Oh man, I went out shooting my winchester x-150 today with the 385 gn GP bullets and 90 gn Pyrodex RS. I was shooting about 2" groups at 50 yards and got a bulls eye along with a couple other shots hitting the orange circle. I load up my 4th round, cap it and take aim and fire. BOOOOM! My skinny 160lb ass goes flying back and i come up off the ground like WTF was that?!! I thought i double loaded but as it turns out, i go to pick up my ramrod. Ahhhh no! Yup 130 yards up range i find my heavy aluminum ramrod. It now looks like a mini walking cane. I swear i have never felt anything kick so hard. The funny thing is, The bullet and ramrod hit 6" right of the bulls eye lol. After taking the gun apart for inspecting it checked out fine and i cleaned it and went back out and took4 more shots and got 1 flyer due to me flinching big time. After the 2nd shot i was back on the target and getting close groups. I was about 2" low at 50 yards. Yesterday i was low 2 1/2" at 100 yards so i thought it was weird that im 2" low at 50 and dead on at 100 today. Im going to do more 100 yard shots tomorrow before i call it quits untill the season starts. I got the Kentucky all sighted in and set up so that one is now ready. But man after shooting that ramrod i made sure every time i loaded it, i take it out of the barrel and set it on the 4 wheeler rack lol. Luckily i had a non breakable spare and will cut that down in size to replace the old ramrod. And i thought those 385 gn GP bullets kicked!! HA!

I am new to MLing and can see how easy it would be to double charge or not seat your bullet if your rod is not marked. But I can not imagine the possibility of leaving the rod in the barrel. After you seat the bullet, isn't it just natural to pull it out? Why would you ever even take your hand off the rod prior to pulling it out? This confuses me, but I am easily confused.

lol dont jinx yourself there buddy. Ive been MLing since i was 15 and 7 years later i do this? I couldnt belive i did it but even the best of the best do it once in a lifetime. I remember i always said, naaah i'd never do that. Welp here i am! Im not sure if i got distracted by the horses that were by me or what. But i did it. That Winchester has a strong barrel lol. I was suprisednothing broke on the gun or on me. My face will deff. have a bruise where the stock came up and got me. But seriously, just bcuz you think it was a dumb and easy thing to avoid. Never say it wont happen to you bcuz its going to get you down the road sometime lol. What a day. But hey i bought new hunting boots for this year. I got sick of my other boots always leaking so i got a new pair of boots, pants and some more bullets. Im all set for this year.

With muzzleloaders, anything is possible. The problem is you have to stay focused all the time from start to finish. After all, we are not sticking a cartridge into the action and just shooting. A lot more ramrods have went down range then most people will admit. At least you're honest enough to admit the mistake. I am just glad that you were not imjured and the rifle was not as well. Now you can laugh about it.

I came so close to doing the exact same thing one day, I can feel your pain. As I was loading, shooting, etc. the dog who loves to see the guns go off, was all excited (too many years in a duck blind I think)and was messing around infront of the range table. Getting tired of yelling at the dog to calm down, I put the rifle down in the shooting stand, and took the animal into the house. I sat back down, and was just about to fire, when I noticed the ramrod missing in the thimble rib. Thank goodness I looked around or I would have had the same experience. Then I noticed the rifle still had the ramrod in the barrel.

I was at a public range once when a person two stations down from me did the same thing. He had loaded and was talking to someone who wasinterested in his rifle. He then turned around and took a bead and fired. Like you, he seemed upset over the recoil. When he went to reload, he just started laughing. I'm glad he could laugh about it.

Keep shooting.. maybe if you watch the online stores, they will have a sale on ramrods.. just kidding. Glad you're all right.

When they portray the civil war they usually show a guy with a ramrod sticking out of his chest. Lee

Great point Lee. I can hear the elk now, "Jeez, let's get out of here, they're shooting bullets AND arrows at us!!"

You guys are right, anything can happen especially when you get distracted and that breaks your "normal flow".

Good post to help keep us all on our toes, and reminding us that safety has to come 1st.

Many is the ramrod that has been shot downrange! It usually happened in the heat of battle. And, as you learned, it is best to remove the ramrod from the bore before firing.

i saw guy 1 time shoot a arrow out of his muzzleloader. it had real feathers not plastic vanes. i could not believe it when i saw that arrow in the pie plate at 25 yards.mostly, i see people all time that dont know if they put 2 loads in or 1.never saw rod go down range yet,ha.

frontier gander,

Whoa!!!! Scary situation. Please don't ever leave a ramrod in your rifle again while it is being discharged. A 4 oz ramrod is a 1750 grain projectile. Obviously anincredibly dangerous load. Cascadedad is correct, this should never happen because you should be completely concientious about the dangers of doing this. Fortunately, there wasn't 150 grains of pellets in there and you are not injured. Frontier gander, this is was a wake up call, please don't forget the lesson you have learned today.

Phil