ORIGINAL: DannyD
A buddy of mine left the rod inside the barrel of his Omega and fired the gun. He was using 100g of pellets and 250 gr shockwave bullet.
The scope gave him a pretty nasty gash above his eye as it knocked him off his bench.
The question...Is the gun safe to shoot? He says there are no visible signs of damage on the outside of the barrel and just looking down the barrel he can not see anything out of the ordinary.(he does not have a bore scope).
I really didn't know what to tell him. I know i've read on here a few times where it has happened to guys but I don't recall what the effects were on the barrel safety.
Sounds like the rod was resting on the bullet, as there was no ringing of the barrel?? If the barrel was not ringed, it should still be OK to shoot - take out the breech plug, and make sure the threads on the plug and in the breech are not stripped. If these threads are OK, I would still use the gun.......
In the heat of battle, many a ramrod went downrange, with no ill effects to the rifle-musket, and they had much thinner barrels made from much softer steel (or even iron) than is in use today....