Stuck ball help

[smallpatch]

Learned a long time ago....NEVER pull a ball with a wood ramrod.  Pinned or not.  It's gonna break!

[Pukka Bundook]

Small patch,

"Never"  and "Always" can get us into trouble, LOL!
 I have only pulled balls with my regular wooden ramrod.  That's what folks had back then , and why they carried the puller and tow worm with them.
Pulled one a few days ago. Had had the rifle out hunting an didn't want to leave it loaded any longer, (been loaded a week) so I pulled the ball.

Didn'a break anything.....


:-)

All the best,
Richard.

[Scota4570]

My range rod is made of 3/8" mild steel.    It has a T-handle that is loctite'ed with #680 over peened threads.  The length of the rod is covered with shrink tubing.  I've been meaning to make a weight to use as a slide hammer, like an auto body dent puller.

I can not find spring temper ground finish rods any more or i would have used one.  I would not even attempt pulling a ball with anything but a steel rod.  inadequate tools case folks lots of unnecessary problems. 

[Daryl]

Learned a long time ago....NEVER pull a ball with a wood ramrod.  Pinned or not.  It's gonna break!

 We've (Taylor and I) done this many times - likely over a dozen times over the years - never broke a rod doing it and that is with the normal for me, load. Ball .005" under with a .022" patch. To break, the rod would have to pull apart, lengthwise. I cannot see this happening with hickory or ramin.

[Black Hand]

Learned a long time ago....NEVER pull a ball with a wood ramrod.  Pinned or not.  It's gonna break!

Been pulling loads for over 15 years with wooden rods - not one has broken...

[OldMtnMan]

You guys really need to pull that many balls? Why not just shoot them out?

[davec2]

http://www.luckybag.us/GunnersMate.html

Number 5, 6, & 7

[Black Hand]

You guys really need to pull that many balls? Why not just shoot them out?

Because they frown upon discharging firearms within the city limits. Also, I recast the ball, return the patch to the container and put the powder back into the horn....

[OldMtnMan]

You guys really need to pull that many balls? Why not just shoot them out?

Because they frown upon discharging firearms within the city limits. Also, I recast the ball, return the patch to the container and put the powder back into the horn....

Why are you loading the gun where you can't shoot it?

[Pukka Bundook]

OLd Mountain,
Probably most folk load for the hunt and if like me leave it loaded a few days whilst hunting.   Gets unloaded with a ball puller at home or wherever.
Mind, I only hunt on our own bit these days.

[tuffy]

http://www.luckybag.us/GunnersMate.html

Number 5, 6, & 7

Best money I have ever spent.

    CW

[OldMtnMan]

OLd Mountain,
Probably most folk load for the hunt and if like me leave it loaded a few days whilst hunting.   Gets unloaded with a ball puller at home or wherever.
Mind, I only hunt on our own bit these days.

I always thought pulling a ball was from a mistake. Like dry balling. I just shoot out my hunting load at the end of the day. A PRB is a cheap load and shooting them out is no big deal. I want a fresh load at the start of every hunting day.

[OldMtnMan]

http://www.luckybag.us/GunnersMate.html

Number 5, 6, & 7

Never saw that before. Pretty handy.

[Pukka Bundook]

OLd Mountain,
Probably most folk load for the hunt and if like me leave it loaded a few days whilst hunting.   Gets unloaded with a ball puller at home or wherever.
Mind, I only hunt on our own bit these days.

I always thought pulling a ball was from a mistake. Like dry balling. I just shoot out my hunting load at the end of the day. A PRB is a cheap load and shooting them out is no big deal. I want a fresh load at the start of every hunting day.

Horses for courses my old pal.

I leave mine in unless the weather is wet. they go off just the same after a few days....& saves cleaning for nothing.   No right and wrong, only different.  :-)

[OldMtnMan]

The way I look at it is even if it's not wet as in raining/snowing. It's cold. I have to take in the gun every night and when it hits the cold weather in the morning the barrel will get condensation inside and out. That bothers me. I wait until the barrel temp catches up with the outside temp and then run a couple of dry patches down the bore and then load it.

Maybe that's overkill, but when you're an old @$#% hunting alone deep in the Rockies for bear and come up on a bear 20ft away in thick brush because I was stalking it. I want to make sure the gun goes off. So, i'm a bit picky about wanting a fresh dry load when I pull the trigger.

[Black Hand]

You guys really need to pull that many balls? Why not just shoot them out?

Because they frown upon discharging firearms within the city limits. Also, I recast the ball, return the patch to the container and put the powder back into the horn....

Why are you loading the gun where you can't shoot it?

I load before I leave the house and unless I was hunting in a heavy rain, I don't unload. If I do decide to unload, I use the rod because I don't need to clean my gun and can load fresh at will.

[Marcruger]

I will echo what the others said about Dave Crisalli's Gunner's Mate tool(s).  It is wonderful, and has everything you could need in an emergency.  I take mine down into three pieces and they go into a little pouch in my bag.  Best insurance you can buy.  And Dave is super to deal with.  God Bless,   Marc

[Pukka Bundook]

Pete,

What you say about cold affecting things is valid.  I know when it's cold up here, and I bring the gun in the house, at times it goes furry all over with the frost coming out of it.  When I come in, I push paper towel in the pan if no feather, and stand it on its muzzle.
It seems that as long as the load is in there snug and kind of air -tight, it doesn't seem to matter if the gun has to de-and re-frost.
I think it's the same as metallic cartridges, if the air can't get in they don't fur up on the inside.  (I know they do on the outside though!)

Richard.

[Mike from OK]

Had a similar situation a while back...

Tried the air compressor trick to no avail. What I wound up doing was removing my touch hole liner (mine is removable, I understand a lot of folks aren't) and threading in a grease fitting that had the same threads...

About 15 pumps with a grease gun and the entire works pushed right out the muzzle.

I had to clean all the grease out but that wasn't too bad.

Mike

[Mike from OK]

Now that I think about it I didn't have a stuck ball. I had a cleaning jag and patch broke off and stuck about 10 inches down the bore...

Grease gun trick might not work if you have a measure of powder already loaded. Or it might.

Mike

[Daryl]

Easier usually, to pull the breech and push it out. The grease would work, but not easy to get the grease out from around the plug or inside the patent breech?

[Gun_Nut_73]

http://www.luckybag.us/GunnersMate.html

Number 5, 6, & 7

I am still hoping for him to make one in .32-.36 caliber.

[Daryl]

I usually have to pull one load, every year or two. That's not bad for the amount of shooting I do, but of late, say in the last couple years, no more than 6 or 7 pounds of powder per year.

[ddoyle]

All the Ferguson shooters are snickering in a 'holier than tho' kind of way.