Problem with patch on a old Muzzy.

[j two dogs]

The civil war era Muzzy that I had on here for sale, decided not to sell it. Am trying to redo the gun (No worries about destroying the historical value). Just want to get it to shooting good.

Anyway came to relize that it is an actual .38 cal I think at least it mics out to that at the end of the barrel. I plan on slugging it, and hand lapping it, there is a tight spot in the middle of the barrel, the problem is a wet patch goes in and out no problem, but a dry patch when it hits the tight spot in the middle, I lose it in the barrel.
 
Any suggestions?

[captchee]

 loading with a dry patch will normaly  get you a stuck patch or ball .
 i would fire lap it .
 put  you shoice of lapping compounds in the  lube rings of the conical  and fire 3 or 4 of them then ckean and check the bore

[j two dogs]

Thanks for the idea. I will give er a try.

[coyotejoe]

I think you need to pull the breechplug and get a good look at the bore. To do a reasonable job of lapping you'll need the plug out anyway. I suspect you'll find it too far gone to be restored by lapping. There are several makers of muzzleloading barrels who will rebore old barrels for around 100 bucks and that is the best way to restore an old one to shooting condition. You could spend 100 hours of hard, dirty work trying to lap it out and still end up with nothing usable.

[j two dogs]

could you name a few who do the re-bore work. I did pull the breech plug, and it is on the rough side the problem is were it opens up larger were the powder sat at one time, it releases the pressure on the patch, and then when I pull it back out, it hits the tight spot and pulls the patch off. If I did not have to clean between shots it would be alright, I have shot the gun at 40 yds and it surprised me how accurate. Anyway, any information or particulars on who does a good job re-boring would be appreciated.
Thanks

[coyotejoe]

try these,  Ed Rayl  304 364-8269  and Bob Hoyt   717 642-6696  both have reputations for accurate shooting barrels.
 It is pretty common to find old barrels eroded out at the breech and worn by the ramrod at the muzzle. I recently picked up an old "sporterized musket", a civil war relic which was long ago cut down for use as a shotgun. The bore was "the pits" but I thought I could hand ream it enough to clean up. After a day of reaming I had enlarged the bore about all I felt it could stand and the reamer still dropped the last 8-10 inches at the breech without even touching the metal, it was just so eroded. Likewise I got a very nice W.C. Scott & Sons 14 gauge single percussion fowler on which the bore looked "pretty good" but when I rammed a wad down it I found it almost fell the last six inches with just a bit of gritty feeling,  burned out and rough. Nothing could be done to restore it as the barrel was too thin to ream, the whole gun weighs only 4 3/4 pounds.