Hunting Forum

I'm new to the inline world and on my first day at the range experienced a bit of a problem. I bought a Traditions Thunderbolt from a friend. No problem with the gun. It's like new. Tried shooting 100 gr white hot pellets under 223 gr. powerbelts. I had a couple misfires and hang fires but that's not the biggest problem. On the seventh load I had a misfire. I removed the breech plug and was able to get both powder pellets out but the bullet is stuck in the bore. I tried to push it out with the ram rod in both directions and it won't budge. Any ideas on how to get it out? I was afraid to try hammering on the rod or using a wooden dowel for fear of damaging the gun. Help please!

That's unusual, Power Belt bullets are normally undersized and slide down the barrel easily. The only part that makes contact with the barrel is the plastic skirt. Some folks have even complained of them sliding out of their barrels.
You might try removing the barrel from the rifle, remove the bolt and breech plug, and submerse the end of the barrel in a bucket of hot water. After it's sit there for a few minutes, try pushing the bullet out with your ram rod. If it still doesn't move, try a hardwood dowel rod and lightly tap the end of the dowel rod with a hammer or other suitable object.
After you get the bullet out, give the barrel a good scrubbing with the hot soapy water.

With the breech plug out, point muzzle down snd squirt a little WD-40 on the PB wait a minute then turn barrel with Muzzle up and squirt some WD- down takes a little more but won't hert any thing, then tak a Wooden Dowel insert in muzzle end and tap PB out the breech plug hole. I had to do that once don't know why, but the slug it self had rifle markings on it when I got it out. I have never seen white hot pellets but pryodex pellets have a certain way to be inserted or they won't/ or arent supposed to fire off, One end has slightly rounded shape that side goes toward the primer.

To beat a bullet out you need to chuck the barrel tightly in a padded vice. Soak the bullet on both ends with Kroil or some other good penetrating oil and let set a few mins at least. Then, use a metal rod os as close to bore diameter as you without having to hammer the rod in. Wood dowels will splinter and smaller metla rods will ben to contact the rifling and may dingit as you do this. Take it from the front and put the rod right to the bullet nose then with a mallet commence to whacking away to hammer it our the back.

Were I the one doing this if the hammer trick did not work relatively easily I would next apply a blow torch to the barrel around the stuck bullet just long enough to heat it to the point that the plastic woudl soften and then knock it out following this with a judicious barrel scrubbing with plastic solvent like Diesel fuel.

You can buy a can of Acetone and from the breech end with the barrel removed pour some down the barrel and it will melt the plastic sabot and then just keep cleaning with the Acetone till all the plastic is gone and then clean as you normally would. Oh Yeah ! Don't use the Powerbelts again and go with another bullet. Apparently you either got some Powerbelts with oversize sabots or you barrel is a little undersized. You can slug the barrel and know for sure which is the case.

It sounds like, after several rounds, there has been a build up of powder crud in the barrel. It was probably rather hard to even get the round to go down as far as it went. I would think that anything that would dissolve the crud would allow the bullet to be pushed out.

Thanks everyone. Goose was right. I poured some powder solvent in and scrubbed in front of and behind the bullet. After some good elbow grease and some time for the solvent to work I was able to push it out (with some difficulty) with the ramrod. Like I said, I'm new at this and guess I just shot a little too much without swabbing the bore. So my next question is how often should I swab between shots? I've read that a clean bore doesn't pattern the same as a fouled one.

I also wanted to mention that I solved the mis/hang fire situation. I contacted White Hot and they said not to use 777 primers. Their pellets are harder to ignite and require I full power shotgun primer. I switched to Winchester blue box and had no problems.

I swab using a wet patch (TC No. 13 bore cleaner) followed by a dry patch after every three shots. If I go much more than that the bullet gets hard to seat and more importantly my groups open up. I shoot 100 grains (2 pellets) pyrodex over a 250 gr shockwave (sabot) with Rem 209 Premier SST Primers or Winchester 209s in my .50 cal TC Omega.

I am by no means an expert with blackpowder guns. This is the only one I have owned and shoot. I mostly hunt with it. I only spend enough time on the range to make sure I know when the trigger will break and to make sure it is sighted in. I shot it three times this past Sunday afternoon. The three shots were just under 1 M.O.A and 2 inches high at 100 yrds. The last time I shot it was last year when I took my second to last deer for the season.

Trust this helps some....

BTW I shoot alot more that once a year to get ready for hunting season. I just prefer to shoot my high power rifles to practive marksmanship.

Posted By jboshoven on 10 Oct 2012 12:34 PM 
I shoot 100 grains (2 pellets) pyrodex over a 250 gr shockwave (sabot) with Rem 209 Premier SST Primers or Winchester 209s in my .50 cal TC Omega. 

jboshoven, I'm suprised you can get the gun to shoot at all, much less poke holes in anything in front of the gun.  Shouldn't you be putting the bullet over the powder instead of the other way around?

Crosby87, Good news you got the bullet out.
  If I'm just playing around on the range to burn up some powder, I may shoot a half dozen rounds before I swab the barrel, and that also depends on the powder I'm using.  If I'm hunting or sighting in for a hunt, I'll shoot my first shot from a cold clean lubed barrel and then fire one follow-up shot from a dirty barrel.  After that, I'll take the time to at least run a wet and then a dry patch down my barrel and let it cool before reloading again.  For hunting purposes, I want to know where that first shot out of a cold clean lubed barrel will hit and then where will the next shot hit after I do a quick reload.

I use only real Black Powder even in my inline. I have a certain ritual that I follow when I shoot. I first run a patch with alcohol down my clean barrel to remove the oil followed up by two dry patches. I then load and shoot for accuracy. After each shot I run an alcohol patch and two dry ones down the barrel. I then go look for the patch or sabot and check the target and return. I reload and shoot again and swab and do it all over again. This makes for a bit slower range session but gives me the best possibility to sight in and shoot each shot from a relatively clean barrel which is how I hunt. It also gives me time between each shot to let the barrel cool and to think about the shot.  For a range session I highly recommend a solid core range rod.  I have a jointed, solid aluminum rod with a T handle to do the barrel chores.  It is much easier to use than the ramrod which I leave in the gun.

grandpops - good point, maybe I should load it the other way around

my bad

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