I'd stay several benches away from that guy lol

JW

A guy I work with bought a new Optima this fall and went to the range with his buddy. Being inexperienced in muzzleloading his buddy said he'd load it for him. He handed him the gun back for him to shoot after loading it. The buddy who loaded it was watching the target with his binoculars and said after the shot " what were those branches flying through the air?" It was the ramrod. It was the very first round fired out of the gun. Lesson learned. Do everything yourself.

You see it in the movies all the time. The soldier loads then bounces the ramrod to insure the projectile is seated. Well that might be fine and dandy in a smoothbore musket. But you are correct.. have a witness mark and push to that mark. Deforming the ball will do you no good. Also I have to agree with the comments of a friend should have never taken upon himself to do that with your rifle. But then friends do strange things sometimes and get away with it. Keep up the good work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REpqBk-BQ38

Hammering down the bullet seemed to work for these guys!

Crazy!

Not hard to figure where bad habits come from.

I'll let you guess what forum those guys hang out on.

I hope his not training someone the same way his doing it this scares me

Well I let him take it because he wanted to show me something and afterwards I thought about it.

And I agree, I am no expert just didn't think all was right.

Thanks for the input.

Well to be honest it was my brother, and he has taken a few deer in his day, muzzle loader and shotgun. I thought he was trying to help but I just didn't think things were right. I am trying to figure out who taught him. That is scary!

Unbelievable. That gene pool needs more chlorine.

Actually that did happen to me once. I had a .45 cal rifle and for some reason the bore was so tight that the first time I shot it I was using a .440 RB and .015 patch. I rap it into the bore with the short starter, then a couple raps with the long end of the short starter and that's when I knew I was in trouble. Pushing down with the ramrod was futile and I knew I would never be able to pull the bullet. So, as gently as possible, I tapped the end of the wooden ramrod until the ball was finally seated on the charge. Capped the nipple and at arms length, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. I believe I ended that shooting session after that.