Alaric B Snell wrote:

Hello,

I've had passed to me a pellet gun with a barrel of some metal or other
(presumably a steel 'coz it's grey and considering what it's being used
for). The barrel is a tube, and at the back, the breech block screws in.
The whole thing is on a spring; you pull back the spring, unscrew
breech, insert pellet, screw in breech, release spring, pow.

However, there's a mangled pellet or two (a blockage of about an inch in
length!) in the barrel near the back, which I have been tasked to
remove. From shavings pulled out with a pointy stick it appears to be
lead or a similar alloy.

I have some brass rods which are a loose fit in the barrel - so my plan
is to follow the guidelines in Tubal Cain's "Drills, Taps, and Dies" and
make a spade bit out of the brass rod by flattening and sharpening the
end, then proceeding to hand-drill into the blockage. The brass
hopefully won't scratch the interior of the barrel, but I'll test it on
the outside first just in case.

This will still leave a lot of lead on the sides of the barrel - so I
plan to heat my brass rod in the blowtorch until it glows, use it to
melt the lead inside (storing some heat in the barrel too to keep it
molten while I faff about), then use it to push a bit of wire wool
through to soak it up.

So... does anyone have any better ideas?

I have (that I think will be relevant):

1) Torches galore. I can melt the whole thing down if needs be.
2) Brass rods and wire
3) Various files (none small enough to fit in the barrel though)
4) A Dremel with a wide range of accessories
5) Coathanger wire

I don't think I can really seperate the barrel from the spring and the
rest of the gun, so I'm a bit nervous of just heating the whole thing up
to 350 degrees and melting out the lead; this might make the spring rust
or anneal or temper or something bad like that. There's a plastic part
in the safety catch but I can remove that.

TIA,

ABS

Make and model? A replacement part may be available cheap. Crosman and
Daisy parts are silly cheap. This info can also be used to find a parts
diagram of the airgun, to give you some idea as to it's disassembly.

If the barrel can be removed from the rest, use your brass rod as a
drift,and knock the pellets out. If you feel the need, drill a hole
through the mass, then drive the remainder out with a close fitting
punch. Try it with the unit assembled, driving from the muzzle end of
the obstruction. You would do well to check from the muzzle end by some
means (drill, light,?) to ensure that your "client" has not already
jammed anything in there in an attempt to clear it out. As someone seems
to have attempted to load many projectiles into it, this may be worth
checking, too.

You will waste a lot of time trying to get enough heat into the mass to
melt lead, if you try to do it by heating a rod and pushing it down the
barrel. You will waste even more, if you think you will be able to soak
up any molten lead with steel wool. (hint: you will need to apply direct
heat, and a fair bit of it, to melt the lead. The lead will pour out
quite cleanly. It won't stick well without some form of flux. The amount
of heat this requires WILL cause oxidation issues as well as melting
plastic and ruining springs.)

Drilling is probably your best bet. Personally, I would not bother with
brass for the drill. I have drilled obstructions fron barrels on old
rimfires with no ill effect. U0se as close fitting a bit as you can
find.

Cheers
Trevor Jones