I have a TC Omega Muzzleloader. It shoots fine but the breech plug is seized. I busted some time ago I busted a breech plug wrench trying to remove it. So I figured I'd wait until after the season. Here I am, the barrel removed from the stock, the scope and wrings removed. At the moment it is upright with kroil soaking around the outside of the plug. Not sure if should squirt some down the barrel to get at it from the inside of the barrel, I guess I could swab a patch up against the plug and hope some soaks in around it.
I don't have a barrel vise. I have a regular vise and wrapping the barrel in a towel it just spins in the vise. I'm hoping to get it loose enough so that I can get it out with this set up.
Anything else I can do? Heat it up with a blow drier? Thanks
Yes, put some Kroil down the barrel as well as external and wait. Probably need more heat than a blow dryer will supply. Propane torch used carefully will help. A true barrel vise is ideal but a heavy bench vise may do with fitted hard wood, preferably oak, jaw inserts. Powdered rosin on the wood blocks helps also.
A few cycles of heating with a propane torch followed by a spoonful of penetrating oil will probably loosen it up. I prefer acetone and ATF mixed 50/50 but Kroil might do it too. Might smack the end of the wrench with a mallet a few times while it’s hot to help shock it loose.
Not need to get anything overly hot, you don’t want to change any heat treat or get anything red hot. Hot enough the oil is smoking off but no more than that.
You might soak it from the back end for a day or two, then turn it over and put some down the barrel from the muzzle and let it soak into that side for a while. Get it from both directions that way.
After a soak of kroil from both sides of breech plug, use an impact gun with a stout socket and extension. The hammering action can loosen up a stuck bolt far better than twisting torque.
Set the barrel up in a drill press or a Bridgeport mill. Drill and tap the seized plug out and buy a replacement plug. If it's got an oddball thread on the plug, Victor Machinery Co. (www.victornet.com) probably has the right size tap. If you're dealing with a stainless steel barrel and/or plug, the threads are probably galled and the plug can't be removed by any normal methods.
Thanks for the feedback. I was able to get it out. I had been treating the outside of the plug a bit at a time with Kroil over the last couple of weeks, but a healthy shot down the barrel and then swabbed up against the breech plug seems to have helped.
Also, I don't have a barrel vise, but I do have a tipton vise. I put the barrel back in the stock and secured it in the tipton. Then with a socket wrench I was able to get enough grip to budge. That first little bit made a terrible sound and didn't budge much. But from there it got better and came wright out. Relieved.
Find a can of Break Away, I have always been a faithful devotee of Kroil, but a seized Browning Auto-5 20ga choke made me a believer in Break Away.
Long story short, friend told me that he used Break Away on plow point bolts, almost guaranteed it to work. I ordered a can, 24hrs after I inverted the barrel into the Break Away filled pvc pipe I use to soak seized tubes, it screwed out with very little effort. Not much more effort than a well snugged tube.
It is the only thing I have found that works as good or slightly better than Kroil.
Stinks to me though.
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A friend of mine last summer dropped off a cva apollo he got at a yard sale for $20 and there was nothing that would help to remove the rusted in breach plug. I removed the trigger group and busted out the heavy torch and heated till red, came out then. Then just reblued the heated area, gun shot good. Had to pull the bullet out first, good thing I checked before the torching.
I don’t know if it is or not, I don’t know what the heat treat specs are for tie rod ends. Do know that I don’t want any annealing or embrittlement with a piece of pipe that’s engineered and heat treated to contain multi thousand PSI explosions beside my face.
In a pinch, drill a hole in a wood block as close to thebarrel diameteras possible, hardwood preferably. Cut in half to create two halves of the hole to create a clamp. Clamp the block in the vice or a hydraulic press and its as close to a barrel vise as it gets.
Originally Posted by BrentD
I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.
asking this for my knowledge, is the breach plug heat treated? I would see no reason for it to be, but I don't know. If it is, yes heating it red hot will affect it, but if it is just 1018 or something else in mild steel, don't see it does much to it.
I may not be smart but I can lift heavy objects
I have a shotgun so I have no need for a 30-06.....
The penetrating oil from both sides and sitting a few days. Did you put antiseize on the threads before reinstalling? Be Well, RZ.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill.
I know nobody here would heat one without checking BUT, some years ago a local 'smith sent a load through his shop wall doing just that. Apparently never checked to see if it was even loaded before he headed for the torch. He's long gone now. It wasn't a story he liked to have get around. Don't be that guy...
Keep your plowshare and your sword, know when and how to use them.
I started muzzle loading hobby in the '60's, never had to pull a breech plug, one of my guns was made in San Francisco in 1859, I doubt the breech plug was ever pulled....So is this a THING with the LGBTQ stainless inline crowd?
Well this is a fine pickle we're in, should'a listened to Joe McCarthy and George Orwell I guess.
I know nobody here would heat one without checking BUT, some years ago a local 'smith sent a load through his shop wall doing just that. Apparently never checked to see if it was even loaded before he headed for the torch. He's long gone now. It wasn't a story he liked to have get around. Don't be that guy...
When I was in gunsmithing school in Denver several decades ago, there was this nice hole in the overhead of my bench...... IIRC, that too was a heated ML, not checked for load by a predecessor
I know nobody here would heat one without checking BUT, some years ago a local 'smith sent a load through his shop wall doing just that. Apparently never checked to see if it was even loaded before he headed for the torch. He's long gone now. It wasn't a story he liked to have get around. Don't be that guy...
When I was in gunsmithing school in Denver several decades ago, there was this nice hole in the overhead of my bench...... IIRC, that too was a heated ML, not checked for load by a predecessor
Happens a lot more than you would think....or double loaded, etc.
A rubber tipped blow gun on an air compressor will blow the bullet down the bore. I put a rag on the floor and blow the bore while touching the rag....very easy and safe.
Originally Posted by BrentD
I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.
Had a Knight’s in-line with a frozen breach plug I ended up drilling it for an easy-out to remove it. New plug pretty much a sure thing that’s going to be needed.
Isn't the Omega breach plug the same or similar to the Encore? I can put a socket on my Encore plug. Big wrench and good vise holding the barrel after its had a penetrating oil soak should do it.
I'd plug the breech plug and put a healthy dose down the barrel and stand it up and let it sit a few days.
I'd agree....I don't know about metallurgy but I'm not heating steel red hot not knowing what it'll do for the structural integrity. Maybe it's OK? Do I want 40+k PSI 2 inches from my face in compromised metal? Nope!
Also good call on making dang sure it's not loaded.
I bought an Encore and the guy shipped it to my shop....we did the transfer....went home to inspect it. Pushed out a couple pellets and a power belt. Never assume a muzzleloader is unloaded. Verify.
I pull my plug every cleaning, clean it and then put antiseize on the threads just to make sure I don't get it stuck.
well after hearing all this breech plug trouble i took my Omega breech plug out with my socket/set kit i put in my musket box cleaned the plug and put new breech plug lube on it. thanks for the reminder,Pete53
I have 150lb air pressure here. It will not budge any bullet in the 3 of my 50 cal rifles. Doesn't matter which bullets either. I have 5 different conical bullet molds, round balls and sabots. NONE will blow out with air.
I know nobody here would heat one without checking BUT, some years ago a local 'smith sent a load through his shop wall doing just that. Apparently never checked to see if it was even loaded before he headed for the torch. He's long gone now. It wasn't a story he liked to have get around. Don't be that guy...
When I was in gunsmithing school in Denver several decades ago, there was this nice hole in the overhead of my bench...... IIRC, that too was a heated ML, not checked for load by a predecessor
Happens a lot more than you would think....or double loaded, etc.
Yup, I have a good friend missing his right thumb do to a similar accident. The guy who brought the gun in swore he "didn't know it was loaded".