ArizonaShooting.com

This morning I picked up a Cabellas Hawkings .50 from Freshmeat, a member here on AZS. Overall it is very good shape with a few stock bangs and such, but there was one little problem. Freshmeat's friend managed to break off the end of the ram rod in the barrel, almost at the breech plug. I had to clear the barrel if I wanted anything more than a wall hanger.
The cap nipple is 6mm x.75 thread, which just happens to be the same thread as a metric grease zerk fitting. I removed the barrel and nipple, installed a metric grease zerk and grabbed the grease gun and went to town. In less the 5 minutes, the end of the rod and patch were pushed out of the barrel by the grease, a quick blow out of the barrel with compressed nitrogen and a good washing out with brake cleaner and a barrel brush and it is good to go.

Here is the thing that caused all the problems



The gease zerk in place of the precussion cap nipple

the tools I used


and here it is, ready to go to the range and let the world hear it's roar.

Nice job on a good looking rifle.

Congrats dude! I commend you on using your noodle! Let physics work FOR you.

thats real good thinking!..ive seen people use
compressed air ...
and ive seen a portable kit that uses a fitting
and a co2 cartridge advertised in a muzzleloader magazine..
who knows! with some r&d you may have uncovered a nitch market!

WTF was the previous (X2) owner trying to stuff down the barrel, a washcloth??!!

Great buy on the Hawkin (almost snagged it before ya ).

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It was a cleaning patch that was over the cleaning jag. He pushed it down and it then got stuck, when he tried to pull the rod out, he snapped it off at the metal end.
I thought about trying the CO2 cartridges but I was afraid of shooting the thing out under pressure, so I came up with the grease gun, it came out slow and controlable. Only thing wrong I see right now is a rusty bore, and I am working on that. I am planning on taking it to the range in the morning and letting it clear it's throat.

Well, I am back from the range and that rifle has a loud roar I fired 8 shots with no issues, now to go clean it up some more. Oh and there is nothing like the smell of a freshly fired smoke pole

Ok so the real question is, how'd they do it 200 years ago if something got stuck in the barrel.

I read somewhere that when you accidentally put a ball in before the charge you take off the nipple and pour in what powder you can through the hole and just shoot it out. Same theory?

If it was a ball, I would just use a ball puller. If it was something else, and it was 200yrs ago, I could see using powder or something I came up with would be to fill the barrel with water thru the nipple, plug the nipple, and then set the end of the barrel a fire to boil the water, causing it to turn to steam and use the expanding steam to push the plug out.

I love the idea of the Grease gun !
We have poured powder in through the nipple and ignited it to get a stuck ball out, just had to be careful to make sure the powder filled whatever void the ball left.
The grease gun is much safer, thanks for posting !