doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Remove Breech Plug on W C Scott percussion double

I have a 16 gauge W C Scott percussion double that has a broken worm stuck in the right breech plug. Can you tell me who might be able to remove the right breech plug for repair ? The right plug is the one that comes off first. Is there a tool available for purchase or rent that could be used at home to perform the task ? Thanks for any suggestions. Daryl

The tool you need is called a hut wrench.

I don't know if you can rent one anywhere - most of us have made our own.

A large tap wrench can be modified with new jaws, or one can simply be made out of a steel bar by making a slot and removing extra material to provide any necessary clearance.

I would submerge the breech end of the barrels in a good penetrant for a month before attempting the breech plug removal, Daryl. For a large volume of penetrant like that, ATF and acetone, mixed 50/50; is as good, and as cheap, as it gets.

In addition to the tool you need to remove the plug, you need to consider how you will hold the barrels in a vise to do this. It may require considerable force to break the bond free to start the breach plug unscrewing. It will require a solid, but safe, hold in a vise to make the barrels immovable.

A crescent wrench works but you may have to grind the jaws if the lugs has a taper to match. You do NOT want to try it if the jaws do n to match the sides of the lug (regardless what tools you make/use. The point that SH made about holding the barrels secure can NOT be over stated. If the barrels are NOT held extremely secure, you run the risk of breaking the solder joint between the barrels if the plug refuses to break loose and the force exerts too much torque on the joint and the barrels are allowed/able to turn. I would interested in hearing more details on the problem as it may be far better to find another way to remove whatever you have in there without removing the plugs.

If the taper in the plug is not too great, you can get by with a bit of lead wrapped around the plug. Pound a bullet flat, and that should get it done for a 1-time operation.

For holding octagon barrels, I have made a pair of blocks about the size of paving bricks from several glued up layers of Baltic Birch plywood. I cut a longitudinal groove with flat, 45-degree sides. Clamping the barrel between these blocks with every other barrel flat mated to a side of one of the grooves in a good woodworking bench vice has worked well for me even when I encountered a barrel with red Loctite.

Licensed to Kill and others. I believe that about 1/4 to 3/8 inch of the worm broke off in the plug chamber. I think the plug chamber, if that is the right word, is about .200 inch diameter. The outside diameter of the stuck threaded piece is about .205 inch. It has been suggested that maybe a piloted end mill with a long shank could be used to remove the offending piece. That does seem safter than removing the breech plug. The barrel length is about 33 1/2 inches from the muzzle to the joint of the plug/barrels. A single barrel gun would present fewer problems than this double.

Here is the piece that broke off in the breech.

I see. I wasn't sure if it was a patch puller or a wad puller. Of course a wad puller makes sense for a shotgun rather than a patch puller but you just never know what people might be using. If it were mine, before pulling the plug, I would try to shoot it out. Pull the nipple and stuff as much FFFF in as you can get, tamping it in with a small punch or nail until you can't get any more in there (it will probably only accept 5 or 10 grains), reinstall the nipple and shoot it with the muzzle close to or touching a cardboard box (to indicate if it came out). If it was a wire patch puller of course this would have no affect. Try that a couple times and if that fails then revisit the plug removal method. If you DO have to pull the plug, wood blocks similar to what Brent described is what is typically used to hold the barrels but, in the case of a double, the blocks must hold it FIRM. You could mitigate the torque on the joint by making a block that only holds the offending barrel and put that block/barrel in the vice VERY tight (and just ahead of the threads) leaving the other barrel outside of the vice jaws so if the barrel turns, the other barrel can swing rather than resist and cause strain in the soldered joint. Of course this means that you will be using the outside of the vice jaws rather then the middle where they are the strongest and MAY get flexing of the jaws unless you have a real skookum vice.

Licensed to Kill, that is good, clear, information and advise. I'm somewhat hesitant on the shooting it out idea, but probably just because of the unknowns to me. Attached is a picture of another gun, not mine, showing the face of the plug. Mine must be similar. It seems like a piloted end mill or similar could be made to work by constructing the guides for the bit on a lathe, which I don't have. Your thought about gripping only the barrel being worked on at the time, makes perfect sense. I had wondered about the torque that might affect the rib/other barrel solder connection.

LtK's advice sounds perfect too me. But one thing you might consider since it is a double is that maybe you could bed the barrels to the gripping blocks. Wrap them in a little plastic food wrap and then bed with some good epoxy. I bet that plug will remove pretty easily. I would certainly try it before I got too far into the weeds with trying to machine something to grab whatever is in that chamber. Fiber optic exploration would be really high on my list too.

Whew ! After all of our thoughts, I went back to the bench and , through the nipple pocket, inserted a doubled over pipe cleaner. I could tell where the obstruction seemed to be. Not wanting to damage the nipple threads in the plug, I tried to fit various punches into the nipple opening, but could not reach the obstruction with steel punches. I found a couple of brass punches and one came close, and would not damage the pocket's threads. I rapped the brass punch with a hammer and it went in a bit more. Three solid wraps, and still no production. I hit the punch hard, then, and the obstruction popped out. The hammering bent the punch a bit to fit in the proper chamber shape. Here's what I found. Thank you all. Apparently this simple and safe try worked. Not sure what I would have done without the brass punch. Daryl