old Footman]

Thank you for all the replies. As for recoil, I agree that shooting conicals with heavy charges will beat you up in a light rifle. I have some other .58's (percussion and flintlocks) that shoot round balls and I have taken my fair share of game with no problems. I hope to take care of it this week. I'll update everyone later.

Again thanks!

Old Footman

[Old Footman]

What I am starting with. The owner passed away and as you can see he liked to use epoxy paint, plus both barrels were loaded. I will share more pics later, the project is moving along pretty good. Click on the pics and they should straighten out.

Old Footman

[M-Tecs]

That is the ugliest rifle I have ever seen. Soaking the barrels and stock in MEK will remove epoxy paint without damaging the wood or metal.

[badwolf]

Wow, just wow!

[Sasquatch-1]

That is going to need some tender loving care, to say the least.

I would try a ball puller first with a good brass range rod. If that doesn't work, look into some of the alternatives. There are some people who put grease fitting in where the nipple goes and use a grease gun to force the ball out. Or maybe the compressed air method.

Good Luck

[Old Footman]

It took some time to finally get this Kodiak completely unloaded. First I decided to dump the powder and it took some brute force to get the nipples off. I used a piece of wire to try and get as much of the powder out through the nipple area. In looking down the barrel with a light it appeared that both barrels were loaded with conicals. I tried to use a CO2 discharger three times with no luck. Next I poured some Kroil oil down the barrels to see if that would help. After a few days I tried to use a bullet puller and that didn't work. Well if all fails it's off to the shop of "725". We tried his air compressor, again no luck. Next we decided to use a solid brass rod to see if we could move the conicals down a bit since we thought the conicals were rusted up against the barrels. Well that didn't work, so "725" said we need to drill to reduced the weight/mass of the conicals. As you can see we did that. Went back to the brass rod and finally we moved a conicals. From that we poured 20 grains of 2F through the nipple area and discharged them into some wood. "725" recovered one of the conicals and as you can see it was a hollow base "boolit". Inspecting the barrel I could see that there was rust where the conicals were (ugh!). I spent some time (hours) cleaning up the barrels.

Again click on the pic to straighten it out.



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[Baltimoreed]

Crazy paint job on that baby, wow. And loaded! I had also looked at one of these back when I was very into muzzle loaders. Good luck on your rebuild.

[Texas by God]

That's a two bagger.
But something worth saving under all that!

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[Old Footman]

FYI, I took the barrels up to Bob Hoyt's shop in Pennsylvania so I could get his opinion. He told that there was a few rough spots that cleaned up, but he saw nothing wrong with me shooting this Kodiak.

Old Footman