Is This Possible?

[jefair1]

Charlton Heston shot an indian in the Mountain Men with a ramrod, pulled it out and reloaded.
I had a Navy Arms two oiece rod for my 63 Springfield and the tulip end came off in the bore. Kicked kicked like a mule when I shot.

 

[Buck Conner]

We used to see ramrods going down range most often during stake shoots. Haven't done that myself, but came right close once while trying to hurry for a timed event.

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That can happen pretty easy, the key words are "timed event" ......


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[N.Y. Yankee]

OK, NOW I understand why reenactors point their muskets at the sky when firing. They have no ramrod so they need to keep the powder charge against the flash. Hmmmm........

 

[Grenadier1758]

No, we elevate our rifles up and over the opposing forces to reinforce the image that we are not really shooting at each other and we are limited to shooting at a distance greater that 50 yards. The powder does a pretty fair job of remaining at the breech.

 

[pmccoywss]

My wife shot hers (when she was a very new shooter), and scored a near center hit with the ball and about 5" out at 4 o'clock with the ramrod at 25 yards. She never did that again, but shot for several years. Only damage was to her pride, an d small crack in the stock.

 

[andy52]

You did better than we did at the Woods Walk. We've been in the top 6 a couple of times. Considering that our goal is to place higher than the French Teams, we think we do pretty good.

We also have participated in the military presentations at the October F&I weekend. This is one where the reenacting scenario takes precedence. That weekend all the lead ball remains in the locked ammo box. We roll our cartridge boxes full of blanks. We cull any cartridges loaded with ball from our cartridge boxes even though our last event, Fort Massac, only allowed blank cartridges for the mock battle so one were found.

Staying six and above has its advantages, number one team gets a free ride 2-5 get to draw from the bag of death or that's the way they did it then.

 

[Newtire]

I dont get how one forgets to remove a ramrod.

Just a break in a routine will cause things like this to happen. Apparently, you have a good routine. About the first time someone or some thing interrupts your routine is when these kinds of things happen. Any suggestions as to how to remember not to do this would be helpful.

 

[Newtire]

Was using one of those stupid little funnels with a short section of small pipe the manufacturer put in there. However they attached it wasn't sufficient and I wound up shooting the pipe along with my normal load. Happened the first time I used it. Using my measure with the built in funnel from now on!

 

[Livbucks]

Just a break in a routine will cause things like this to happen. Apparently, you have a good routine. About the first time someone or some thing interrupts your routine is when these kinds of things happen. Any suggestions as to how to remember not to do this would be helpful.

Do not permit interruptions on critical tasks. When someone interrupts me during a critical task I completely ignore them.

 

[toot]

also a lot of ramrods fly down range in speed shooting against the clock. and the guys and girls have a mouth full of under size balls in the mouth and load powder and spit the ball down into the weapon and bang the but on the ground to seat the ball on top of the powder. while the use of putting lead onto the mouth is very hazardous, it does lesson the chance of a ram rod flying downrange.

 

[Bob McBride]

Just a break in a routine will cause things like this to happen. Apparently, you have a good routine. About the first time someone or some thing interrupts your routine is when these kinds of things happen. Any suggestions as to how to remember not to do this would be helpful.

Whenever I am interrupted, even for a second, during the loading sequence, which is often important enough that I have to stop and handle whatever it is, I don’t assume I remember correctly where I was in the sequence. I start over. I verify where I am by a quick check with the rod. If it’s empty I will know, if there’s powder I will know, and if the ball is started but not fully seated I will know. Always start over. In my experience every dryball or other loading issue can be traced to a distraction followed by a carrying-on from where you think you left off. Make thinking a part of your loading routine because doing it on autopilot is a common habit worth breaking.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

My cousin unknowingly shot his ramrod during a woods walk. He actually hit three target with it and didn't realize what went wrong until he got to the next station with no ramrod

 

[vintovka]

Must be a pretty wild range with all that going on

As range master every day has potential to be wild. That range now silent forever, buried under a store at the Folsom Outlets in Folsom Calif.

 

[Buck Conner]

Without removing the ramrod from the barrel, the good guy pointed the weapon, ramrod and all, at the bad guy and puller the trigger. The ramrod impaled the bad guy and he died. Is this scenario possible? Just wondering.

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It would work at close range, no different that a bow and arrow. Just not as acturate .....

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[Col. Batguano]

Hollywood ammo is the best and most effective ammo there is. Unfortunately, game doesn't read the instructions for when it's used.

 

[Cvkotvkse]

I dont get how one forgets to remove a ramrod.

in the same way someone forgets to lower the landing gear on an approach... In the words of a pilot who was married into our family for a while: "There are two kinds of pilot: Those who have bellied it in, and those who are going to..."
Not sure if I believe him, but...!

 

[Col. Batguano]

I think in the earlier days of complex aircraft that might have been more true than today. Now a days, gear lowering has safeties like (in big jets) their ground proximity indicators or radar. In light aircraft it's tied to the stall warning indicator. Automatically lowers the gear unless it's intentionally disabled. Bellying in can get REAL expensive, and dangerous too.

Unlike dry balling, I've never done it.

 

[Zonie]

Let's stick to the subject which is shooting a ramrod out of a muzzleloader.

 

[smoothshooter]

Yup! I admit that I fired a steel ramrod downrange with a '64 Springfield musket repro. Bent up it was, and I was shocked at how I could have done that!

Back in about 2003 I was watching some friends shooting a Civil War skirmish team match at Laverne (sp?), TN, and during a 100 yard rapid-fire match Someone down the line shot their ramrod down range. It made a strange whoop-whoop noise as I watched it cartwheel toward the target about 30 feet above the ground and hit the berm.
even over the constant roar of dozens of guys aiming and shooting as fast as they could, I could hear the howls of laughter from the spectators behind the firing line.
Later, while new ceramic tiles were being set up for the next relay, someone retrieved the steel ramrod, and as it was being brought back to the line I could see that it was seriously bent in the middle at about a 30-degree angle.

 

[vintovka]

Anyone ever see someone shoot a range post (ramrod and ball) while trying to use the post to seat a ball in a dirty bore?