Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Clean out screw on a Cabelas Investarms .50 Cal

The little screw found on the side of the breach that aids in cleaning the flash hole channel has become troublesome. I would like to replace it but have no idea of the size of the threads in the hole and how long I should make my replacement. I hate that little screw and would like to upgrade to something more useful with a bigger head and made out of something tougher.

Does anybody know where to find such a screw? Do you know what size and thread the thing is?

You'll probably want a screw checker, such as this one from Brownells to find out screw type.

After you've got that bit sorted, you can go in search of a screw.

That said, I use hot soapy water with the nipple taken out and it cleans the channel out perfectly on my percussion rifles.

I have 5 of those, and every one has the screw seized. I never really had a reason to use it. A pipe cleaner goes into the channel just fine. If I was to replace one, I would just drill out the old one, so it would not matter what the heck the thread was. I am sure it is metric. Looks like 3mm, not sure of the thread pitch. If I remember right, it was maybe 3 - 4 mm long. I would go with an allen socket head, but again, I think it is just not needed.

It's troublesome because you probably aren't lubing the threads. I hold the top and bottom of that little screw with a pair of needle-nose pliers and apply this below to the threads. I even use this lube on my nipple threads.

(link) Choke Tube Lube

I replace the clean out screw on all of my sidelocks with 1/4" long 10-32 socket head set screws. If the threads in the breech plug are not already 10-32, I drill them out with a #21 drill bit and re-thread the hole with a 10-32 tap. It's an easy job. And being able to use an Allen wrench to remove the set screw is a whole lot better than monkeying with those slot head screws.

I'll second that, it works better than the stuff advertised for breech plugs. I learned that after relying on gorilla grease and needing to use way too much wrench to get out a breech plug.

Well I have been not using it for a couple of years now and been doing fine. I just thought I would clean it up. Thanks for the heads up on it being metric, that will help with finding a compatible screw.

Well this is a great idea, thanks