Was there a set punishment for a soldier who dry balled a gun??

[Artificer]

18th century British Army regulations during the FIW and earlier (while they still had Wood Rammers in their muskets), called for all Sentries coming off guard duty the night before, to report to the Artificer the following morning. He would use a special long Iron/Steel Rod to unload the cartridges. The balls would be saved and re-cast as needed. The powder was saved and "refreshed" and I would not be surprised if they saved the paper for use with emory powder to shine their brass.

Of course once they were issued Iron/Steel Rammer Muskets, the Soldiers did it on command when they came off Sentry Duty.
Gus

 

[Nyckname]

... I soon learned to lay out my muzzle loading requisites in a neat obvious pattern so that I could check to see how far I had got before being interrupted by my colleagues good manners.

Don't know if you know this trick, but the very first thing I was taught about shooting muzzle loaders is when you get a new piece, drop the ramrod down the barrel and mark the empty length. That way if you can't remember if there's anything in there, you have an easy way to check.

 

[RedFeather]

I recall reading that during the attack on the Bloody Angle, the commanding officer tried a new tactic: capping muskets only when close enough to engage. Apparently, many soldiers discharged too soon and then could not reload while charging. Even with helpful innovations such as the paper cartridge, warfare wasn't a piece of cake. Heck, there are reports of soldiers fumbling and dumping cartridges while trying to reload Krag rifles during the Spanish American war.

 

[Stantheman86]

Bear in mind that both US and CS had teenagers in their ranks and given a 14 year old kid with minimal training , I mean do you expect him to notice the ramrod isn't going in as far or the rifle didn't fire, when he's surrounded by dead and dying people, explosions and mass chaos?

I think Gen Lee had to issue a memo to his commanding Officers that soldiers were not to insert the entire Pritchett cartridge into the bore of the rifle.....behind every memo is a reason,guessing that CSA troops with little training or inexperienced NCO's were unfamiliar with the "new British ammo" and probably had previously used smoothbores, so they were either dumping the powder and then jamming the remaining tube and bullet down the bore, or just jamming intact , untorn tubes down the pipe.

Also keeping in mind , when the British describe "awkward Soldiers" it's an era of conscription, you have many men (boys really) who are just serving their mandatory service , may not be cut from hardy cloth, have no interest or skill with firearms or just aren't the soldiering type. We look at this stuff through the lens of Hollywood or other fiction, with ranks full of grown men and battle hardened soldiers, not 16 year old kids who swept floors in a factory then got drafted.

In my days in the Army I've seen many "awkward soldiers" , guys loading rounds into M16 magazines backwards or even trying to insert magazines upside down , you just never know.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Hard to get that far "out of sequence" when you are loading from paper cartridges.

Darn it ... that’s what I was going to say!!!!!

 

[Rich]

Not unusual for that to happen. I had more than one new trooper in SE Asia look at who was attacking while shooting his rifle in the ground at his feet. Never put it up to their shoulders, just holding it and shooting it. I watch a guy elk hunting in Colorado stand in a meadow looking at a big bull and empty his rifle into the ground in front of him. Just panic is all it is.