Guess who dry-balled a round yesterday. Yep, me. Thankfully I had David's "Gunner's Mate" tool with me. Some Rem-Oil to get things slippery, and I pulled that tight-patched ball right out. I used the drill as intended, and drilled the pilot hole. I then ran in the screw puller, and it worked as advertised.
Notice that with use these tools tone down from their as-new sparkle....as is expected.
I highly recommend this "Swiss Army Knife for Muzzleloaders" tool.
Thank you David.
As an aside, I pick my touchhole after loading, and before priming. Two reasons. One is that it opens a flash channel into the middle of the main charge to make for faster ignition. The second is that if I get hard resistance instead of feeling a crunch of powder, then expect a dry-ball situation. The latter is rare, but I felt it yesterday, so no surprise.
God Bless, Marc