I've got an Uberti Dragoon here that I just realized was packed incorrectly by somebody that was helping me with maintenance and packing for my relocation to the west coast. Unfortunately, it appears that this particular firearm was not oiled, and left with two cylinders packed.
If you are not familiar with this particular revolver, it is a .44/.451 caliber, _black powder_ revolver. It uses primer caps, grease, black powder (I hope to GOD it's packed with Pyrodex and not the black powder right now-- isn't black powder corrosive if it's in contact with steel that hasn't been treated properly?), cotton wadding, and musket balls. It has a lever below the pistol barrel that is utilized for packing the rounds quickly. Nice replica of the earlier US Army Colt models.
Sooo. It looks like it's rusting in some areas that are getting damn close to pitting. I need to take care of it, and I need to take care of it NOW, if I'm going to salvage that firearm. I've been able to buff and chemically treat most of the rust away, but those 2 remaining packed cylinders I haven't touched.
The state of those cylinders are as follows: the primer caps, originally copper colored, are now faded to dull metallic silver. Judging by previous experience with that kind of primer cap, I believe that they are completely inert at this point, but I'm not going to take any chances, especially in an urban setting where I can't sneak out in the trees to discharge it into the dirt, if it even fires.
The rest of the cylinder, from primer nipple to musketball, is loaded with ~40-45 gr. of Pyrodex (*fingers crossed* on this one), a greased cotton wadding, and then the musket balls.
The reason that I'm asking about this is because the nipples have such a small diameter hole to potentially stick something in to push out the load that I don't really have any tools other than metal. Having known a fellow who blew a chunk out of his calf about the size of a golfball when trying to pack a pipebomb with black powder with a metallic ramming rod (GREAT IDEA, BRO!), I'm a little hesitant to stick a piece of metal in there and start shoving or stirring it up.
Does anybody have any idea of what might be done about this? Concepts I've considered include immersing the entire revolver cylinder in a solvent or other liquid to render any remaining, viable Pyrodex inert, before jamming something in there, and I guess that's really about it. I do not want to lose this pistol, it's a very beautiful piece, and has had very few rounds put through it. Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.
-=-

"It is no measure of good health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

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þ Synchronet þ Tinfoil Tetrahedron BBS telnet or ssh -p 2222 to tinfoil.synchro.net

I've got an Uberti Dragoon here that I just realized was packed incorrectly by somebody that was helping me with maintenance and packing
for my relocation to the west coast. Unfortunately, it appears that this particular firearm was not oiled, and left with two cylinders packed.
If you are not familiar with this particular revolver, it is a .44/.451 caliber, _black powder_ revolver. It uses primer caps, grease, black
powder (I hope to GOD it's packed with Pyrodex and not the black powder right now-- isn't black powder corrosive if it's in contact with steel that hasn't been treated properly?), cotton wadding, and musket balls. It has a lever below the pistol barrel that is utilized for packing the rounds quickly. Nice replica of the earlier US Army Colt models.
Sooo. It looks like it's rusting in some areas that are getting damn close to pitting. I need to take care of it, and I need to take care of it NOW, if I'm going to salvage that firearm. I've been able to buff and chemically treat most of the rust away, but those 2 remaining packed cylinders I haven't touched.
The state of those cylinders are as follows: the primer caps, originally copper colored, are now faded to dull metallic silver. Judging by previous experience with that kind of primer cap, I believe that they are completely inert at this point, but I'm not going to take any chances, especially in
an urban setting where I can't sneak out in the trees to discharge it into the dirt, if it even fires.
The rest of the cylinder, from primer nipple to musketball, is loaded
with ~40-45 gr. of Pyrodex (*fingers crossed* on this one), a greased
cotton wadding, and then the musket balls.
The reason that I'm asking about this is because the nipples have such a small diameter hole to potentially stick something in to push out the load that I don't really have any tools other than metal. Having known a fellow who blew a chunk out of his calf about the size of a golfball when trying
to pack a pipebomb with black powder with a metallic ramming rod (GREAT IDEA, BRO!), I'm a little hesitant to stick a piece of metal in there and start shoving or stirring it up.
Does anybody have any idea of what might be done about this? Concepts I've considered include immersing the entire revolver cylinder in a solvent or other liquid to render any remaining, viable Pyrodex inert, before jamming something in there, and I guess that's really about it. I do not want to lose this pistol, it's a very beautiful piece, and has had very few rounds put through it. Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.
-=-

"It is no measure of good health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -- Jiddu Krishnamurti

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þ Synchronet þ Tinfoil Tetrahedron BBS telnet or ssh -p 2222 to tinfoil.synchro.net

Remove the percussion caps, use compressed air into the nipple to blow the powder and ball out of the cylinder. This can be facilitated by removing the cylinder if possible....

KU2S

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þ Synchronet þ The Lost Chord BBS, Cheyenne, WY - tlcbbs.synchro.net:6080