Yeah it was the pink TC teflon tape. That stuff dried to a crusty texture and i had to use a wirebrush to get it out of the threads. I shoot the winchester today, this time with cva breechplug grease and didnt have a problem. I also tried some Meteour black powder with those 385 great plains bullets, 1st-2nd shot were dead center and 6" high " 50 yards" 3ed shot was horrible, it got stuck halfway down the barrel and i had to pull the breechplug and push it out. Actually i had to hammer it out thats how hard it was. Was that Mr. Crud ring? lol. That powder was horrible! I'll never use that again in my inline. Does great in my flintlock, how? i have no clue. I swabbed it all out and put it back together and this time used pyrodex and 295 grain powerbelts with 80 grains pyrodex. Back on target and about 9" high. I have to sight in with the powerbelts sometime later on. Breechplug popped right out after those 6 shots. It was nice to shoot again though. I'll be looking for new sights, my frontsight keeps coming loose and points to the right. I wonder is that gorilla glue would work?