Just incase you wonder what happens when you forget the ram rod and pull the trigger....
Seen a few of these. I think it can be fixed but who knows.
No it was not me.
Did this once with a custom 45 cal.Part of the ram rod hit the 100 yd target and my shooting buddie found the other part about 75 yards down range.
I use the knight rods in all my muzzle loaders,they are light and very strong.
Don't remember which bullet or load I had in it but what ever it was it was pretty fast.
Glad I had the light rod instead of a heavy brass rod.
Damn that's funny. That makes me remember the time, back in the 80's, when I was in the Army in Germany.
We were in the field, training. M16A1 with blanks and the blank adapter on the muzzle of the barrel.
Well ole curious 19yr olds, We take the adapter off the end, tap a expended blank cartridge onto the end of the barrel. Man I tell you what it flies/tumbles pretty good when shot.
So then we got the bright idea of dropping a cleaning rod down the barrel. Comes out like a crossbow bolt, and will stick in a tree at semi close range.
You can shoot sections of the issue cleaning rod out as well with blanks.
I have had my muzzle loader 20 years now and never done this. I would think it would be pretty apparent with the rattle as you put the gun up. Sometimes I pack in my ramrod because it rattles in place and I want to be quiet.
I almost done this one time, had ram rod in barrel and just before I pulled trigger, my brother yelled at me and told me to look where my ram rod was at. close. 36 years doing this and it only takes one less mental thought.
A buddy of mine one time shot his T/C inline, the ramrod was in the thimbles but evidently had slipped out some, sticking out past the end of the barrel. It became shorter!
I did this once with a Savage ML10. Found the ramrod a year later about 150 yards from where I was shooting. Knocked me off of the shooting bench and I could not hear for two days. Scary then, funny now.