Well,
I was too embarrassed to post this until I solved it, so here we go...
I was sanding my ramrod down to a diameter that would fit the ramrod hole on my SMR. I had previously threaded the steel ramrod tip to the end of my range rod and run it all the way down the channel to the end of the hole, so I knew that the steel tip would fit the hole all the way through.
Here comes the dumb part: I had not secured the ramrod tip to the ramrod with a pin yet, but it was a tight fit and it had made it easily before....
Anyway, I ran the wooden ramrod with the tip friction fit on it down the hole. It didn't go all the way, got stuck somewhere. Pulled out the ramrod, minus the tip. $#@*!
I was pretty sure that the ramrod tip end had 8/32 threads all the way through, so I cut the head off a long 8-32 screw, put that on the range rod and ran it down hoping to thread it on and pull the tip out and tell nobody. Didn't work. I couldn't get it to thread. I then figured that the range rod might be too thick and was preventing the screw from reaching the threaded hole. So, I found a skinnier steel rod and threaded that. Still no luck. Put gun in closet and stew over my stupidity!
Today I found a piece of music wire, bent the end into a narrow U shape, like a hook. I trial fitted it into a 8-32 hole, ground it down so it would fit, and ran it down the ramrod hole, and through the ramrod tip. It took two tries, but I managed to pull it out easily.
Phew!
You can probably guess what it had hung up on. It was the rear barrel lug. I had not quite filed it down far enough and it is sticking into the ramrod hole. I don't remember, but the barrel must have been out when I trial fitted the ramrod tip down the hole.
Just for grins, I tried threading an 8-32 screw in from the back side, as I had tried when it was in the hole. I couldn't get it to engage.
I hope nobody needs to repeat my trick, but you never know!
Cheers,
Norm
