Can't get past BP for Dummies 101

You'll need a bullet puller. It screws on to the loading rod and looks like a large screw that you essentially screw into the ball to pull it out. It looks like this.

TarDevil said:

The very first time I try to shoot this Hawkens, I put the ball in before the powder. How do I get the blasted thing out?

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You could remove the nipple , sprinkle a little powdr in the ignition path, replace the nipple and fire. Not much power but probably enough.

Option #3: CO2 ball discharger- http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_99_322&products_id=15330

Quote:
Originally Posted by Canadart
You could remove the nipple , sprinkle a little powdr in the ignition path, replace the nipple and fire. Not much power but probably enough.

This worked! Thanks!!

I love this stuff!!

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Hahahaha..been there done that.

I've been shooting muzzleloaders since 1964 and I did it 10 years ago in the worst place imaginable, deer camp with an audience. I've been know as PPB (Powder, Patch and ball) ever since.

There are two kinds of black powder shooters: those who have dry balled and those who are going to. Eventually you will have experience with all 3 methods of removing the ball; it may take 40 years, but it's gonna happen.

I shoot with a guy once in a while who seldom fires his Black Powder Hawken style rifle. A couple of years ago we're out in the desert of Arizona somewhere and he's loading the rifle and chanting to himself, "Powder, patch, ball, powder, patch, ball" over and over again. I asked him what the heck he was doing and he responded that he didn't have a ball puller and that he wanted to make sure he did everything in the proper order.

You have to have the right mindset when shooting a muzzleloader, because you have to think of and be prepared for everything. All I shoot are muzzleloaders so I have my "black powder mindset" pretty well set, but everyone will dry load his piece sometime, the question is are you ready for it.

You could remove the nipple , sprinkle a little powdr in the ignition path, replace the nipple and fire. Not much power but probably enough.

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I've done this, it works! The CO² method is probably the best though. Need one.

I've had this happen a few times. In one case the ball was REALLY stuck, with no air space behind it to get a pinch of powder. It laughed at my efforts to use the ramrod bullet puller, just leaving me with mangled bits of lead and getting even MORE stuck.

In the end, I patented my own method of surefire stuck ball removal. Remove the barrel, set some padding on a hard floor and use the barrel as the top piece on an inertial bullet puller, with your arm as the main stem of the "T" shape. Bang it down crown-first firmly and repeatedly on the padded hard surface. The ball has no choice but to move forward with inertia. And once it pulls free from its spot, chances are it will come out pretty easy after that. For additional leverage you could rig a post to serve as the arm of the "T", but then you start getting into dangers of bending the barrel. By using your arm alone you shouldn't have enough force to do that. And mostly you let the barrel's weight do the work for you.

And if THAT doesn't work for some reason, there's always removal of the breech plug.

Hello, everyone..never dry-balled..but did get ramrod stuck in TC Seneca..darn thing was down at breech & STUCK! put a tiny pinch of powder thru nipple hole..aimed straight up...man that rod went high!..no damage though!

I do the "Powder, patch, ball, powder, patch, ball" chant when I shoot with our local BP club. So far, it has kept me out of trouble. We have had a couple of members load without a powder charge in some of the matches. They ended up removing the nipple and dropping a charge through the hole to shoot the ball out.....

among the crew i used to shoot with, it became a practice to recover a "no-powder" and hang it from our triggerguard, on our possibles, make a necklace, that kinda thing. Some of us has some pretty impressive "dangit" strings. Keeps you humble!

AJumbo said it all I've got a feather and a ball puller on my smoke pole, a feather to keep the flash hole open and and the bullet puller just incase, as it has happened before, welcome to the smoke pole crowd.

Ajimbo that's hilarious.

TarDevil, glad to hear you got that out.

only time i ever did that (just knocked on wood) was with my '47 Walker, luckily as it's a revolver I got it out of the cylinder with a corkscrew

If you haven't done this.....

... you obviously haven't been out shootin' enough!

Let me "set the scene":
Was out shooting with Matt and a "youngish" (to me, anyway) couple that are good friends of ours. Matt and Brian are down at the north end of the firing line with this old Remington Model 33 that I found in my closet, taking turns 10 rounds at a time; keeping count of who can "ding" the 8 ft by 8" pole that's a little over 100 yards downrange. No scopes, no lasers, just the circa early 30's sights that came on the rifle
(Brian, who usually can't hit a school bus with a 12 gauge at 7 yrds, was beating the snot out of Matt)

Brian's wife Amanda was makin' holes in paper targets with my wife's .357 and my .44; reloading and firing strings at a rate that would make a moderately accomplished pin-shooter proud. Me I'm makin' smoke and noise with the the Remmies; spinning the steels semi-regularly. Amanda gets bored and wants to try out "the blackpowder stuff", so I show her how to load up and fire the 5-1/2 incher. After a couple of cross words out of her mouth as she spills a couple of 30 grn loads of loose Pyrodex, I "take pity" and show her how much easier it is with the 30 grn pellets - great for quick reloads in the re-enactment stuff; but too stinkin' expensive for everyday use. So now I'm reloading all four of my cylinders on the long pistol while she's REALLY killing the paper with the little guy. She takes one cylinder from me and dumps it in and BANG! BANG! BANG! (POP). Imagine the sound made when you stick your finger in the side of your mouth and pull it out sideways to imitate a cork being launched out of a champagne bottle - yeah, that's the (POP) Oooooops!

So after I pull the nipple and punch the ball out with a 6" chunk of 1/8" brazing rod and a tack-hammer; we're now "loading and firing our own".

"Is your gun loaded?"
"It's a revolver, Amanda; 'guns' are REALLY big and mounted on battleships"
"Whatever, is it loaded?"
"Yes, Amanda"
"Powder and everything, right? We don't want you 'going off lightly' "
"Shut up, Amanda"

Thank God Sue was on-call at the hospital that day. If she had been there I wouldn't have had a moment's peace for the rest of the weekend.

Just Sayin'

Just don't leave the rod in the barrel like my brother did. The deer got away from that one and the ram rod was all bent out of shape.