Well, I started the day planning on pulling the airbox, putting a breather filter on, rejetting for my cone/dyna, and cleaning up the wiring.  

Airbox is a bear, though it came out and I was stoked on that!

Pull the carb (first time ever), disassemble, pull main jet and put a 150 in, pull pilot jet... doesn't come out.  It took me a good hour trying everything in the book. It came down to drilling it so the bit seated well enough to screw the jet out.  I can't say how glad I was that it did come out!  

Then I painted my battery box high temp black.  Thoroughly impressed with how even it came out.  Bent a piece of sheet metal to hide all the wiring, assembled everything, took a step back and channeled some good vibes.  

Push it out of the garage to start it up, and all I get are turnovers on what sounds like a weak battery.  Hook up some jumper cables and have at it.  The only way I can get it to start is by throttling as soon as it catches for a split second.  I can keep it running but as soon as I let off the throttle it dies.  It ran really rough and while holding the throttle still the revving was inconsistent.  

I just went for a ride yesterday with absolutely zero issues starting it up or riding.  I've had the dyna on it for 6 months, and just put the cone on about a month ago. Neither created any issues.  2006 8900 miles, +70 elevation Southern California

Savage gods help! It's already riding season out here  

When you drilled that jet to get it to move,perhaps some brass from the drilling went into the pilot circuit and is blocking it? Did you give it a really thorough clean afterwards?

Make sure you didn't loose that little washer that is under the main jet.
It's real easy for it to vanish during reassembly.....

Thanks for the input guys! I'm thinking along the lines of gizzo and Serowbot (fingers crossed.!)  Haven't had a chance to take the carb off yet but I plan on getting to it asap!

I made sure to keep track of the washer with the main jet, and I've had a raptor for over a year now.

Justin you're saying try starting it up without the cone filter attached to the carb? What could have gotten in the way?  I've had the cone on for a bit before diving into the carb so I don't see any problems stemming from that, but you likely have more exp than me.

Some progress!

Got at the carb with some cleaner yesterday.  Definitely needed that and I shouldn't have neglected it the first time around (The body was pretty clean but there was gunk from getting the stuck pilot jet out).  I had started with a 150/55 setup when originally rejetting it which was difficult to get started and it didn't stay running.  When I went back in, I went to a 52.5 and it was easier to start but was running insanely rich and again, didn't stay running.  I believe I have another step down on the pilot, but I'm going to order another two just to have on hand.  I'll also order some spark plugs to use during the process.  (this time around when I had it running it was spewing black smoke out the muff, which has never happened)

After yesterday I suspect that I may have nicked the inside of the pilot jet tube while getting it out.  I never saw any silver shavings anywhere, only brass but I don't see how I could ever confirm that.  So my question to the Savage gods is should I press on tweaking and tuning or cut my losses and find a cheap carb from a member here?