Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Is my gun ruined?!?!?!

I have a H&R huntsman .50 cal that I loaned to my brother last year. I just got it back a couple days ago to find that it has been loaded since last season. I can't get the breech plug out the there is a lot of rust. Is there anything I can do to save my gun or is it lost?

First thing is try to get the load out if you can (although my first reaction would be to beat my brother senseless). The charge may still fire so cap it up and try to fire it out. Might have to poke a wire through the flash hole to clear it first. If it won't fire out then use a bullet puller. If none of that works, dump some good penetrating oil down the bore and set the breech end in a container of same and let it soak several days then try the breech plug again. Repeat till it comes loose. Then you can inspect the bore to see if it's worth salvaging. A little pitting sometimes won't hurt accuracy too much. Sounds like it was fired then reloaded and stored.

I know he fired it. Shot it to make sure it was sighted in. Doubt he cleaned it. With a light and mirror I can see a good bit of rust in the barrel. I know accuracy will suffer but as long as it is acceptable at 50 yards or so I will hunt with it. My primary concern is safety. Is it possible for the corrosion to be so deep that it hinders the integrity of the barrel?

The 'corrosion' shouldn't be a problem.
Choot-it!

As said above get the load out then use krol oil then use transmisson fluid

As said above get the load out then use krol oil then use transmisson fluid

If not comfortable shooting it out, put a little water in the barrel and use a bullet puller.

The corrosion shouldn't create a safety issue, try to fire it and see if it will go. Kroil is a great penetrating fluid for getting stuff unstuck. Patches with Kroil and JB Bore Paste can go a long way toward cleaning up the bore corrosion.

Thanks for the tips. I'll clean the flash hole and see if it will fire. If not I guess I'll soak her for a while. Doesn't help that I lost my breech plug wrench a while back.

I must admit[red-faced] that there were a couple of seasons where I left my beloved MZ loaded from one to the next[un-cleaned]. The barrel is still as smooth as a babies butt.

With a 209 type breech plug in a tip open rifle, I've been able to unload them with a air compressor blow gun with the rubber tip.

Something like in this Sears ad.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/par...se&utm_term=9-16337&sid=SPDxBING

No slam on the bro, but I'd be wondering if he knew what he was doing when he loaded it. I'd soak it and try to pull it. Or have him shoot it.

What kind of powder?

Don't know where you are at but if anywhere near me we can look inside with the borescope and you'll know exactly what the condition is.

I left Goex in for a year and the result was quite bad. Couldn't get a patch down without it getting tore up. I took a shotgun brush with solvent and scrubbed it. That smoothed it enough to get a patch in to clean it. Followed that up with JB paste to smooth it a little. In the end the borescope showed substantial pitting that was never going to come out but patches and bullets now slid down normally. Accuracy was still quite good at 50 yds. Can't be sure it was degraded.

Well that sucks.

If it was me, I'd probably pull the bullet. I'm not familiar with that rifle how it comes apart, not sure if you can get the barrel off the stock. I would think so. If so, take the barrel out of the stock get a pan of boiling water and soak the breech end in the boiling water, then take it out and hopefully the plug should come out. Don't know what kind of bp tool you will need, but its gonna be tight I'm sure. If that doesn't work, soak the heck out of it with Kroil for a while and retry.


Once you get it out scrub the heck out of it with a wire brush, clean as good as you can then use JB a bunch to help imrpove the condition of the barrel. Even with pitting it should still shoot fine, and the actual integrity of the barrel is not damaged - just the accuracy may not be quite as good.

I'd also let your bro know what he did. Good luck

If it won't shoot out, first priority is to pull the breech plug. Kroil in a can, put the breech end in the can and go fiddle with something else for a few days. With the plug out the rest if fairly straightforward.

One of my retarded neighbors did much the same in a T/C ML some years back and came to me for remedy. After a thorough tongue lashing and treatment per the above, the issue was settled. Bore in the chamber region badly pitted, but accuracy did not suffer substantially. He was using 777 and thought it gave license to forget about cleaning.

Had that been my gun-on-loan, I would have called the brother every evening of the hunt, just to make sure the ML that I owned got cleaned.

I shoot my MLs after a day's hunt. I wouldn't borrow my muzzleloader to anyone, without following the same instructions on shooting it everyday and cleaning it afterwards.

Hey, that's just me and we are all different creatures.

I'll confess to occasionally leaving a charge in place for extended periods of time, but I never experienced rust/pitting in the chamber area as a result. I posit that that condition would mainly result if the gun were stored in a non-climate controlled environment where the air carries a high moisture content. My guns live in a well air conditioned room in summer and well heated in winter and issues related to moisture are never a problem- yet we here experience some mighty muggy conditions through the middle of each year.

Give the gun to your Brother. as it is a worthless piece of crap, the blowby in the receiver will gum up the firing pin needing to be tore down and cleaned after each session of firing. It will drive him crazy trying to keep it firing.

love stories about lent out firearms.......

Bought an Austin Halleck 420 from my local shop. The price was right so I took a chance. It looked good from the outside.
After I cleaned it up and looked down the barrel there was pitting where the powder sits in front of the breech plug. The rest of the barrel is great. Rifle shoots great. Breech plug was flawless. Which means the barrel must be made from something not as substantial as the breech plug.
Hope you get it apart and see what you've got.