An Idea Whose Time Never Quite Came

[David R]

Originally Posted by kronckew

.. related: i have been told that during the american civil war it was not uncommon for the recruits going into battle to load their weapons for the volley fire by ranks in sync with their comrades, but forgetting to put a fresh cap on their rifle. their sergeant, after practice live fire drills would go down the line and have them drop the ramrod down the muzzle of their rifle, and heaven forbid one didn't go down all the way. one unlucky soul was found to have six loads in his barrel, all of which he had to extract with a worm while suffering further under the ministrations of the sarge. if it had happened in a real battle the potential for an explosion setting it all off if he finally did recap his rifle (another idiom we've added to the language?) and potentially killing him and maybe someone next to him.

* - leaway hasn't got the same oomph.

I have seen this happen for real. I loaned a reproduction musket to a friend for use at a reenactment at Waterloo. I later pulled 6 loads out of it! I have also seen double loads ignite and the recoil knock the shooter over. Blanks only bigod but cause for thought all the same.

[Richard G]

Sorry, if this is insultingly obvious, but with all this talk of multiple loads and Lee saying he has not removed the ramrod, I trust someone has plumbed the barrels to check there is not a load still in there.
Best wishes
Richard

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Richard G

Sorry, if this is insultingly obvious, but with all this talk of multiple loads and Lee saying he has not removed the ramrod, I trust someone has plumbed the barrels to check there is not a load still in there.
Best wishes
Richard

Specially taking into account that one has to handle the system in order to allow for the probing of four possible loads .

[kronckew]

You can do it in 2 tries, once per barrel. Carefully insert ramrod using left hand between thumb and forefinger ensuring no part of you is in front, never push it in with your palm. Pinch it at the muzzle to save the length, and withdraw, lay it alongside the barrel, if the end is past the rear touch hole you are OK, if it is ahead of the rear touch hole but past the front one, you have one load. If ahead of the front touch hole you have at least two. If it's well in front, you are in deep doo doo and have multiples.

On a new rifle i'd drop initially the ramrod in with it empty, use a black marker to mark the ramrod at muzzle level, load it with my std. loading of powder, paper wad & minie ball and mark the rod again. Luckily I never had to worm out a load.

If you do, make sure you have shaken out the priming and uncocked the hammers before anything else...Some would pour water into the barrel & let it soak before worming, or submerge the gun in water for a while to ensure the loads were dead. Flush with water after removing (which was normal cleaning practice anyway) until the water comes out the touch holes clear. Dry & oil as usual...