I haven' t been muzzleloading for very long. I was at the range today, and was experimenting with different patch thickness, anyway to make a long story short. The patch was too thick, the ball stuck about halfway down the barrel ( I cracked my ramrod, and didn' t bring my spare). So I took the rifle home, and using a wooden dowell, and a rubber mallet have finally managed to fully seat the ball. Can I safely shoot the rifle to clear the barrel? It' s a .44 cal ball, probably a .44 cal flat would be more accurate considering the pounding it took to seat the ball, over 70 grains of 3f. It' s probably a stupid question, but I' d rather ask first before I take a chance and shoot it.

I cant see the gun blowing up.

As long as the ball is seated on the powder charge I think it could be fired, although I am not a gunsmith. If it were me and my rifle, I would fire the thing off. I made the mistake of loading a .535 with a thick patch into my rifle once, and as you described, had to beat the thing to seat it, and I fired it off. I never loaded another one.

tie a long cord to the trigger, and stand behind a stout tree if you are concerned or put some wd40 down the barrel and use a ball puller

Thanks for the help guys. I fired it out yesterday, cleaned it, and went back to a thinner patch. I' m now getting 2-2 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards. I don' t really know what kind of accuracy I should expect, but this doesn' t seem all that encouraging. Any suggestions for shrinking group size?

Use a good quality patch with minimal lube. I started getting really good groupings when I started lubing patches with spit only.