Today while shooting I “dry balled” my muzzleloader, not once, but twice while shooting only 13 shots. I was talking and my mind must have been elsewhere while loading my gun. If you have been shooting muzzleloaders very long, at some point you are likely going to “dry ball” your gun.
So what does it mean to “dry ball” a muzzleloader? Quite simply it means to forget to put the black powder in before you slide the patch and ball into the barrel. Typically you realize this as your ramrod slides into the barrel about 1/2” further than usual. For this reason I mark my ramrod at two points, one is with an empty barrel, and the second is with the powder, patch, and ball loaded. These reference points help you know what you have in the barrel if you forget where you are in the loading process. If your range rod is not marked, you may then notice your gun is “dry ball” loaded when you pull the trigger and the gun doesn’t fire. After a few firing attempts you remember that you forgot to put black powder in first.
So, once you have “dry balled” your muzzleloader, what do you do to remove the ball? There are a number of options and I will list them in the order of preference.
Option 1: Use high pressure air applied to the nipple or touch hole to blow the ball out. I consider this the preferred option because it’s quick and easy. Always have your gun pointed down range during this process, because the ball can exit the gun at a very rapid rate, depending upon the pressure you’re applying to the nipple.
Option 2: Add a small amount of 4F powder behind the ball and fire it out. So how do you get the powder behind the ball? Pull the nipple out if your gun is percussion and fill the nipple hole with the 4F powder. Tap the stock with the palm of your hand to settle the powder behind the ball. Put as much powder as you can behind the ball to help blow it out. Then replace the nipple and cap and shoot the ball out. If you have a flintlock you can get the powder behind the ball through the touch hole. It takes a little longer and more tapping because this hole is smaller than the nipple hole.
Option 3: Use a ball puller on your ramrod and screw it into the ball and pull the ball out of the barrel. This option is typically as last resort due to the effort involved. As the ball puller screw goes into the lead ball, the ball expands and becomes tighter in the barrel. It will take significant effort to pull the ramrod out of the barrel. A steel range rod is preferred for this job, and one with a head on it that allows you to hook it to something solid so that you can pull vigorously on the gun to remove the range rod and hopefully ball out of the barrel. Adding water or patch lube into the barrel to help the ball slide out is also suggested.
During my two “dry ball” incidences today, I used option 2, because I didn’t have compressor air available. Something interesting happened on my first attempt at shooting the ball out. It didn’t come out. That not the interesting part. I checked with my range rod and the ball had moved close to exiting the gun but stopped about 10” short. So I needed to repeat the option 2 steps and put more powder in through the nipple. I did this with the ball near the muzzle of the gun. After putting a good supply of 4F powder in and replacing the nipple, I held the gun pointed up and tapped the barrel to make sure the powder was in the bottom of the breech. Then I pushed the ball back down on top of the powder before firing. This is because if the ball is not seated on the powder, there is a chance of damaging the gun or possibly rupturing the barrel by firing it with the ball out near the end of the gun. The ball is acting like a cork in a bottle, and the powder explosion creates a great deal of pressure in the barrel. By following this method the ball shot right out of the gun and the problem was solved.
Hopefully you find these suggestions helpful in your muzzleloader shooting.
