Well, I finally dry-balled

[zneufeld]

Y'all said it would happen eventually. Death, taxes, and dry-balling.

I was testing out new ball patch combos at the range today, got distracted by which size patch I was using, and completely forgot powder. As soon as I rammed the short starter, I knew...oh "drat."

Thanks to this forum, I knew what to do. Rammed it home, worked some powder through the touch hole a bit at a time, and shot it out. Sounded like a potato gun...foomp! Beat the cease fire at the range by 20 seconds and avoided that embarrassment.

Double checked with the marked length of my range rod and listened for air through the touch hole, and went about my day.

 

[Whitworth]

Welcome to the club

 

[CapPopper]

I did nearly the same thing and had the same realization as I rammed the ball with my short starter..... Just this past Saturday..... The last time (and first) I ever did that was with my .50 and a minie ball..... They pull real easy with the ball puller luckily cause I was planning on the gun being loaded a few days..... Always a good time one the range

 

[sheriff john]

Shootin' 'em out's worked for me most of the time. One cautionary thing - if the ball isn't rammed down atop the powder and the powder charge dribbled in is stout enough, it's possible to get a ring (as in bulge) in the barrel. With thin walls such as a damascus shotgun barrel, a short-loaded charge can burst or crack the barrel.

Tedious thing, dribbling that powder is, regardless. Wait 'till you double up a charge in a double-barrel shotgun- one barrel empty, one with two charges, stacked atop each other. Caught my mistake before firing, luckily. Squirrels got away, apparently excessive cursing offends them.

 

[oldwood]

I quit competition m/l shooting sometime in the 1980's.. I helped my younger neighbor build his first .50 cal. longrifle. We went to the range for a sight-in session. I had warned him to always do "Powder ,Patch , Ball." when loading. As a joke , I told him I couldn't remember the last time I had dry balled a rifle. After a shot or two, my student forgot the FFFG. Once we cleared his rifle , the next rifle to experience dry ball , was mine. Though i would never admit it...............oldwood

 

[Omahkapi'si]

It’s a right of passage. Well done grasshopper.

 

[Steve Martin]

Anyone that says they have never dry balled, is someone that has never actually shot muzzle loaders!

 

[dkasprzak]

What is the most important item in my shooting bag……..the nipple wrench!!!

 

[BigCity]

I quit competition m/l shooting sometime in the 1980's.. I helped my younger neighbor build his first .50 cal. longrifle. We went to the range for a sight-in session. I had warned him to always do "Powder ,Patch , Ball." when loading. As a joke , I told him I couldn't remember the last time I had dry balled a rifle. After a shot or two, my student forgot the FFFG. Once we cleared his rifle , the next rifle to experience dry ball , was mine. Though i would never admit it...............oldwood

You should have told him you did it to make him feel better....

 

[Rod Man]

It’s a right of passage. Well done grasshopper.

Absolutely!!! I gave a dear friend of mine a TC perc gun and I told him what to do when this happens. He told me that he will try and avoid it...I told him "I appreciate the sentiment but it is going to happen, It is a fact of life." LOL!

RM

 

[rchas]

Years ago a shooting club I belonged to had the "PPB Medal": a huge, horrendously painted wooden circle inscribed with "Powder, Patch, THEN the Ball" to be worn around the neck on the range and at meetings until the next poor soul committed the sin. It was passed around pretty frequently, and I admit I wore it on occasion....

 

[FishDFly]

Folks act as if dry balling is some kind of right of passage, you do not get an award or nor do they put it on you tomb stone, "he dry balled". All it says when they post here about dry balling, is that they are not paying attention to details while they are shooting, which is not good.

Generally most folks dry ball when they are visiting with others or they are under stress while shooting in a match. When they call cease fire and you have dry balled, everyone is impatiently watching you, while you fix the situation.

Was at a match in Texas and a guy next to me dry balled seven (7) times in a row. Reached the point where the Range Officer just stood by with the CO2 discharger. Worked with him trying to help him to stop dry balling. His stress level was so high it was useless. He came the next year and same thing, he has not come again,

Two (2) ways to know if you have dry balled. Leave the powder measure in the barrel after pouring the powder into the barrel until you are ready to put the patch on the barrel. Or if you cannot remember if you have put powder in the barrel lick your index finger, wet the loading jag and stick the ram rod in the barrel. If there are kernels of powder on the jag it is loaded, no kernels on it, it is not loaded..

Wonder how many pages this will go?

 

[mmb617]

I haven't done the dry ball thing yet but I'm pretty new to muzzleloaders having bought my first one just six months ago. I have since then fired almost 2k balls through the three flintlocks I own.

However the last range trip I almost shot the opposite, a double load. I'd gone to the line and had a failure to ignite three times in a row so I went to the bench for some flint tuning. I'll mention that I was the only one at the range and I kept the muzzle pointed downrange while doing that. When I was ready to see if I had fixed the problem for some reason I forgot the gun was already loaded and dumped another load of powder then proceeded to ram a second patch and ball. As soon as I saw where the rod was in relation to my mark I knew what I'd done.

I used my ball puller and the ball didn't give me much trouble coming back out, and the patch came with it. But when I tried to dump the powder almost nothing came out. I assume it was packed in too tight to just dump out. I thought maybe I could use my ball puller to breakup the clump but that didn't work very well. I wasn't sure what the proper procedure should be at that point, as I had powder, patch, ball then more power in the barrel.

I finally came to the conclusion that especially since I use minimal powder loads it shouldn't hurt anything to just fire the gun, and that's what I did.

What do you guys normally do when you realize you've loaded a double load? Once the second ball is removed does it really hurt anything to have some powder in front of the normal load?

 

[mhb]

Any ML shooter who says he's never dryballed (or short started)....... probably lies about other stuff, too.

mhb - MIke

 

[Howard Pippin]

Two (2) ways to know if you have dry balled. Leave the powder measure in the barrel after pouring the powder into the barrel until you are ready to put the patch on the barrel. Or if you cannot remember if you have put powder in the barrel lick your index finger, wet the loading jag and stick the ram rod in the barrel. If there are kernels of powder on the jag it is loaded, no kernels on it, it is not loaded.
Thanks fishDfry. I think everyone should follow this idea.

For years, I target shot by myself, never dry balled, and never worried about it. Joined a club several years ago and within the second time there I dry balled. The club president had a CO2 discharger, we use that and I went right home and ordered one. I noticed a couple of fellows using the powder measure left in the barrel trick, after putting the powder in, and all of a sudden I knew why, and when I am with anybody else I make myself do that. It isn't a bad habit when I target shoot alone either.
Squint

 

[oldwood]

Fish.........Great post. That dry-baller needs someone to load his gun. Can you imagine how his brain neurons must be at war with each other ???..........

 

[FishDFly]

The guy is a really nice guy and so is his wife. We have had supper with them and it is a nice time.

In matches you cannot load a gun for anyone, thus that would not help him.

Unfortunately, some folks should not participate in the sport of shooting, their attention span is just not there.

Wast reading on another forum about alcohol and hunting. Some said they drink a couple of beers prior to shooting in matches. That is another group that should not be shooting.

 

[Flintandsteel]

There’s only two types of Muzzleloader’s in this world,… those that HAVE dry balled, and those that LIE about it.

 

[Whughett]

I did it recently with a TC Patriot pistol. That pistol has a small screw on the left side of the barrel. Not sure it’s intended purpose but it served well enough to get a substantial powder charge in behind the ball.
ive done it with revolvers also. Easy fix those. As noted it happens with me due to distractions like BSing with some one.

 

[ord sgt]

Some of us (those who have shall remain unmentioned) have dry balled more than once. It's not as unusual as it seems. This is a friendly reminder to pay attention to the loading sequence....POWDER, Patch then Ball. Repeat this mantra to yourself until it is firmly burned into your mind. Powder, patch, ball. Repeat.