Maybe I am missing something here, but isn't the above combination bigger than the caliber of the barrel? Don't you have to keep the ball and patch thickness smaller than the caliber of the barrel?

I do have a short starter. Yesterday I had to whack it pretty hard (boy Semi is going to have fun with that!) to get the .530/.005 started down the barrel.

I was using a brass Treso rod and even with that once or twice I practically had to hammer the rod on the ball to get it to go down, rather than just a smoth steady push.

I was using a 50 cal cleaning jag on the end of the rod to push the ball and patch, could that have been part of the problem?