I'm in the mood for more advice, if anyone's here to offer it; having done a bit of probing (and even a glimpse with my shiny new bore light) I'm confident that this mysterious obstruction is much-hardened powder fouling. It's exceptionally hard, which I should think would rule out lead; when I attempted to cut into it with my sharpened galvanised steel pipe (patent pending), the teeth came out looking as though someone had taken a hammer to them, indicating it's harder than the steel itself (which might eliminate corroded ferrous metal). So far I've shoved boiling water down there about eight times, and come up dry on each occasion save for small bits of stuff which periodically emerge when the barrel's drained. This stuff feels very gritty between the fingers; it's brownish in colour (most likely because it's covered in a film of oil and corroded steel) and only comes in small lumps, about the size of a peppercorn at most.
So far all I can think of is continuing to pour in boiling water and try to dissolve and dislodge as much as I can, coupled with a rather crude attempt to get through the stuff by tapping the rod in a little with a hammer, in the hope it'll break up some of the material. The results thus far suggest it'll take a long time to achieve anything. Moreover, the blockage is so tight that the touch-hole is bone dry and the barrel below it cool to the touch, even when the rest is filled with boiling water.
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