This tip, like most of the others, I learned by doing it the wrong way. What I did wrong was tapping the ball down the barrel with my ram rod. It usually took about 5 or 6 taps to move the ball down to the breech. An experienced shooter pointed out to me that I should slide the ball to the breech I one smooth action, without hammering it in. This was because the lead ball is soft and the tapping or hammering could dent or cause the ball not to be as round. At the time I was loading my gun from the bench with a stainless steel 3/8″ ram rod that is quite a bit heavier than a wooden ram rod. It was pointed out to me that if you try to push a wooden ram rod in one stroke down into the barrel, it could bend and break, causing you to injure yourself. So if you are not using a bench ram rod, then you need to exercise more care. Tapping may be the only way to safely push the ball and patch, just do so lightly and not super aggressively so as to damage the ball.
Another suggestion is to put a little extra pressure on the ball one it reaches the powder. This seats the ball into the powder. It’s important to be consistent with the amount of pressure used when seating the ball. There is a difference to note when seating the ball with a percussion gun versus a flintlock. It is ok to seat the ball more firmly with a percussion because the cap produces enough heat to ignite the black powder even if it is packed tightly into the breech. It is recommended with Flintlocks to just seat the ball onto the powder without much pressure. You don’t want to push all the air out of the powder mixture by seating it to firmly. This could cause the fire in the pan to not ignite the powder in the breech as fast as you would like, causing a longer delay when firing.
Also, be sure not to damage the ball when getting it started into the barrel. Use a ball starter that is curved to match the size of the ball. This will help keep it from changing the round shape as you gently push the ball into the barrel.
The last suggestion I can offer on this subject is using a jag that spins freely on the ram rod. This is supposed to allow the rifling groves to spin the ball down the barrel without the jag providing any resistance. I haven’t tried this option yet to see if it helps any or not. My jag typically spins loose each time I load from the barrels rifling, which means that the jag and ball are not scraping against each other on the way down. I think this provides a similar effect as the spin free jag.
Not every shooter will choose to use every tip. It’s up to you to decide if the tip is worth it.
