Fellas. Those wood rods were never intended to be run down the barrel in one stroke, like you can do with a modern, brass, aluminum, or steel range rod. The technique to use is to do a hand-over-hand method, where your hand is never more than 8 inches above the muzzle of the gun. Don't wrap your thumb around the wooden rod. If there is an ember that lights the powder in the barrel, and sends the ball and ramrod back out, it will snap off that thumb before you can say, " Damn!" Use what I call a " Monkey Grip ", because it reminds me of how urangutans use their hands when moving from branch to branch in trees. Wrap the fingers around the rod, but tuck your thumb down on top of the web and knuckle of your index finger. If that rod begins to move, the normal human reaction to protect fingers, is to open the hand. You may get a little friction burn, but you should not lose any fingers if the gun goes off. I turn one hand outward, and keep the other hand facing palm toward me. That keeps me from bending or warping the wooden rod, which keeps it from being broken.
If you are loading a percussion rifle, which shoots best when the powder is compressed, you can be fairly manly in the way you seat the ball, or bullet on the powder. But with a flintlock, you want to run the ball down to a mark on the rod, where the ball just touches the powder charge, but does not crush, or compact any of the powder.
With the modern wonderguns, that shoot jacketed pistol bullets wrapped in plastic shoes, you can run them down on that fake powder anyway you choose. However, that is where we see the most " ramrods" broken these days. Far too much testosterone going to waste on those rods, guys. I should think you could find some better way to use up all that male sex hormone before you come to the range to shoot.
