Ball & ball puller stuck in CVA montain rifle

[bckskin2]

My step son loaded a ball with no powder charge in my mountain rifle. Then I broke the dowel rod on the ball puller trying to get it out. the local gun smith said send it back to CVA. Any suggestions? Can I get replacement drop in barrels?

[quickdtoo]

Sending it to CVA would be a last resort.

Tim

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,215168.msg1099159435.html#msg1099159435

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

pull the nipple out. fill up the drum with powder, replace nipple and fire.

[jlchucker]

pull the nipple out. fill up the drum with powder, replace nipple and fire.

I agree.  It happened once to me when I had a CVA Mountain Rifle. That gun has a cleanout screw in the side of the drum.  You can put a little more powder in there, as well as under the nipple, to fire the ball out.  If you've got any FFFFG on hand that would be easier to pour into the screw hole. but pretty much any grade of Black or imitation black should work.  Slap the gun a couple of times to settle the little bit of powder in the screw hole, and if you can get any more in and still tighten the screw in, do that.  Cap and fire. It won't sound very loud, but it should be enough to shoot out what you've got in the barrel.  I wouldn't send it back to CVA.

[flintlock]

Before you do this, make sure to ram the ball all the way down to the breach...

You could also use a CO-2 discharge kit that Cabelas sells for this...

[kitchawan kid]

Get the co-2 discharge kit,you will use it  more than you think and can help out others.

[bckskin2]

The powder charge worked. I'm still going to get the CO2 thing. I used a home made dipper, a .22 lr case on a copper wire. I'll never see that ball puller again! I used the longest screwdriver I have but it was too deep in the dirt. Thanks for the help.

[Spirithawk]

When I used to shoot traditional muzzleloaders I had a neat gadget that I bought from the original Hawken Shop in St. Louis. It was made by them and was a jag that fit on the end of your ramrod. One end had the typical ball puller screw. Unscrew the jag and turn it around and you had a 1/8 drill bit. The reason stuck balls are so hard to remove is that when you screw into them with a ball puller it expands the ball making it wedged even tighter. By using the drill bit end of the Hawken Shop's jag, you drilled into the ball first. That way the screw end, aka ball puller, didn't expand the ball wedging it tighter. Made a world of differance and made pulling a ball quite easy.

[jlchucker]

Just this past week I was trying out a new Great Plains Hunter barrel on my original Lyman rifle.  A mental lapse on my part right away caused me to ram a 240 grain hollowpoint with sabot down the barrel before putting in the powder charge.  Following my own advice on this thread, with the difference being the use of fffg Shockey's Gold instead of original black or Pyrodex, I took out the nipple and managed to cram some powder into the drum and tighten down the nipple about 2/3 of the way.  When I fired the charge, the bullet cleared the barrel, but the now-emptly yellow sabot did not.  It was sticking out of the muzzle far enough for me to grab the tabs and pull it out. I was then able to resume shooting--paying attention to my loading process a bit more, like I should have done in the first place.

[mlnewb]

When I used to shoot traditional muzzleloaders I had a neat gadget that I bought from the original Hawken Shop in St. Louis. It was made by them and was a jag that fit on the end of your ramrod. One end had the typical ball puller screw. Unscrew the jag and turn it around and you had a 1/8 drill bit. The reason stuck balls are so hard to remove is that when you screw into them with a ball puller it expands the ball making it wedged even tighter. By using the drill bit end of the Hawken Shop's jag, you drilled into the ball first. That way the screw end, aka ball puller, didn't expand the ball wedging it tighter. Made a world of differance and made pulling a ball quite easy.

Bump!

Thanks so much for this tidbit of info... I'll try to remember it and procure something similar. 

[Spirithawk]

When I used to shoot traditional muzzleloaders I had a neat gadget that I bought from the original Hawken Shop in St. Louis. It was made by them and was a jag that fit on the end of your ramrod. One end had the typical ball puller screw. Unscrew the jag and turn it around and you had a 1/8 drill bit. The reason stuck balls are so hard to remove is that when you screw into them with a ball puller it expands the ball making it wedged even tighter. By using the drill bit end of the Hawken Shop's jag, you drilled into the ball first. That way the screw end, aka ball puller, didn't expand the ball wedging it tighter. Made a world of differance and made pulling a ball quite easy.

Bump!

Thanks so much for this tidbit of info... I'll try to remember it and procure something similar. 

You're quite welcome. You won't regret it as it makes a world of differance making a dificult job easy as pie.