OK, another rule to remember. IF your going to shoot your rod down the range, make darn sure it is seated on the bullet!!!

I've only been shooting muzzleloaders since the first of the year and have read a few storys about this. I don't mind let'in you know, this scares the hell out of me. I keep two rods on the bench at my range. The original that I don't use while there and my range rod. I've made it a habit to look and see both rods laying therebefore I pull the hammer back to fire. But thats at the range, not out hunting with a nice deer in my sites...

If yer buddy has any experience with using conicals in the Omega hecan remove the breech plug and push a full bore bullet through the barrel. He will be able to tell the difference if there is any bulging. In my Omega from the muzzle half way down it is loose and then it is a fairly tight fit to the breech. If I did not already know how the fit was, I couldn't determine anything from pushing a bullet through. However, at every distance that the bullet loosed up you could very carefully check the exterior of the barrel for signs of stress. Just another thought on how to check everything over before pulling the trigger again.
By the way, the reason I know you can push the bullet all the way through is because when you forget to put the powder in first........

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....

I've never done it but one of my hunting buddies have done it twice. There was no damage to his barrel. For last Christmas we bought him a toy bow and arrow set. He didn't get it at first.

Well I've done something similar to that. After muzzleloading season I had left my gun loaded with 150gr. of T7 and a 270gr. powerbelt. Well I went out to the range a month later and forgot that it was already loaded and I loaded another 150gr. of powder and 270gr. powerbelt. Well needless to say the scope gave me a nice wakeup call, it also threw me off of the bench. As for the rifle went, it was still in good shape and still shoots great.