Help I got a bullet stuck!
 

That is what I heard when a friend called me a couple days ago. I said it is ok we can get it out. He said no it is real stuck! I said how bad can it be. He said it has been loaded for 20 years! I am like and now your worried about it? The gun is a TC hawken 50 cal.

So I fire up the endoscope and look down it.



I thought now something looks odd here. I ran the rod down the barrel and it looked like it was too far out to be seated to the powder.
He was very vague on facts so I decided to lean to the side of caution. I first tried air. :surrender:

That wasn't going to work. So I dug out my kit and got out a grease zerk. Well my grease zerk would not work with the TC breach plug. After I got it seated the fitting on the pump would not go on because it was too close. So down to the Napa store I go and get a 1/4x28 1" long. Well I put it in and gave it a few pumps. It was tight as Heck and the pressure really started to build. Then pop, it gave and started down the barrel. I hooked the air back up and out she came. This is what came out. I have it in the picture just like it came out.



In this next picture you can see the ball better but it was flat. The flat side is the side that was sticking out.



It was right at the muzzle so I screwed in the ball puller and pulled it the rest of the way out.
I cleaned out the grease and scrubbed it good with a brush but it was super rusty in the breach plug/breach.



I then pushed a brush into the breach and scrubbed it. Then I used JB bore paste and put 200 strokes down the barrel.





I pushed a wad down the barrel with the endoscope to get more light in the barrel to see the sides better.





Most of the barrel looks okay for being treated like crap for the last 20 years. The plug and breach is another story. He is going to have to work on it some more. Either that or sell it to me. :thumbsup:

I think for now he will be able to shoot it and I think it will probably shoot fine.

what in the world kind of projectile is that? poly patch round ball?

wow, that was a strange one. You did a good job on the barrel.

Nice cleanup........

I am not sure what that bullet is. It doesn't look like a round ball with a polly but I don't know what else it would be. It has a band around it at the flat spot and the bullet measures .537 but that doesn't seem right. but here is the picture.

belted ball, but those are normally round on both ends. A tiny lil semi wad cutter of some sort maybe.

I remeasured that several times. That just don't seem right. The wad is deeper in one end than the other. The ball was seated on the shallow end.

How could that have come out of a 50 caliber barrel?
And nice job, I can't believe how good that barrel looks after you cleaned it up.

I am still not sure how that happened. All I know is it came out of the barrel and the barrel is a 50. I can see why it was stuck. The breech plug is still pretty rough.

After 20 years with powder sitting on it I find it incredible you even got the breech plug OUT. I've seen them so bad you had to use a torch, half gallon of penetrating oil, and a whole lot of cussing to get them broke loose. I honestly wouldn't trust that plug now anyway. Be better to get a new one for it. But that JB paste sure is a wonder aint it!