Did you ever wonder......

[BrownBear]

...... what would happen if you fired your muzzleloader with the rod still in the bore?

Earlier today my wife and I were shooting while we waited for the light to drop a little more to start a snowshoe hare hunt. I was shooting my GPR 54 and she was shooting my...ah...our...ah...her 36 cal Traditions Bobcat. I was standing with my back to her messing with stuff on the tailgate when she shot.

"Wow, that sure seemed to kick a lot more!" she exclaimed.

I turned around and saw her looking at the rifle, then downrange. There was about a 10" stripe on the target, and when I looked back at the tailgate, sure enough her rod was gone.

To her credit, the rod landed in the 8-ring on a 3" bull, then imbedded several inches into the end of a log a couple of feet beyond. Bent like the crank on a Model T, with the brass bullet seater expanded to .360 with rifling grooves in it.

Fortunately it was only a 25 grain load with the .350 RB, but even that whacked back pretty good. Now she's embarassed and I've got a great souvenier for emergency rescues next time I screw up. I haven't run a tight patch down the bore or miked the exterior to see if I can find any problems, but nothing is plainly visible. Wondering how much luck I would have convincing her that we need a new rifle, but that may be pushing her embarassment a little too hard.

Now, my real question: Should the replacement be aluminum (like the original), or would it be better to go for wood or fiberglass?

 

[musketman]

Fiberglass will crack and splinter, like a busted fiberglass fishing rod, this is where both of you lucked out...

The aluminum rod stayed in tact, if a fiberglass rod were to splintered inside of the bore it could have obstructed the barrel, causing an extremely dangerous situation...

The aluminum rod just added to the round balls weight, so the 25 grain load had to push harder to get out...

I don't think the rod did any real internal damage to the muzzleloader, aluminum being a softer metal than the steel barrel...

I would check for a barrel bulge though, just to be sure...


The main thing here is that she (your wife) is fine, ram rods can be replaced...

 

[BrownBear]

Agreed all down the line.

Kind of an awkward moment, if I can call it that. Too unexpected to be scary, except that weak knee kind of feeling afterwards. Couldn't get mad, cuss and stomp because I was too happy she was okay. Couldn't do much more than assure her the gun was probably all right and be sympathetic to her embarrassment, because she's fun to shoot with and I don't want to chase her off.

I'm thinking of ways to turn the twisty rod into a reminder for both of us and anyone else we're around to be careful all the time. It won't do much good to put it on a plaque to hang at home (and might put me a step further from a new rifle). But the rod must be good for something on the range, just so I have an excuse to pack it along as both a tool and a reminder. Any creative ideas?

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by BrownBear:
But the rod must be good for something on the range, just so I have an excuse to pack it along as both a tool and a reminder. Any creative ideas? It would make a good target holder...

You can stick one end of it in the ground (once it thaws, that is) and a small can on the other end, practice for head shots on hares...

 

Isn't there historical reference to infantry firing rods as a last-ditch effort after they'd run out of lead?

Seems I've read that somewhere.

 

[musketman]

There is a scene on the movie "THE MOUNTAIN MEN" where Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) shoots a Blackfoot worrier with his ram rod...

 

[Stumpkiller]

Heck, Fes Parker did in in Davy Crockett on TV in the 50's. I did it to free a stuck rod that I jammed solid when dry patching (I was young and stupid once, I got older since). Pulled the nipple and dribbeled about 5 grains of powder in. Went about 50 feet!

I wouldn't make a practice of using a full charge to shoot ram-rod arrows (though I understand the first guns were used to propel arrows as projectiles). Eventually, the rifle might be convinced that it is a bore obstruction and decide to go out the breech or make a new barrel opening under your nose.

 

[tg]

I sent a 48" synthetic rod +a .50 rb pushed by 60 gr of 3f down range when sighting in a gun, made a pretzle of the rod kicked like a mule but did not hurt the barrel, some barrel makers have tested very thin large bore barrels with very large powder charges and double balls with no ill effect, the slow constant burn rate of BP is pretty forgiving if there is not an obstruction to create a bomb.

 

[Curry Mosher]

I have seen more than one ramrod go downrange. One of my best friends did it at the first muzzle loading shoot I attended. He scored a 9 with his rod.

Another time a different friend borrowed my rifle for a "test run" of a Woods Walk we were building. He fired, then searched for twenty minutes for the rod. He managed to hit the target, too.

As I remember, one of Bruce Catton's books on the Civil War has a reference to the troops on both sides at Petersburg shooting ramrods at the opposing trenches. Apparently, it started with an accidental discharge and gradually became an "across the lines" sport, with soldiers dancing on the tops of the trenches while the opposing troops fired ramrods at them. The "fun" ended the day someone got skewered.

I have never heard of this damaging a gun, though it would seem likely with a steel rod.

Another thought--fiberglass contains glass fibers, which are harder than steel. Many a good rifle has been ruined by the wear of a fiberglass rod on the muzzle. Most of what people are calling "fiberglass" rods nowadays are actually plastic.

I have used a CO2 discharger to blow stuck rods out of rifles. The rods generally fly about thirty feet or so, with enough force to stick in soft dirt.

 

[Smoke Pole]

I must enter a plea of "guilty" for launching a ramrod down range. Here I thought I was the only person that ever did that! The ramrod was wood and didn't survive the journey. I was so embarassed I packed up my stuff and went home, but come to think of it . . . I didn't have much of a choice cuz I didn't have a ramrod any more !

 

[musketman]

I have never shot a ramrod, yet...

I did (once, never again) lend my .58 Zouave to my brother-in-law and he got the ramrod stuck in the barrel...

I would have rather he'd shot it out that take a set of vise-grips to the steel ramrod...

He also used the end of the barrel as a lever and @#%$**! the crown up...

Lessons don't come cheap...

 

[Zonie]

Mooskeetman: Ye areta know the only difference between In Laws and Out Laws is that Out Laws are WANTED.