what's all this nonsense about patched ball loading with a bouncing ramrod?
early on, way back in the late 50's, a few of the local old geezers showed this teenage boy how and why to bounce the rod. i said that ain't right, it'll mash the ball, why do that when you can push the patched ball home?
one feller took hold of the little .36 skwerl rifle i had just loaded, and placed the rod down in barrel and said to note where the rod was marked at the muzzle, then he bounced the rod a few times - the first few easy rod flicks wouldn't get the rod to bounce, but the few after that made the rod look like it was vaulting up from a trampoline. leaving the rod down the barrel, the mark at the muzzle moved down nearly 1/8".
he said that'll make sure there's no air space 'tween ball and powder, and that'll compact (er, he meant 'compress') the powder for better performance. i said, yeah, but ya just mashed my nice round ball flat on one side. he said no. i said yes. he grabbed the rod and showed me that the pusher end was concave, and between that rod end cavity and the fact that it also beat on the edge of the patching as much as the ball kept it from going flat. besides, he said, shouldn't yer firm tapping of the last few ramrod strokes have mashed it flat, too? hmmm.
so i started ramrod bounce loading.
sometime later on, maybe that week or month, i dry balled yet another patched .490 or .530 ball, and pulled it with a small screw worm. aside from the 1/8" screw hole, the rest of the ball was what makes a ball, a ball - it was as round as when i thumb pushed it in the muzzle.
i guess some old guys do know some good stuff.
