Continued...
Well the soaking helped. The hammer was frozen at half cock and the firing pin wouldn't move and as I said, the trigger fell out. But as I'll get to later, this really wasn't all that bad a thing to have happen.
The crud was deeper than expected. Had to drill out the whole barrel. Didn't even fill up up a 2 lb coffee can so it really wasn't that much. I had to put it the vise to hold it. I did pad the jaws but it kept slipping. After repeated tightnings, I got it to hold good and finished the job. After digging what I could with a screw driver, I welded a piece of 3/8” rod to a 3/8” drill bit. Now this may seem a bit under sized for a .45 but I didn't get it real straight. It didn't touch the metal all that much as it wobbled down.
Kind of scared me when bright metal started coming out. Thought I might be digging the barrel. Turned out to just be lead. At first I thought poor cleaning. But, I started getting a lot of lead. Then powder...... OOPS. Poured water down the barrel and let it sit. As I said, having the hammer, trigger, and firing pin frozen wasn't really a bad thing. After taking it out of the vise I rotated it 90 degrees and squished it back round. Well I got it pretty close anyways.
Broke a pin punch driving the breech pin out. Finally got it out and after a few hard taps to break the rust, got the breach open and out. Then I took a long rod and drove the old case out.
Since the barrel was still pretty crudded up, I tied a garden hose in the breach and chucked a cleaning rod with a wire brush in the cordless. Took less than 10 min of brushing and the water ran clear. Wrapped some 80 grit emery around the rod and polished the bore a bit. Got it fairly shinny. Thought there was some rifling there but it turned out to be a scratch from a knot on the drill weld that rubbed the side of the bore.
Soaking did help the stock, and as a side benefit, I think it got the termites too. The barrel bands will stay in place with a little duct tape under them. I trimmed the excess with a knife and it looks OK.
I did get the hammer working. Put a new pin in the trigger. Half a dozen or so taps back and forth with a hamer and some Kroil got the firing pin moving too.
I can see where I'm going to be hard pressed to get 10 shots off in the alotted time. Shoot, open the breach, drive the case out with the ram rod, drive a new case in with plastic hammer, close and lock the breach and repeat. I think I may have to look for a new breach handle. The vise grips slow me down. I don't think I can just leave them on as they throw the balance off with them hanging there. I did speed up one thing though. I found a neat little socket for my cordless drill. This did greatly speed up removing those 3 hose clamps holding the breach closed.
Now to shoot it. :fireTo be continued....
:coffeeGus
PS I'll bet the guy next to me will really be interested when she goes off!!