Today was not a good day. I went to the fort to try out a new Smoothbore Roundball, I've been waiting all summer to try this. I even managed to score 2 or 3 Xs on my first target....
However, I never got to shoot my second target.
Like an idiot, I grabbed one of my Musket cleaning patches to swab out the bore after brushing, I was rushing because the next relay was the last one for individuals. I rammed that sucker home, and that's all she wrote. When the rod refused to budge, I knew I was done for the day...
So a couple of people volunteered to help yank that rod out, but nothing worked. I flooded the barrel with WD40,and that didn't help.
I took the thing home, clipped on a good pair of vice grips and started knocking the rod out using a rubber mallet. That worked for about 18 inches, I was making progress, when the cleaning rod said uncle, and the tip that threads to the jag snapped off the rod.
The rod is an aluminum take down, in 12" segments, and had a knurled tip that connected to the jag, I'm pretty sure the knurled part is what broke, and by looking at the end of the rod, it wasn't threaded on.
I took the gun apart, but, just as I always assumed, the breach plug does not come out.
So now I'm speculating what to do.... I'm thinking the easiest thing would be to put some solvent or mild acid of some kind in there to eat the patch out, but I don't want to ruin the barrel...
I don't think it can be drilled out. It's still jammed in pretty good, I don't think there is a non-destructive mechanical solution....
Any suggestions?
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