Stuck on the barrel - my first black powder shooting incident

It's one of those "faux pas" that most on the MLAIC community says "It will never happen to me - I'll always follow the procedures, and never skip any steps - that will only happy to losers". I was, in part at least, one of those "claimers". But today, December 26th, 2010, after two average match simulation training sessions (13 shots each, 87 / 100 on the first and 85 / 100 on the second), and while doing some "long range" testing (50 meter ISSF pistol target)... it happened... I got distracted (talking around, changing lanes, etc)... and I end up loading only cotton patch and lead ball - no powder, no corn semolina - only the "bullet". And so I end up facing the "nightmare" - a "stucked ball" on my .36" Billinghurst black power muzzle loader pistol...

Time to use the extraction tool... a long aluminium rod, topped with a wood handle, terminated by a brass "cap" where a steel screw is placed - it will then "drill" into the stuck lead ball and, with some effort, extract it to the outside of the barrel.

... just after extraction out of the barrel - cotton patch still attached

... cotton patch removed and the "pierced / screwed in" detail can be seen.
The steel screw went easly into the lead ball  - but to get the all set
from inside the barrel required some "smart use of muscle"

To screw into the stuck lead ball, with the steel screw "tool" on the aluminium and brass rod is, per se, a easy task - but to remove the all set from the barrel... it was another... ball game. Thanks to the help of my good old friend R.Vilhena the all thing was removed using a "smart approach" - hammer impacts on a piece of wood againts the wood handle of the removal rod.

... a piece of wood (a debris) found at the shoting range trashcan
proved priceless to help removing the extraction rod from the barrel

The hammer (aluminium handle and body, large plastic impact points - so no risk of damaging the pistol steel) and wood "trick" will provide short term but highly concentrated impact movements - that the "pull" approach is unable to generate. With those hard strokes (yes, some "graphical" jokes were made at the shooting range during this process) the removal was be made with minimal effort and in less than 2 minutes of "hammering out" work. Any attempt to remove the extraction rod by simply pulling it ... will only tire you (and add desperation).

The two "action photos" bellow are a "home reenactment " of the extraction process - for educational proposes (and yes I now have this 30 centimetres long piece of pine wood on my tool field set).