An actual New Land pattern pistol

kronckew · 20th January 2013, 08:02 PM

having owned & fired black powder pistols from single shot smoothbores to colt walkers, and rifled muskets, one thing i was taught early on was to NOT palm the ramrod. it's a good way to lose a hand. fingering it you only lose a finger or two in case it discharges. palming may also exert excessive compression on the charge, and friction between the grains of powder and the bore can set off the charge. it might not happen often but once is too many.

ramrods were a pain in more than the hand in battle. adrenalin pumped soldiers frequently skipped little loading steps like removing the ramrod & wound up firing it down range. doing that with an articulated ramrod could ruin your day. at the least you are out of action till you can pick up someone else's ramrod. soldiers on the other side were sometimes speared by the opposition's ramrods. probably better than getting hit with a dirty great lead ball tho. sergeants checking troopers weapons sometimes found they had forgot to prime or fire between loadings, and had 5 or 6 charges stacked up in the barrel.

if the ramrod doesn't full go down the bore, you might have more in there than you think.

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20th January 2013, 08:02 PM	#11
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,215	having owned & fired black powder pistols from single shot smoothbores to colt walkers, and rifled muskets, one thing i was taught early on was to NOT palm the ramrod. it's a good way to lose a hand. fingering it you only lose a finger or two in case it discharges. palming may also exert excessive compression on the charge, and friction between the grains of powder and the bore can set off the charge. it might not happen often but once is too many. ramrods were a pain in more than the hand in battle. adrenalin pumped soldiers frequently skipped little loading steps like removing the ramrod & wound up firing it down range. doing that with an articulated ramrod could ruin your day. at the least you are out of action till you can pick up someone else's ramrod. soldiers on the other side were sometimes speared by the opposition's ramrods. probably better than getting hit with a dirty great lead ball tho. sergeants checking troopers weapons sometimes found they had forgot to prime or fire between loadings, and had 5 or 6 charges stacked up in the barrel. if the ramrod doesn't full go down the bore, you might have more in there than you think.