To Bounce or not to Bounce

[Mad L]

After watching Mr. Fudd bouncing his rod but never hitting that wabbit, and even at point blanck range, I never thought it would help me much either....but it looks cool, got him a part in the movies too!

 

[mtfishn]

I have had some very good targets over the years w/o "thumping" or otherwise damaging the patched RB. One thing I noticed years ago was that if I used a flat-ended ramrod rather than a cupped end that fit the ball, the flattened (?) balls shot just fine out to 50yds or so . At least I could not tell any difference. I never did get very good groups at 100yds. (6-8" at 100yds from a rest). When I switched to a cupped end...just pushing the ball down hard....groups tightened up at 100yds immediately. Having seen several dry balls extracted or blown out with compressed air, and flattened/smashed faces due to loading, I am convinced that it is easy to damage a pure lead ball to where it does not fly consistently at distance. I push..and use a curved end on my ramrod.

 

[Greenjoytj]

If the end of the ramrod was concave to match the curve of the ball I doubt any ball deformation would occur with a simple rod bounce or two. Even if the ramrod was flat ended all the rod bounce would do would be to compress the powder column ever so slightly.

 

[flatcreek]

Ask Jake from Everything Black Powder why he bounced the ramrod and his answer was for even compaction.