Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Bringing Smokepole back from the dead

Maybe you did . But probably what you saw was the back half of the patch .
By chance did you use a store bought gun cleaning patch without cutting it down , with a basic non necked cleaning jag placed on the end of your ram rod
OR
go down an buy one of those special range rods for cleaning . Then put the basic non necked cleaning jag on it with a gun cleaning patch .
OR
maybe you read about the issue with keeping the Lyman improved breech clean , so you bought one of those stepped cleaning jags from Traditions ?

If you used a basic non necked cleaning jag with a regular large square gun cleaning patch , that patch will wad up around the rod as you try and pull it out . Thus it will jam up tight .
If you want to use the large cleaning patches , you for the most part need a necked jag so the exstra material will have a place to go as you pull the RR out .

If you tried one of those step jag and used a proper size and thickness cleaning patch .� IE one only slightly larger then what you would use to shoot a RB with�
Got that down in the bore . Then got the tip stuck in the improved breech .

Lets do this .
Lets start over .
Take your RR , with the end that has lost its tip . Put it back down the bore and into the RR tip if you can . Mark a line on the rr right at the muzzle .
Take the RR out and lay it along the barrel so your mark is even with the muzzle .
Hoe far from the nipple is the broken end of your RR ?

captchee: I did this a little differently from the way you suggested, but I think this will give you a good idea. I ran a coat hanger down the barrel next to the ramrod. It hit bottom, at about an inch above the barrel/plug margin. The jag would add another 3/4 of an inch. Bottom line: The end of the jag is pretty close to end of the barrel.

you actually got a coat hanger size wire past the cleaning jag ??!!!!!!
what size jag did you use . a coat hanger wouldn�t fit past the correct size cleaning jag even without a patch .
for what its worth , the breech plug threads into the barrel a good 3/4 of an inch on your rifle. A standard cleaning jag is � an inch .
If your RR ends up being � in front of the joint of the barrel and plug , then your barrel is empty .
You know . Maybe im just grumpy today . But take the gun to a gunsmith and have him check it out for you . See if there really is anything down there . If so , have it removed


Other wise shoot the jag out . Take your nipple off , and push powder back into the anti chamber of the breech . On the Lyman and Pedersoli plugs they will hold around 15 grains of 3f inside the plug .
Now take your ramrod and make sure the jag is down to the breech face .
Fire the gun . Now re check by dropping the rr down the bore . Either the jag will be gone or it will have moved up the barrel a distance .. In which case you can then load more powder . Drive the jag back down and fire it again .
Even without a patch the jag will fire out
Jus make sure that each time you fire it , �whatever � you have down the bore must be pushed back down to the charge

I wanted to let you all know that the Hawken is back. I worked on it until mid-January, but no amount of PB Blaster, freezing, and other voodoo seemed to work. I sent it off to a gunsmith in January with the admonition that it be done by April 1. The gunsmith laughed and said the Hawken was a no-brainer. He'd pull the breech plug and call me in a week or two. The ensuing chaos is worth describing.

1) I called the gunsmith in late March. He said he hadn't had a chance to look at it.
2) In a subsequent call the gunsmith said he'd ordered a ball puller, because something was in the barrel. I explained that there was a cleaning jag in the barrel. Oh.
3) At the same time as I'd dropped off the Hawken, I had left him a Rem 870 that had some problems loading a second shell. That took three trips to correct. In one return trip, parts were removed from another customer's 870 and used to correct a problem while I watched.
4) I finally got back the Hawken. It was missing the wedge. The cleaning rod showed signs of excessive heating, and there was a scratch in the stock. A new wedge was machined. The scratch is still there. I'm going to order a new rod.
5) I never did get back the gun cases that I left with the guy. He gave me two other that weren't mine. They were nicer than mine, but exceedingly dirty.
6) The magazine of the 870 was wearing someone else's cap-- minus the sling stud. The smith installed a new stud at no charge.

. . . and then I found out the 'smith had been arrested for selling firearms to known felons. I'm just skimming the surface here. I'm still in negotiations for the movie rights to my story. I haven't had time to deal with the Hawken, but the 870 made it through turkey season with incident.

After reading through this post, I really hope you can kill something this Fall season, besides your wallet...

Thanks for a good chuckle!