What a jerk!!!

[m-g willy]

Seen this guy at the range shooting a pa. flintlock.
I know he been shooting muzzleloaders for over 20 years.(OLD PRO)

Welllll, This (Ol Pro) loads up and proceeds to fire.
Gun miss fires
Old Pro cleans out touch hole
reprime
Fires again
Miss fire !
Ol Pro clean out touch hole again
reprime
Fires
This time gun fires with a loud hissing boom!!!!
Everyone looks at ol Pro
That's when Old Pro notice 1/2 of busted ram rod sticking out of muzzle!!
Old Pro fired a 50cal round ball with 60 gr. fffg with the ram rod still in the barrel---(WHAT A JERK!!)
The ball pushed the rod 1/2 way down the barrel before wedgeing itself and the rod about 16" from the muzzle.
The rod broke and about 2' of rod went flying down the range.
And this jerk thought he knew everything there was about shooting saftey!
What a JERK!!
I happened to see the JERK again this morning.
He was in the mirror when I was shaveing :redface:
You can NEVER be to careful :winking:
Even us OLD PRO'S can screw up!

:redface: Willy

 

[54JNoll]

Been there, Done that. Although in my case the whole rod made it out of the bore and flew down range. I eventually found it. I was shooting a .50 with 100 grains 2F at the time.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Seen it happen by experienced shooters before. Check your barrel over good, you probably bulged it. I had to replace a trade gun barrel due to a bulge for one of my friends when he shot his rod down range.

 

A friend of my dads BORROWED a ram rod for an event and inadvertently shot it downrange.......and it was a SOLID BRASS rod. How do you spell recoil?. Hit the target too. A steel clanger. The rod looked like ?

 

[John Taylor]

NOT A JERK, just thoughtless. I find that the older I get the more things are on my mind at the same time. When loading I have to think "powder first then ball".
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

 

[roundball]

Agree...not a jerk...just drifted off on a little vacation trip while working with your rifle.

I haven't done the ramrod trick yet but probably will as much as I shoot....what I have noticed is that shooting so much every Saturday, I'm doing more and more things subconciously, just going through the motions and my mind is thinking back about work or something...when I get into one of those mindsets, I'll start dry balling, or double balling...sometimes even twice in a row back-to-back...lost concentration.

Now when I realize I'm day-dreaming and getting sloppy, I just stop...go sit down, have a cup of coffee, break up the whole routine...get a fresh focus and start back again.

And a good tip I've picked up here is to set out one complete shot's worth of components at a time...one powder charge (premeasured), one patch, one ball...the rest stay off to the side out of arms reach...training myself to load only from the set of componets laying right there on the carpeted bench, right beside the barrel.

(PS: in your case, you could have a quiver of ramrods :grin: )

 

[m-g willy]

Whew! :shocked2: At least I anit the only one :winking:

Willy

 

[chipper]

It's funny how many have done this and survived. I shot a wooden ramrod during a speed shoot. I was the ripe old age of 16.

I recently sold a .54 hawkins to a friend and he shot a brass cleaning rod out of it. Later on, me and this friend were talking about barrel damage and I went on to say, "watch out for situations when your buying a used gun, If you find that the cleaning patch hits a loose spot in the barrel, the barrel was probably dammaged." He said his gun does that, he gave me a funny look and he acted like it was me that sold him a bad gun. I don't think he put two and two together to realize that he did the damage.

Regards
Wounded Knee

 

[bub524]

Many years ago I saw a guy do this with one of those unbreakable plastic/composition rods. It actually flew down range, hit the backstop, bent like a bow, and flew back about 25 yards. Really crazy!!

 

[reddogge]

I liked the way you did the intial post. Very innovative. I was going to get on you for being too hard on that old JERK and you got me with the line about the mirror.

By the way, metal rods sound really neat going downrange.......WHAAAANNNNGGGGGGG.

 

[sfruhwirth]

Been there done that myself.
Hit my target and riped it right in half.. and they gave me no points on that one... Go figure. :grin:
Off and on my rendy buddys call me ram rod .. lol
I tend to call this problem of lack of concentration as ("Going to the Bahamas").
:rotf:

 

Hey MG, don't be so hard on yerself, It's not a case of if you'll ever do it, but when, just like dry ballin, or fergetting to put the toilet seat down. (last night) The Chiefs on the warpath again :rotf: Bill

 

[oomcurt]

Heh, I've been having the same problems...wonder if she who must be obeyed would get mad if I just sawed a slot in the seat..that way I wouldn't have to pick it up to begin with. :grin:

 

[lanedh]

In some places that's called a "senior moment", in others it's a "rolling blackout".

Bluejacket

 

[walruskid1]

you are a true class act, mg willy. i'd be proud to shoot along side you anytime. you'd fit right in with my crowd. WK1

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Have done same, fecal matter happens.

 

[tnlonghunter]

I've not done the ramrod bit. However, I was on a woods walk and was doing well, so I got a little too cocky. I went to pull the cock to full, and let go before it engaged. The muzzle was pointed at the ground, and all I shot was dirt, but it was really embarrassing :redface: (especially since this was the first time I'd shot with these guys). At least they were cool about it and understood. Thanks for having the guts to admit a mistake without prompting from others. It means a lot to young guys like me that the veterans are willing to teach from their own mistakes. Cheers!

 

[PedroB]

Tnlonghunter, you're lucky it was the DIRT you shot, and not something else down there. Otherwise you might have ended up with a different nickname... :winking:

 

[DGeraths]

I am very glad no one was hurt, yourself included. Such an event could have easily ended in tragedy for sure! :shocked2:

I am really puzzled about this error however. From the looks of the thread, there are certainly others who have done this same thing; but I can't even begin to imagine how I could forget to pull out the ramrod in my barrel?

I am thinking that some might have a different process for loading that could cause this kind of mistake? I have certainly loaded ball without powder before, but leaving the rod in the barrel doesn't seem possible with the way I load. I don't really ever let go of the rod, from the time it is pulled from the housing to the replacing of it back into place.

Just moments ago in my living room I took my smoothbore and went through the motions of loading and the more I think about it, I can't figure out how I could miss that last step?

Can you give a detailed description of how you load the weapon? I am curious if there are different ways/steps people take when loading a muzzleloader?

 

[m-g willy]

I am very glad no one was hurt, yourself included. Such an event could have easily ended in tragedy for sure! :shocked2:

I am really puzzled about this error however. From the looks of the thread, there are certainly others who have done this same thing; but I can't even begin to imagine how I could forget to pull out the ramrod in my barrel?

I am thinking that some might have a different process for loading that could cause this kind of mistake? I have certainly loaded ball without powder before, but leaving the rod in the barrel doesn't seem possible with the way I load. I don't really ever let go of the rod, from the time it is pulled from the housing to the replacing of it back into place.

Just moments ago in my living room I took my smoothbore and went through the motions of loading and the more I think about it, I can't figure out how I could miss that last step?

Can you give a detailed description of how you load the weapon? I am curious if there are different ways/steps people take when loading a muzzleloader?

Yes I can give a few details,,
First off , I was shooting with about 8 other shooters,,
talking
loading,,
waiting for someone else to fire,,
before sittin down at the bench,,
----
--
-
-
-
-
-and not paying attention to what I should have :redface:

Willy