Originally Posted by
DoubleBuck
Off topic question for you muzzle stuffer shooters;
A friend of mine built a Thompson Center Renegade kit rifle, about 30 years ago. It came with a wooden dowel ramrod, with a pressed fit brass threaded end, and had a brass jag attached. He had only shot very few shots, and was running the jag down the barrel. At the bottom, it got tight, stuck, and a hard pull made the PRESS FIT!!! brass come off the ramrod, which has been stuck for that 30 years. He made a wall hanger out of it and I talked him into giving me the rifle, to get that jag removed and cleaning the rifle up, to set him back up with it. It is a beautiful little rifle and I bet it will shoot great.
My question is, has anyone experienced a like situation, and if so, how did you remedy it? I looked into removing the breech plug, and don't relish going there as it may be nearly welded in, from time and corrosion.
I do believe that if the threads are the same (1/4" x 28), I can put a grease zirk in place of the nipple, and pump that mother out, with grease. That may take a minute, and most of a tube of grease, but I can't seem to come up with a more simple solution. If I could adapt something to that nipple hole, I think hydraulic pressure from something would work as good or better, but I can't think of something to adapt to it. Like a power steering hose adapted down, or something. We talked about dribbling a few grains of powder in the flash hole and try to shoot it out and I've thought of trying to somehow glue the ramrod back in the brass fitting, let it set up and try to pull it, but I'm thinking that is a real long shot of working.
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. If anyone has experience unscrewing a breech plug, that would be a simple fix, if it is doable. Thanks in advance.