Ram Rod Ramblings

[Slip Shooter]

This is a true story!

Many years ago I owned a T/C .45 cal muzzle loader as well as the T/C Seneca .36 Cal. While at the range, along with other muzzle loading members and enthusiast, I fired my ram rod away while shooting the .45. BiGGG recoil was my first indicator then I noticed the lock was cocked from the back pressure. Lots of laughs to be heard down the line..... humiliating!

Well, to make a stupid trick stick, the following fall I was Squirrel hunting with the Seneca .36 and spotted a nice grey squirrel on a limb about 50 yards away. Knowing I could take the critter, with a head shot, I raised the Seneca to a steady rest and fired. I missed! So, I reloaded as quickly as possible, (had it down to 12 seconds), re-shouldered the Seneca and fired a second round. Something familiar happened.... humiliating! I had shot away my ram rod once again, no witnesses! Yep, the lock was cocked and my only ram rod was sailing away, miles away, never to be seen again.

Not to be defeated tho, I spent the rest of the morning hunting squirrels with a Swiss Army pocket knife.

Now, that's another story, not to be told.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I've read of soldiers firing their ramrods - sometimes because they were being rushed and it was do or die and at others, it was because they forgot to withdraw it. Then again, I've heard of soldiers launching ramrods just to listen to the sound it made as it went through the air. You won't be the last person to fire or lose their ramrod and one of these days, if I get a spare metal one for a rifle musket, I'm going to shoot it just to record the sound.

 

[Steve499]

There's a good scene in the film series of Bernard Cornwell's Sharp collection where one of the characters armed with the Baker rifle is being charged by three mounted opponents. He had placed a ball or two in his mouth while the opposing trio were discussing their plan to get him. The three realize one of them will likely get shot but the other two expect to close for the kill. When they charge and get within range, the rifleman fires his rifle and unhorses one opponent. A second opponent gets so close as the rifleman attempts to reload that he has no time to withdraw his ramrod after seating his second charge and shoots it and the ball at point-blank range. Scratch number two. The third opponent. coward that he was, had been hanging back awaiting a helpless victim. He in unnerved by the loss of his comrades and turns to ride away. The rifleman charges his rifle with powder, spits a ball down the bore, thumps the butt of the rifle on the ground and lets fly the unpatched ball at number three, missing him but knocking off his hat. It was a particularly good scene in a series where the Bakers always seem to be loaded and they are never shown getting that way!
4v50Gary, do you think you might damage the rifling firing a steel ramrod from a rifled musket? I think the experiment would be worth the expense of a ramrod if I had a smoothbore to try it with.

Steve

 

[BP Hunter]

just wondering, how far can a ramrod go with a regular load?

 

[Duncaninfrance]

Steve,
The 'SHARP' programme was the first in the series, Sharps Rifles and the soldier was Partick Harper who was under arrest at the time for striking an officer. He later became a Sergeant.
The third load you described Steve was called a ' tap load ' and the ball would act as though fired from a musket.
Riflemen of the time would 'grade' their balls so as to be able to continue to shoot effectivly as the bore became fouled. They also used to grind their powder fine, using the end of their ramrods, for use in the pan and also for some, to improve the range.

If you have an interest in this time in history then I can recommend 3 books.
'Marching with Sharp' by B J Bluth. ISBN 0-00-414536-4 and Military Illustrated 'Rifleman' ISBN 1-903040-02-7. Also worth a read is 'Rifles' by Mark Urban ISBN 0-571-21981-1
Cheers
Duncan ( I love my Baker Rifle! )

 

[Steve499]

I do have an interest in that period, Duncan, Thanks for the book recommendations. Do you intend to shoot your original Baker or have you already done so? It would be of great interest to read as much as you could be persuaded to write about the experience.

Steve

 

[Duncaninfrance]

I do have an interest in that period, Duncan, Thanks for the book recommendations. Do you intend to shoot your original Baker or have you already done so? It would be of great interest to read as much as you could be persuaded to write about the experience.

Steve

I did shoot it in about 1988 when it had been repaired but that was on a half load using a paper ball. At the time I was in the Territorial Army and used to shooting 7.62 NATO so the slow fire of the Baker was quite a surprise. Since then it has been a wall piece, mainly because of it's value ( about $8,000 ) I don't want to blow it apart.

I can't get the right flints for it here in France but as I am returning to the UK in March for a wedding I will be calling at a gunshop in the next village, Peter Dysons http://www.peterdyson.co.uk to get some.
When I return I shall be looking to see if I can shoot a few rounds. All will be reported as it happens!!

Cheers
Duncan

 

[4v50 Gary]

The historical incident of a 95th (British) rifleman shooting his ramrod does have historical precedent. At the Bridge at Coa, Rifleman Harris didn't have time to withdraw his ramrod and shot it into an oncoming Frenchman. He retreated and borrowed a rifle for a wounded sergeant.

Now, as to shooting a metal ramrod, I can't recommend it as it could damage the bore (or at least the muzzle). I was thinking of drilling dowel rod out, slipping it onto the rod and then gluing it in place. The wood will prevent metal to metal contact that could damage to bore.

 

[Duncaninfrance]

At the battle of the Coa, 24 July 1810, ( which, due to the bad generalship of Craufurd or Black Bob as he was known ) the British suffered a defeat by the French under General Loison. A Captain Jonathan Leach , later Lt Col, wrote (of Craufurd)

" He is a damned tyrant and a great blackguard and has proved himself totally unfit to command a company, much less a division....I am fully confident that any sergeant in the army would have brought off the Division in better order, God be praised. If we had not all done something like our duty, I know not but that Division might have been now on its march to Verdun"
The pressure put on the British by the descision of Craufurd to stand his ground created a desperate fight where more that one ramrod was probably fired!!

Although I cannot find reference to Harris in the narative of Urbans book, it does point to evidence from a Private William Green that riflemen came around with 'dry cartridges' which shows that even at this early stage in the campaign, the riflemen had abandoned their pre-war loading style using powder measure, patch and ball in favour of paper cartridges. " Bite, pour, spit, ram ( or tap)".

If the Harris you refer to is one Benjamin Harris then he was an illiterate and his memoirs, published in 1848, were written by a former officer in the 52nd. He only served under Craufurd for a few weeks in 1808/09 and was probably not at the Coa.

Duncan