Bear in mind that rifling in an airgun barrel is way thinner, or not cut as deep as conventional firearms. It doesn't take much to bugger the rifling sometimes.
I agree. I'd stick with a hard wooden dowel for any driving. Pellet lead is soft and should be fairly easy to drive out.
Good luck finding a hardwood dowel in 17 caliber that won't splinter on the first wack and just add to the misery.
If gently tapping with a 1/8" rod per stxhunters suggestion doesn't work, I think you're looking at drilling out the works and then making some sort of puller.
The seals on spring piston guns will dry up over time which causes a loss of power. Also some times kids think it's neat to shoot 2-3 pellets at a time, combining that practice with a gun down on power will definately stick pellets in the bore.
