IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN.

[HiDesertHunter]

If your ramrod is going 'deeper' than what it should for your particular load - stop there so you don't plug the flash hole. You want to leave some room to try to dribble in a few grains of powder behind the ball to 'shoot it out'

This is assuming you have no other options at the time - such as out hunting - with no air or CO2 gadgets to remove the round, but only having done it one time (so far) it was a simple matter to shoot it out.

 

[troy2000]

In the past I have got enough powder in the barrel through the nipple to clear the barrel.

I Have also heard of guys using compressed air it I am not familiar with this method.

I am not understanding how you saw flames come out the end of the barrel but the ball didn’t come out.

I’d be careful with my suggestions to make sure the ball isn’t struck mid way in the barrel.

I bought a .45 T/C one time for $50 with a lot of accessories because the guy left it loaded for several years and couldn’t get it to fire.

He assumed it was junk. I took it home pulled the nipple wiggled enough powder in that it shot the ball out the barrel about 5 feet
Took me about 5 mins.

i ended up killing 2 deer and a coyote with it.

That gave me visions of two deer and a coyote , all bunched together within 5 feet of the muzzle.

 

[Carbon 6]

3 things every muzzleloader shooter should know.

1. How to tell if your gun is empty.

2. How to remove a dry ball by putting powder under the nipple, or packing it in the vent on a flintlock.

3. That a dry ball can be fired out of the gun without you realizing it, (noise and recoil can be imperceptible).

 

[hanshi]

I've spoinked dry-balls out and the only way I could tell they fired was watching them drop and roll on the ground about 20' from the muzzle.

 

[woodsrunner50]

Happens less frequent these days than a few years back. Never really a problem just a slight inconvenience but it does serve to be reminded that most of the time it happened, or maybe ALL the time it happened I was distracted by someone who wanted to "jaw" while I was shooting. So essentially, it is a consequence of loss of attention.

 

[Mulebrain]

On the range folks start telling stories, and that can really throw off your loading procedure.

 

[EC121]

I always aim the rifle at the ground out in front of me to see the dirt fly when it hits hit the ground.

 

[toot]

I am told we cant' use JOHNSON & JOHNSON for that problem any more?

 

[Clint Meier]

I remember about 45 years ago when I built my first ML from a kit (Lyman GPR) and went to shoot it with a friend who was only a little more experienced than I. I dry balled at some point, and not having invested in a ball puller for my ram rod yet, we went home to work on it. We removed the nipple and packed a very small amount of Pyrodex into the breech plug hole, replaced the nipple, capped it and fired towards a steel bullet trap about 20 feet away on the cement floor in my basement. Checking with my ram rod, we determined that the ball had moved ahead a couple inches, so the process was repeated a few more times, each time moving the ball a bit further ahead. Finally success! The ball was leisurely expelled out the end of the barrel, hit the floor about 10 feet away and bounced a few times on it's way into the bullet trap. We both laughed our heads off! It was sort of anticlimactic, and thankfully neither of us were injured in the endeavor.

 

[Eterry]

Once dry balled … once had to shoot out my ram rod. Neither was much fun. Polecat

Same here... we should start a club... maybe get jackets...

 

[Carbon 6]

Same here... we should start a club... maybe get jackets...

Oh ya, the "Dry Ball & Stuck Ramrod club" , Women at the bar will be all over you.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Of course there is the time I thought I dry balled my flinter and couldn't get it to clear and forgot my ball screw. I went home and got ready to pull the ball and found out I hadn't dry balled. I got distracted and simply primed the pan on an empty gun. Of course if it was a capper, I could have fired it with a cap while pointed at some grass etc. and seen the barrel was clear.

 

[Carbon 6]

Of course there is the time I thought I dry balled my flinter and couldn't get it to clear and forgot my ball screw. I went home and got ready to pull the ball and found out I hadn't dry balled. I got distracted and simply primed the pan on an empty gun. Of course if it was a capper, I could have fired it with a cap while pointed at some grass etc. and seen the barrel was clear.

I forgot to load once and thought I dry balled, Tried pulling that ball several times but couldn't get the screw to bite.

 

[Eterry]

Oh ya, the "Dry Ball & Stuck Ramrod club" , Women at the bar will be all over you.

I'm from Texas.... the Southern Drawl keeps them 'em buzzin around like bee's to honey..

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

My most egregious mistake was dry balling, then not believing that I did, reloading, and couldn't make any of the "usual" remedies work. Finally pulled the loaded charge, and then the dry ball, and got back to business. STOP TALKING and KEEP LOADING. My only dry balls (four to date in forty years) were all from "conversations." Very few brain surgeons "chit chat" while doing surgery. For a reason!

I have also broken off a ram rod tip or cleaning jag, and had to shoot it out. Fortunately, brass is softer than steel. God protects drunks, children, and idiots..

ADK Bigfoot

 

[William O.]

YESSSSSSSSSS!!! THE BALL IS GONE. I never noticed it or checked with my RR to see if it was.! I just checked with my RR and it even goes past the mark I made on it when I first time I loaded the gun after I got it. What a relief. Thanks so much guys, I really appreciate you helping me out. Flashpoint

Don't feel bad, I've done the very same thing and it was at a shooting match. I must have wasted a half dozen or so caps and 5 ounces of 4F powder loading the flash channel, screwing the nipple back on and then cursing my bad luck the whole time that the ball had already been sent downrange.
Glad you figured it out and you're back to shooting.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Oh ya, the "Dry Ball & Stuck Ramrod club" , Women at the bar will be all over you.

That's a different kind of dry ball ... not related to black powder......

 

[toot]

too find if a dry ball discharges from the weapon, I put a tin can over the barrel and fire it and you will know instantly if it was projected out.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

Once I was at the range testing 777 in my GPR. I was kinda in a hurry because I had a time crunch going on. As I seated the ball I thought "that went farther down than usual. OH NO! OH HECK!" I stopped to think about what I had just done, knowing full well what needed to be done next. Took the nipple out, sprinkled in some 3f Goex and reinstalled the nipple. Cap on, pointed at the berm and squeezed. POP. Nothing. No smoke, no "bloop" and certainly, no lead round ball bouncing along the ground on it's way down range. I examined the bore and measured it with my ramrod. The ball was gone with absolutely no evidence that it had left. Like it vanished from the bore into thin air. The ground in front of the benches is hard packed bare earth so finding a ball and patch should have been easy. Nope. Never did find it but it left all right. Strange.

 

[hanshi]

If it is at all possible for something dumb to happen at all, it has happened to me or is just waiting for the chance.