Hello,


Last night at a local general auction I purchased what I believe is a Whitney 1861 that is excellent condition considering it's over 140 years old.

I purchased it with the intent to resell it but before I do that I may have a problem. A rod goes in about two inches less than the length of the barrel so I suspect there may be a load in there. I don't want to ship it loaded. The barrel is 40" long and the ramrod from my inline isn't long enough to use the bullet-puller. I seem to remember a method using compressed air by pulling the nipple and inserting a fitting?

Are the nipples on these old guns a bear to pull out?

This ones been hanging on a wall for about 100 years.

From what I read it's a 58 caliber gun, what kind of load did this use? I was thinking it may be fun to try for a deer with it this year if it has any kind of accuracy.

A chum of mine just pulls the nipple and uses a blow gun with a rubber tap washer on the end. But he does warn that the bullet can come out with force, so be prepared.
The other trick is to replace the nipple with a grease fitting and just use a grease gun and hydraulics to push the bullet, .....more clean-up though.
~Arctic~