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Dale K Offline OP
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So I screwed up and forgot to pull the ramrod before pulling the trigger. The rifle is a Traditions Pa. Pellet flintlock in 50 cal. They say you can safely put 3 pellets (150 gr) of Pyrodex in it. My load is only 80 gr of loose Pyrodex RS over a 240 gr Hornady XTP in a sabot. When I got home, the breech plug unscrewed as easily as it had in the past. The lock mechanism appears to be fine. I do have an email in to Traditions to see what they say but thought I would check here too.

Any comments (besides a well deserved DUMB $H!T)?

Thanks,

Dale


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Pyrodex huh? How far did the ramrod go?


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Not a tight fit in the bore, my opinion is it's fine. Shot one at a deer once by mistake.... Never did find it. The deer lived!

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How was recoil?


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I was shooting at the State Game Lands on the 25 yd range because I had been messing with the sights. I had 2 big pieces of paper up besides my target. Rod went sideways through the target and the rubber backer. I saw a long narrow disturbed area in the sand behind the target butt. Ramrod was about 2 inches in, still more or less sideways. That backer gets a lot of handgun use, it was starting to resemble swiss cheese. And it could have been angling rather than totally sideways. But still...

The bullet hit the target too, about 6 inches low and a couple of inches left. I might have got my deer!

Recoil was definitely more than usual but the normal load is pretty mild. I guess it was similar to my 99 in 358 or Kimber in 30-06.

Yep, Pyrodex. I use 4f BP in the pan but have been using loose pyrodex in the barrel since I got the gun 10 years or so ago. Have fired it many times after hunting in our late flintlock season, it's always gone bang, even on days when temps are in the teens. I know many here say BP only in a flint but this one is designed for Pyrodex pellets. I was leery of that and decided to hedge my bet with loose. Seems to be working.

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The Mountain Men Killed indians with their Ramrod all the time. When they were out of round balls. 😬😳😜


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Dale K - you should be fine and don’t feel too bad it’s happened to me twice at our local muzzleloader shoots early in my muzzleloader days - both times with small caliber muzzleloaders that I didn’t have a range rod for - which prompted me to get a range rod so that it would be more obvious (we leave the rods in until we shoot to let us know it’s loaded). Our shoots often would correspond with dusk/night fall and the lighting was not great - get to talking while waiting a turn to shoot and bingo rod is going down range with the ball. Never hurt the muzzleloader - sure did my ego and the guys to this day ask me if the rod is going along to the target too?🥴😄.

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Dale K Offline OP
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A buddy commented that it wouldn't have happened if I was at work instead of using the 2 hr early dismissal that Biden gave Federal employees to go to the range. So there you have it:

It's Biden's Fault! grin

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Nothing wrong with the rifle. Black powder of equivalent doesn't build pressure like smokeless powder



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I had a ramrod break inside the barrel of my TC Renegade50 while cleaning with too much cloth on the cleaning jag. So I had 6-7" of ramrod attached to a stuck jag.
Local gunsmith swung by, pulled the nipple [sidelock] and poured some powder in and shot it out, handed the gun back and chuckled as he pulled a replacement ramrod out of his truck and handed it to me.
Told me to come by tomorrow and buy a brass rod for cleaning.

Gun was fine.


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Quite a few years back I shot mine, it was aluminum and kicked the bejesus out of me. It hit my 50yd target sideways, didn't hurt the rifle only my pride. I think it happens a lot but most don't mention it. It was 2 50gr pellets and a 300 grain shockwave + the weight of the ramrod out of a traditions pursuit .

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Dale K Offline OP
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I heard back from the folks at Traditions. They strongly suggest having it checked by a competent gunsmith. Said it's possible the ramrod could have damaged the barrel or the internals. I'm guessing by internals they mean the removable breech plug. I'm not sure how an aluminum rod would damage a steel barrel but it's not a bad idea. Smith is only about 10 minutes from my house.

Dale


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Quite frankly, I don't see how they could say anything else, given the success of lawyers...

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Originally Posted by Dale K
I heard back from the folks at Traditions. They strongly suggest having it checked by a competent gunsmith. Said it's possible the ramrod could have damaged the barrel or the internals. I'm guessing by internals they mean the removable breech plug. I'm not sure how an aluminum rod would damage a steel barrel but it's not a bad idea. Smith is only about 10 minutes from my house.

Dale


Legally - Traditions couldn’t tell you anything else, as noted above.

You’d be looking for bulge in the barrel, or if any of the metal from the seater came off in the barrel while the rod was departing.

Given the load, unless it’s an exceptionally heavy ramrod - you’re most likely fine.

You’ll want to pay attention when you load your next loads for any spots with hard resistance in the bore - could be scoring from the ramrod or metal shaved off of it - or you hit a spot in the barrel that suddenly gets very easy to load past.

I bought used Knight that had a slight bulge - wasn’t obvious from the outside, but you’d get spot just before getting to charge that was near finger light to get past.

Looking from the breech - you could finally see a slight shadow ring where the bulge was. It was used, so no way to determine what happened in the past.

It’s possible you may have cracked a thread on the breech plug, but I’d bet if you do a detailed inspection - you most likely didn’t, especially since it’s coming out like normal.

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Never done it.
Surprisingly.

Bought my T/C Hawken at about 14.
Heard all the stories about how you can't blow up a muzzleloader
as long as the bullet is seated on the charge.

Read lots of gun articles, those guys were always testing, trying things?
So..

I tried most of the "Don't" things.
200+gr of 3F under a patched ball.
Two balls. Three.

You know we weren't allowed anything but patched round ball, so
I didn't try conical. Sabots didn't exist yet.

Everything, but leaving the ball above the powder.

Never had an issue, no damage. Except some of those loads did
kick a bit with that brass butt.


I'd bet your gun is fine.

Too bad that wasn't a deer.
Can just see a PAGC Barney Fife type all puffed up.
Trying to twist some archery/muzzleloader conspiracy.


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Dale K Offline OP
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Thanks guys. I figured I'd get the 'lawyer letter' but had to ask them anyhow. Will get it checked out between now and flintlock season and go from there. I gotta agree about the PGC conspiracy, some of those folks are OK and some make Barney Fife look tame.

Dale


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Dale K Offline OP
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The gunsmith called this morning. The rifle is fine, no problems in the barrel and the breech plug is solid. So now I need to find time to pick it up and then get to the range to sight it in with proper projectiles. NOT the ramrod! blush

Hoping for a somewhat warm day between now and Christmas.

Dale


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of course the rifle is fine. Probably don't even need to sight it in.

I saw Fess Parker shoot lots of folks with the ramrod out of ole Tick Licker on the Daniel Boone show. ;^)


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Not gonna lie…I always wondered what would happen if I did this. Thanks for testing it out for me! I’m sure the gun is fine

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Dale K Offline OP
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Today was a relatively warm day so me, the muzzleloader, and my new ramrod went to the range. Got it sighted in pretty easy and the ramrod did not go downrange this time. Ready for the flintlock season, hope the deer are.

Dale


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