Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders stuck breach plug

i bought a lyman .54 cal and a cva .50 cal,sidelocks back awhile ago for my 2 youngest sons.both needed some tlc and a little work but the breach plugs on both are siezed up.ive tried everything from kroil to break cleaner to free them up.i even resorted to a pipe wrench and a vise with no luck.i dont want to heat the barrels up and im too cheap to take them to a smith to be drilled out.im almost to the point where they will end up being wall hangers unless someone may have some other ideas i may try.thanks in advance

Sounds like you spent too much $ on wall hangers.

The barrels are not hardened, so heat them to soft cherry with torch, quench in ice water a few times. Get a proper barrel vise and plug remover from Track of the Wolf.
Dump in some serious penetrating oil (Kroil is good but not nasty enough) warm em up again (just till oil starts to vaporize) and let em; sit a week. If they still won't come out, option #2 is to cut them off in front of the touch hole, rethread and start with a new breech plug and touchhole. To save a repeat only use real black powder in the future.

Black powder shooting is not for Scroogs.

You could have bought them 2 of these and they would have the pride of contruction and ownership.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting/Black-Powder/Traditional-Rifles-Shotguns|/pc/104792580/c/104701680/sc/104641380/Traditions8482-Kentucky-Rifle-Kit/706190.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fshooting-black-powder-traditional-rifles-shotguns%2F_%2FN-1100202%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104641380%3FWTz_l%3DUnknown&WTz_l=Unknown%3Bcat104641380

Good luck !

#1 these breech plugs are NOT intended to be removed, ever!

They are not inlines and do not have to be removed for cleaning.

Whats the reason behind trying to remove them?

what Bigblock said .
that being siad , they will come out but its tough .
with the CVA you have to remove the drum bolster first as it threads through the barrel and into the breechplug .
buth rifles have mechine set plugs . as such they are put in under pressure . as i said , not alot of fun to get out

i do know one has something stuck in the barrel.not sure but im thinking it looks like a bore brush.i have tried everything to dislodge it but it wont come loose.i was going to remove the breech plug and try to push out the obstrction that way.the lyman on the other hand im thinking is just fine.

i got a good deal on them both but i was hoping my sons would get some use from them dont really want to hang them on the wall

PS .
i would NOT recomment heating the barrels to cherry red .
you dont need that much heat .
when it comes to CVA rifles . i also wouldnt bet on the barrels not being hardened . they very greatly .
infact so much so that i have came to the point where i would rather engrave a centerfire barrel then do the same work on alot of CVA rifles .

heating a gun barrel to higher temps imparts stresses into that barrel exspecialy if you quench it .
these stresses were eather taken out of the barrel or normalized when the barrel was made so that the stress is equil down the barrel .

if you have a bore brush stuck. there are two ways to remove it .
one is to make a twisted wire like a tow worm that you twist around the leanght of the brush , then pull it out . another way is to simply go down and get a section of copper tube that will fit inside the bore . push it past the brush . the brush will then be inside the tube and you can simply pull the tube back out . the brush will be inside it

I'd dribble some 3f pyrodex under the nipple and fire that brush out, IF that is whats in there. Kids tends to drop real centerfire ammo down the bores at times so you better make darn sure its actually a brush.

I had to do this once with my Renegade after my ramrod broke with a cleaning jag. A little "poof" and was good to go.
Like stated above, be certain what is obstructing it first.

if its a solid object like a cleaning jag with a patch , your probably could blow it easy enough . but i have never had much luck with blowing a brush . it simply cant build enough pressure infrount of it to disloadge it fromt he barrel . now if it has a patch around it , then yep she should come right out

When you do get it out, throw your bronze brush away and replace it with a stiff nylon bore brush, these things last a ton longer and i've never had one get bound up at the bottom of the bore.

cant ya get a narrow beam of flashlight pointing down into the bore and see what it might be

i know when i clean mine
i take a mini mag light and narrow its beam and can hold at certain angle and look right down my bore all the way


might help ya out to find out what it is


you might have to make some type of home worm

upsized slightly for more strenght
coat hanger type of rig
who knows???

if it is a bore brush and you can see it witha flashlight and it still has treads on it
you might be able to screww a rod or adapter for its size back on it and get it out?????

the copper tube is a great idea!!!!!!!!!!!
lube up the outside of it some?????

With a side lock gun Why on earth would you want to take out the breach plug .It only hold the nipple in for the cap to set powder charge off. If you have to do this clean it up good then weld it in with a nickle rod or stainless rod after screwing it in

you completely lost me with that savage ? .

Here in lies the problem...you bought crap for cheap to put ya in this position and now cheap is keeping you from having some one competent try to salvage your cheapitude

yep that about sums it up.i was hoping to do minimal work outside of a re-blue job and a nipple change.the .54 cal is fine its the cva hawkin where the problem lies.im going to give a couple ideas including the copper tubing idea a shot today since it looks like mother nature dosent want me to go into work today.

thanks everyone for the ideas.

Heck, for all the work you would have in it, I'd just find a used barrel on one of the auction sites. 50 bucks, and you're in business....

Personally I don�t see the problem .
So you have an obstruction stuck in the bore and have to spend alittle time getting it out ..
simply put , you bought someone elses problem

And don�t be brazing or high temp soldering the plug back in .
Fellas if you run across a rifle in which that�s been done . Eather don�t buy it or just hang it on the wall

if the threads on the plug are that bad , just replace the plug with a new one .

Fat Daddy , if you cant get the obstruction out . send me a PM and ill help you get it cleared or instruct you as to how to take the plugs out and put them back in , the correct way