Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How the hell do I fix this?

Cleaning my old TC Hawken, the fourth patch the jag and patch stuck, hard, at the bottom. Was giving the ramrod hell pulling trying to get it out and “WHACK” it breaks off a couple inches down from the muzzle. Can get ahold of it and even if I could it’s stuck like a bitch.

Drill baby drill. Either that or take it to the 'smith.

Did you try a long brass rod - pound it out from whence it came?

I'm willing to bet that the jag you used was manufactured in chiner.

A little bit of priming powder.
Bloooop. Finding it might suck.

A little bit of priming powder.
Bloooop. Finding it might suck.


Compressed air, or one of those cleaning things th at y re CO2.

Screw a grease zerk in place of the nipple, push it out with a grease gun

^^^THIS^^^

I was debating this but was wondering if it was the alcohol making it seem like a reasonable idea....

That’s actually genius.

Dillenbuck is the right way to get it out... I have done 5 or 6 with no problem...except finding the piece in the grass..the grease will work but you will have a barrel full of grease to mess with..

I just learned about this the other day. Neat trick,

Stole it from my son. He had just the brass end come off.

Ha ha! what a [bleep]' dumbass. God damn, you just can't make this [bleep] up.

Get a straw or pen or something to mark the depth
Pull the nipple and drop about 10grains down the fire channel slowly so it can get into the barrel from the 90 turn in the fire channel.
Have muzzle pointed down

Put nipple back on
Tilt muzzle up
Put some oil in it from the muzzle to give that patch some lube

Cap and fire it.
Check with the reference depth.
See if it moved.
Might even take a couple times doing this to move it.
Let the original lube from.1st time continue to soak

You might get lucky and the 1st time it goes out or gives you enough the grab onto with vice grips.



Dont ask me how I know this...
Just read the username........

Never had to do it myself, but I’d try sprinkling a few grains of powder through the nipple if I was in a hurry to get it out. Pretty sure Thompsons got a patent breech like most every percussion Hawken-type rifle.

This means the flash channel from the nipple makes a right angle turn to the center of the breech face so any powder you sprinkle down the nipple vent has to be below the stuck patch.

By way of comparison the vents on my flinters open through the side of the barrel at the breech.

Some good suggestions already. The grease zerk idea sounds effective, but messy. I'd try compressed air first. Maybe squirt some penetrating oil in beforehand.

If you use compressed air - make doubly sure it's pointed in a safe direction !

Pellet guns, and spear guns are NOT to be trifled with !!!!

All of this will work, I once shot a stuck single shot percussion pistol ramrod about 100 yards with just a few grains of black poured through the flash hole.

But IIRC from my old T/C Hawken, don't they have a removable breech plug? Seems like you could unscrew that and tap it out from the breech end.

Prob’ly you ain’t fired muzzleloader much, stuff getting stuck is sorta common when you’re shoving stuff down a blind-ended tube.

I don’t clean with a wooden ramrod, they can break.

Shoving an insufficiently lubed or dry tight-fitting patch down the barrel will stick at the breech most every time, even in a clean barrel. I have found pouring a little water down the barrel unsticks a stuck patch most every time.

Sheroy that is a muzzle loader used in shooting and hunting. It is a precursor to the modern firearm,

It is not a strange man's penis sticking out in glory hole in a greyhound bus station . Why do anti hunting fairies populate this site?


That is a cool trick with the grease gun. I always used the CO 2 cartridge thing

Carry on

Had a CO2 unloader but no cartridge, I’m not mixing gun powder and alcohol, so I tried the grease gun and it worked like a charm.

Question 2:
What’s the best way to clean all that grease out of my barrel now?
Best replacement wood ramrod?