doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help removing corroded nipples

I received my first BP percussion sxs yesterday. It is nicer than I expected. It is a plain gun, but in good condition with good bores. Below are some pictures.




Here are the proof marks. The gun is unmarked as far as a maker goes. I can see that the barrels are Belgian in origin. It has 4 file marks on the right and three on the left. I wonder if the marks represent choke like today. It is also marked 17.2. Not sure if that is bore or choke?



Does anyone have any tips for removing the corroded nipples? It looks like they have not been removed in many many years.

You might try soaking the breech in some penetrating oil for a few days, then tap the nipples lightly with a hammer and use a good fitting wrench. The 17.2 is the bore size. It's not likely to have any chokes( meaning cylinder).
Enjoy it.

PS, make sure it isn't still loaded. Sometimes MLs are found to have been left loaded for many years.

What bore size would 17.2 equal? I know 18 is 12ga.

Just lick on them a little and they should perk right up, no need to remove!

I was waiting to see how long before the jokes . I tried that method but they are smashed out of shape by the previous fondler.

I just had to look at the post to see who would be the first to come up with a funny.

17.2mm converts to .677". In the gauge system this would be a 16/1 (.674). If 16ga wads do not have a good tight fit use 14ga ones, the wads want to fit snug to prevent the 2nd bbl wads from moving on firing the first, particularly so with the overshot wad. Remember also it may not still measure that dimension, it may have been honed or polished over the ensuing years.
As Jim said the vast majority of ML'rs were bored cylinder with no choke.

The way I go about removing old nipples is to drill them partially out and tap them with a left handed tap. Then use screw you make with a matching die. Works good, lots of Kroil helps too.

Heat gun, Liquid Wrench, easy out. If they're really bad, heat w/LW and freeze (ice cubes anyway) and heat w/LW and freeze and heat with Liquid Wrench until the easy out finally works. Worked on pistol cylinders anyway.

Dr. WtS

A 50-50 mix of acetone and ATF has been shown by comparison testing to be the best penetrating oil( better than Kroil)around if you should need it.

OB