Impressions Draw Rammer and Return Rammer

[lelliott19]

Drawing Rammer - Vol. IV, Episode 16a
This rammer stuff is no joke! If done improperly, you could shoot your hand off. Here's a quick video from Civil War Digital Digest demonstrating the correct way to work the ramrod according to Gilham's Musket Manual.

 

[captaindrew]

I teach this every drill as part of loading in 9 times (10 in Gilham's manual) even though we never pull rammers during reenactments the whole loading process by the manuals is designed to minimize having any part of your hand over the muzzle. An important safety practice even just loading blanks.

 

[UCVRelics]

Interesting vid but you could not shot your eye out till you put the cap on.

 

[captaindrew]

Interesting vid but you could not shot your eye out till you put the cap on.

Or the powder hits a hot ember while you're loading, rare but a possibility

 

[Waterloo50]

Thats a good vid, I'd never really thought about the possible difficulty a shorter person might have drawing the rammer, this exercise seems to overcome that problem.

 

[Kip124thNY]

Thanks for posting the video, it was very good.

 

[byron ed]

Nice to see this clarified, in detail, and understand how eminently practical (safe) the details of this particular version of the drill are.

(And here I only thought of Silas Tackett for his banjo chops).

 

[Stainless Steel Mucket]

FYI, the "close the fingers" method instructed by Gilham and shown in the video is the same method in Hardee's Revised. Both manuals explicitly say to close the fingers. Casey doesn't use the same exact language, but arguably uses the same method because the right arm is extended before the turning motion of the rammer occurs. Pretty difficult to to turn that wrist when it's well over your head.

Method commonly used in the hobby is to draw the rammer to that point just before it leaves the shaft, grab the ramrod by making a fist, TURN THE WRIST, then place the head on the round.

Only two ways to invert that ramrod : closing the fingers or turning the wrist. One is actually instructed by the manuals. The other isn't. So, why do we turn the wrist?

- S.S. Mucket

 

[Adam1stVa]

Question about rammers during firefight - I had heard that soldiers jabbed their rammers in the ground during a firefight. Is there truth to that? The reason I ask is that the threads on my original Pattern 1853 are buggered up pretty good. I discovered this when I tried to mount a ball puller from an original #4 Sergeant's "T" tool on my rammer. It went on, but with some effort. After researching the thread specs, I determined they are #1 BA (British Association) - .20875 inch diameter, 28.5 threads per inch . So I assume that that story I heard had some truth.