Ram rod projectile

[NOCK NOCK]

Boy did I screw up.    Not sure if I should admit to this, but it may help someone else to make sure they do not do this.
Been around guns my whole life and never had any kind of mistake....until now.

I'm in my 2nd year of shooting a muzzy and working on getting a new front sight built. I only needed to shoot 3 times at a distance of 25 yards.
Shot 1 - two caps popped and no fire, 3rd cap and then a hang fire (first ever hang fire for me)
Shot 2 - Had a good rest on a stump, squeezed one off and it rocked my world, WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT, felt like I was hit on the shoulder with a sledgehammer. I have never had any gun kick that hard. Black Diamond .50 cal., 100g of powder with a SST 250g sabot.
Did a quick body check, nothing bleeding or broken, then a quick look at the target(a piece of cardboard) big 8" long tear in it, what the heck happened???
Looked down at the gun....where is my ram rod?  Things became really clear, holy crap I just shot the ramrod out of the barrel 
Shot 3 - obviously didn't happen 

Googled this and found that it is not all that uncommon for it to happen, it will NEVER happen again to me, this I am sure of.

I am so po'd at myself for doing this, but feel very lucky, could have ended a lot worse.
Did a thorough cleaning on it, breech plug came right out and looked normal / threads fine, barrel looked good- no scratches or messed up rifling, thinking the gun should be fine, but am a little worried about shooting it again the first time.

Anybody ever set up a gun in a cradle holder with sandbags, and fire with a string from a distance?  several dudes said they had done that on a muzzle forum.

Below is a picture of what the rod looked like in the stump. 2nd shot bullet did not hit the 2' square cardboard.

[Mark Brenckle]

Do you know why it kicked like that? I would think it would exit the barrel pretty easily. How far did it fly and how deep into that stump?

[jrebel]

Can't imagine the ramrod made that muzzleloader kick that much harder.  I shoot black diamond xr's and love them....I own 4.  LOL  What kind of site are you putting on it.  I have found a williams peep with the original front fiber optic post works amazingly well.  I shoot 110 grains of pyrodex select with 250 grain shockwaves (super glide sabot) and it is crazy accurate.   


Oh yeah....I have never had a hangfire or missfire on mine.  I have shot hundreds of rounds.  We should get together to figure out what is going wrong.  I would seriously look at changing something.  Let me know if you want to get out one day and try my recipe. 

jrebel

[JL]

Shooting a ramrod out of a muzzleoader WILL certainly make it "kick that much harder." There's not too much to ponder where that's concerned, yet here we are.

[bowhunterforever]

I have heard stories of people doing just that but never done it myself. I have loaded a bullet before and forgot to put powder in first lol

[HardCorpsHuntr]

 
Glad you and your ML are OK.  I'll be looking for that stump now.

[carpsniperg2]

It happens I know of a guy that shot a bull elk and was reloading as the elk was trying to get up pulled up and shot. Went to grab and reload again and no ram rod. The ram rod was stuck in the bull. Everyone kept telling him that they were going to screw a broadhead on the next ram rod So not the first time I have heard of this happening.

[j_h_nimrod]

As far as the heavy recoil I would say that the ramrod worked like an old mini ball with the cone shaped base. A lot of the new ramrods have the very steep cone shaped jag so as not to deform the new pointed bullets. The bullet forcing against the inner edges drive the edges of the jag against the rifling creating a second bullet in effect.  If you look at the pictures, the front edge of the jag looks pretty bright compared to the rest of the rod and jag.

I've remote fired a number of guns in the past for various reasons. I would say that it is highly likely the gun is fine, but sometimes you need the piece of mind knowing it will not blow up on you the next time you shoot. I would probably start with a moderate load and if ok then work up to a max load.  Check all parts of barrel and breech plug minutely. Also, remove breech plug and look down the barrel with a decent light at the end to check for bulging.  A bulge will show up as a dark ring in the bore.

[NOCK NOCK]

Can't imagine the ramrod made that muzzleloader kick that much harder.  I shoot black diamond xr's and love them....I own 4.  LOL  What kind of site are you putting on it.  I have found a williams peep with the original front fiber optic post works amazingly well.  I shoot 110 grains of pyrodex select with 250 grain shockwaves (super glide sabot) and it is crazy accurate.   


Oh yeah....I have never had a hangfire or missfire on mine.  I have shot hundreds of rounds.  We should get together to figure out what is going wrong.  I would seriously look at changing something.  Let me know if you want to get out one day and try my recipe. 

jrebel

I would be up for a shoot JR. I'll shoot you a PM

I have a Williams peep with factory front fiber pin. Last fall I had to have the peep ramp hanging off the top of its mount to be dead on at 100yd. Talking with Williams and they can build a new front pin (lower) for me, hence the 3 shots at 25yds to measure how low its hitting at 25Yds. My 1st shot hit 6" low (but it was the hangfire) so not sure how on I was. Hangfire was prolly due to too much oil from last cleaning.

Curious as to how high your front fiber pin is?  On mine, from bottom of barrel to top of fiber pin is 1 5/16
from top of barrel to top of pin is 7/16

[Doublelunger]

Shooting a ramrod out of a muzzleoader WILL certainly make it "kick that much harder." There's not too much to ponder where that's concerned, yet here we are.

 

I'm not a mathematician/physicist but you have 20 x more mass trying to exit your barrel. I think Newtons 3rd law should apply directly .

[Bill W]

One thing your gun needs is a faster twist to stabilize your ramrod.  Looks like it's keyholing on you.   

[erk444]

I did it with my first muzzy a bunch of years ago. Ruined my barrel. There were scratches all over by the breech area. Bullet would load fine till it hit those scratches, then I'd pretty much hafta pound it down the last 2 inches. Lucky it was a cheapo CVA

[Dan-o]

I shot my ram rod at a spike bull about 20 years ago.   

Not my best day in the field.   

[SkookumHntr]

I shot my ram rod at a spike bull about 20 years ago.   

Not my best day in the field.

hey dan-o, can you tell that story again! I was laughing 😂 for a week after reading that!! Lmao!!!!

[usmc74]

My first muzzy was a Zouave 58 cal, 525 gr slug

It had a STEEL ramrod.

Issaquah range had an emergency cease fire.

After all clear, I shot my rifle

When I shot, I went back about 5 yards.

The ramrod made it almost 50

I couldn't move my right arm.

Took several hours before the arm recovered. 

Had to drive home shifting the stick with my left hand.