jammed barrel on cva kentucky octagon

[unclecheech]

Hey all, long time no post. I borrowed my brother in laws CVA Kentucky muzzleloader (.50 cal). I shot it a few times and realized he left it in poor shape. He hadn't cleaned or lubed in 2 years. So, I set about cleaning. My jag sheared off with the brush at the tail of the barrel, with no way to get out. I have never had this happen, and I need to get it cleared out before the muzzleloader season here in MI as I have already bought my licenses. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks and happy hunting.

[GregP42]

What you can try is taking the nipple out and working some powder in from that end, not too much, maybe 5 gr. or so, then put the nipple back in put a cap on it and fire it in a safe direction. That is what I have had to do the one time I got one stuck in a barrel. Good luck and let us know how it does.

Greg

[captchee]

A light charge of powder as said above should blow it out . However once you get some powder  in , make sure the jag is seated .
If you cant get that to work .

If you don’t have one already I would pick up a C02 discharger  . This fits over the nipple  and will most times blow the  ball or obstruction out .
Now I have been told that bicycle shops sell a C02 tier inflator that also works well though I have not tried it
 If  its really stubborn and the discharger will not blow it  then take it to  your air compressor .  Use the  air nozzle type , the one with a rubber nose   and has a trigger to clean  items by blowing air .
 Take the tipple off and hold this as tight as you can  with the gun pointed in a safe direction. Give her a blast  .

 If its really , really stuck  you can get a grease fitting and thread it in place of the nipple  and pump it out with grease .

 Some will recommend to pull the breech plug and  push it out . I wouldn’t recommend this with a CVA .
 Reason CVA seated their plug under pressure and while its not impossible to get them out , most times it not easy .
 Top that off with  the great possibility that the drum may thread into the breech face itself . On some rifles they did this as well . So  you may have to pull the drum bolster as well . This also can be complicated as CVA used two different designed necks on the drum bolsters . One  with a short neck stopping at the breech face and one that went all the way through the  bore , sealing on the far  side and having a flash hole drilled in the side to  allow the powder to be ignited ..
So basically if one doesn’t understand  the differences  in manufacturing  they can have a good chance of really mucking the job up .
 My bet is  the first two  salutations will make quick work  of the situation

is it a brush that down their or a jag?.
 You might get lucky and it will blow out . If you had a cleaning patch on the brush or maybe an over sized brush that fit the bore tight  you may get lucky .

a brush can be a real pain to get out  especially if you were twisting it or its a spiral wrapped brush ..
  With a brush my first sugestion would be  to try to get a wire loop down around the broken end of the RR . If your real lucky you can get enough pressure pulling to turn the bush wires . This is whats holding it down their .
 If this dose not work , take the barrel off the rifle and go down to  the hardware store  and find a screen door  spring that will fit into the  bore . Make sure its long now , as long as you can get . Take this home and  stretch it  out so the coils are  ¼ inch apart . Now thread this down the bore . It will thread its way through the brush .  When this happens start pulling .  This will most times compress the bristles enough for you to pull it out . If your real lucky the brush will come out with the spring coil .
 Past that  and I would only recommend it as a last resort  is to pull the breech plug , take a wood dowel and push it out .
 If it’s a jag

[Biff Mayhem]

Just keep pushing powder grains down the nipple hole with a toothpick. It should not take much to expel that out of the bore. 

[unclecheech]

Thanks guys, it is a brush with twisted bristles, the end of my ramrod had an adapter on the end that sheared in half. Will try easiest to hardest to get out. Will let you know haow it goes. Thanks

[R.M.]

You say it's a brush. Assuming it's a bronze brush, you could pour some copper remover down the barrel and let it eat away at the bristles. This should loosen it up, then you could use one of the methods suggested above.

Good Luck, and Happy Thanksgiving to all.
R.M.

[S.S.]

If it is a brush, the seal is probably not tight enough to blow it out with a small charge of powder.
Use a straightened coat hanger with a very small hook made on one end. try and snag it to pull it out.

[longcaribiner]

If it is a brush and jag, with no patch, there probably won't be sufficient seal to blow it out, unless you can get a seal in there.  If perc. with a drum and nipple, you can remove the drum and place some oiled cleaning patches in the drum hole like a shot  wad under the brush.   If you plan to use an air compressor, a little saw dust may work instead of the cleaning patches.  (Done that too.)   

A great many folks break off jags when using brushes in muzzleloaders.  Those bristles can get jammed pretty tight.    Most folks won't use such brushes because of the liklihood of what happened to you. 
 
Good luck!

[unclecheech]

Gun shop locally cleared the barrel for $35. He tried a few different things, most of which (except the copper eater) moved the brush a few inches at a time. Thanks for all the advice, what would be a better solution for next time to clean? This rifle, as it turns out, will be mine and then my adopted sons (my brother in laws son). I would like to be able to teach him the how to's, but this muzzleloading stuff is new and I need to steepen the learning curve. So, as always, advice is accepted with many thanks.

[jgalar]

If you are going to brush get a nylon brush. They are not as stiff and won't stick in the barrel.