Stuck wooden cleaning rod removal

[Major 2]

I was offered a bit of a puzzlement in the way of a project....

A friend of mine has a original 1861 Springfield rifle, It came from a collection here in St, Cloud.
Seems it has been on the mantle of the older home of an original Ohio GAR Veteran in Town, but sill in the family.
( tad of History St. Cloud Florida was founded in 1909 as a Grand Army of the Republic retirement city )

At some point many years ago a wooden cleaning rod was stuck and broken off about 2" below the the muzzle, just out of reach to grasp , even with needle nose pliers. It appeared several attempts to remove it had rendered the end beat, split and mushroomed.
All attempt's had obviously failed and it has been on display with rod firmly stuck at the Veterans Museum several years.

My challenge, was to see if I could remove it  ....

Short answer ...I did it  without molesting the breach plug .

First I had to clear away the beat , split and mushroom end of the rod . I needed a good solid tip , that resulted the rod end being even deeper down from the muzzle.

The wooden rod/dowel I determined to be approx. 7/16  (0.4375) . With the rod end now somewhat de-bubba'ed.

I fabricated a puller cap from a 44 Special case ,  in this I inserted a twisted safety wire with small nut to keep it from pulling out of the Primer hole. 

 I epoxied and forced the shell down over the wooden rod and allowed the epoxy to cure.

I simply tightened the wire in my vise and gave the barrel a tug.... "sloop"  out it came. easy as that !

BTW ...(Prior to)  I had to be sure the gun was unloaded so I well Kroiled the bolster and bore to be sure no BP was active...
           ( it was not loaded and the old cloth cleaning patch was all but rotted away  )

[Kent Shootwell]

Now that’s clever!

[Major 2]

Coming for you, I take that as a grand complement 

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[Major 2]

Just bit of history

The Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall is an historic building located at 1101 Massachusetts Avenue in St. Cloud, Florida, in the United States. The city of St. Cloud had been founded by the Grand Army of the Republic or GAR, as a retirement colony for its members. The hall was built in 1914 by members of the GAR as a memorial to the Union Army veterans of the Civil War.

In 1914  and now

[Coffinmaker]

   Major 2   

Now that is SLICK.  That has to be the neatest trick of the CENTURY      Did you, are you, will you now make a new rod??  Or was it just a cleaning rod and not the rifle's Ram Rod??

[Major 2]

Just an old cleaning rod ...

The original ramrod is steel and has unique machined bulge just below the bullet cup tip , this bulge matched a swell in the foreshock for ramrod retention .
This retention was unique to original 1861 Springfield's , rather than the straight steel rod and internal flat spring of the others .

The wood rod is now of course way to short , I may cut below the split and graft a threaded feral and make the owner a two piece sectional rod. 

actually on second though    I might make it a swagger stick 

[Blair]

Major 2,

 Just a reminder...
The Model 1855 Rifles and Rifle Muskets were also equipped with the swell shanked steel ram rods. Both the Rifles and Rifle Musket had the swell placed in different locations along the shank of the ram rod.
 I would have opted for removing the breach plug. Just so I could see what the bore looked like.
Your method was most excellent! 
My best,
 Blair