Prof Young
New member
Fire pole shooters:
If you wanna cut to the chase tell me how to get a 50 call ball out of a ten inch single shot pistol barrel!
If you wanna hear the whole crazy story . . . read on.
Some time ago I posted about building a Hawken pistol out of a kit I bought via an auction. Well I got the thing done and it looks good. Will post pic at another time.
Problem one is that the cap does not ignite until the second strike of the hammer. What gives with that? At first I thought the nipple was not lining up correctly with the hammer, but if that was the case it wouldn't ever fire.
So I take it to the range. First shot takes two hits of the hammer on the primer but the ball leaves the gun and punctures the target 7 yards down range.
The second shot I aim more careful and dang if the ball doesn't leave a hole just about where I was aiming.
Thirds shot, takes three strikes for the cap to fire, but nothing happens. I put on a second cap. Two hammer strikes later I get a bunch of smoke out the barrel but no ball. (That thing couldn't have just rolled out of there could it.) So I'm guessing the patch and ball somehow did not make a complete seal and the power (pyrodex) just burned instead of exploding. I tried the old trick of taking the nipple assembly screw out and pouring some more powder in there but no such luck. (What do you call the little barrel the nipple screws into? Does it unscrew and come out?)
I bought a patch and ball remover "screw" that fits the ram rod but there ain't no way that thing is going to bore into that hard lead ball.
So how do I get the ball out?
Can I get it out by inertia, like an inertial bullet puller. Granted I couldn't hit it down on to anything harder than a plastic or wood surface.
Here's the particulars. I'm using 30 grains of pyrodex, behind a pre treated patch and a 50 cal ball that I think was designed for BP revolvers. But 50 cal is 50 call right.
So . . . . . HELP!
Life is good.
Prof Young
If you wanna cut to the chase tell me how to get a 50 call ball out of a ten inch single shot pistol barrel!
If you wanna hear the whole crazy story . . . read on.
Some time ago I posted about building a Hawken pistol out of a kit I bought via an auction. Well I got the thing done and it looks good. Will post pic at another time.
Problem one is that the cap does not ignite until the second strike of the hammer. What gives with that? At first I thought the nipple was not lining up correctly with the hammer, but if that was the case it wouldn't ever fire.
So I take it to the range. First shot takes two hits of the hammer on the primer but the ball leaves the gun and punctures the target 7 yards down range.
The second shot I aim more careful and dang if the ball doesn't leave a hole just about where I was aiming.
Thirds shot, takes three strikes for the cap to fire, but nothing happens. I put on a second cap. Two hammer strikes later I get a bunch of smoke out the barrel but no ball. (That thing couldn't have just rolled out of there could it.) So I'm guessing the patch and ball somehow did not make a complete seal and the power (pyrodex) just burned instead of exploding. I tried the old trick of taking the nipple assembly screw out and pouring some more powder in there but no such luck. (What do you call the little barrel the nipple screws into? Does it unscrew and come out?)
I bought a patch and ball remover "screw" that fits the ram rod but there ain't no way that thing is going to bore into that hard lead ball.
So how do I get the ball out?
Can I get it out by inertia, like an inertial bullet puller. Granted I couldn't hit it down on to anything harder than a plastic or wood surface.
Here's the particulars. I'm using 30 grains of pyrodex, behind a pre treated patch and a 50 cal ball that I think was designed for BP revolvers. But 50 cal is 50 call right.
So . . . . . HELP!
Life is good.
Prof Young