Snidely70431
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2018
- Messages
- 420
I recently got around to working on a .50 cal Knight T-Bolt I picked up at a pawn shop a month or so ago.Since virtually any single shot rifle can be used during the Louisiana (and, I think, Mississippi) primitive weapons deer season, muzzle loaders are something of a drug on the used guns market here. This is a boon for guys like me who just like shooting front loaders.
This rifle, when I got it, looked OK externally, other than a small chunk missing from the trigger guard, and the T-Bolt is, like all Knights I've seen, a beautifully machined product. It was another matter once I got to working on it.
I removed the T-Bolt and breech block - by the hardest, the BB was frozen - and the barrel was still blocked. Turns out there was two 50-grain pellets and a saboted bullet in there, rusted in place. Probably why it ended up in the pawn shop. I finally pounded that stuff out, and got most of the rust cleaned out with a bore brush and W-40. The breech plug was also blocked, so I used a Dremel tool and a tiny bit to clean out the flash hole. I tried a 209 primer, and it failed to fire twice before finally going off. Bad language ensued.
I cleaned the T-Bolt several times and found the spring a bit deformed and finally found a work around for the spring, but this still did not fix the primer problem, eliciting more bad language.
To make a long story short, it turned out the primer hole was just a few thousandths small towards the bottom, so the primer did not seat all the way. A strike or three with the firing pin seated the primer, and then it fired. A letter size drill "C" (nominally .242 inch) enlarged the bottom of the hole enough that the primer can be pushed all the way in, and now the primer fires right and the fit is still tight enough to hold it in place.
Consider this a cautionary tale when buying second hand. You never know what is in the barrel of a muzzle loader until you remove the breech plug and look.
This rifle, when I got it, looked OK externally, other than a small chunk missing from the trigger guard, and the T-Bolt is, like all Knights I've seen, a beautifully machined product. It was another matter once I got to working on it.
I removed the T-Bolt and breech block - by the hardest, the BB was frozen - and the barrel was still blocked. Turns out there was two 50-grain pellets and a saboted bullet in there, rusted in place. Probably why it ended up in the pawn shop. I finally pounded that stuff out, and got most of the rust cleaned out with a bore brush and W-40. The breech plug was also blocked, so I used a Dremel tool and a tiny bit to clean out the flash hole. I tried a 209 primer, and it failed to fire twice before finally going off. Bad language ensued.
I cleaned the T-Bolt several times and found the spring a bit deformed and finally found a work around for the spring, but this still did not fix the primer problem, eliciting more bad language.
To make a long story short, it turned out the primer hole was just a few thousandths small towards the bottom, so the primer did not seat all the way. A strike or three with the firing pin seated the primer, and then it fired. A letter size drill "C" (nominally .242 inch) enlarged the bottom of the hole enough that the primer can be pushed all the way in, and now the primer fires right and the fit is still tight enough to hold it in place.
Consider this a cautionary tale when buying second hand. You never know what is in the barrel of a muzzle loader until you remove the breech plug and look.
