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I use a small rawhid hammer took a cleaning jag mounted it on a short brass rod couple shoft tap and your in
 
I have a 54 cal flintlock rifle (Green Mountain barrel) that I load with 0.520 inch balls and 0.015 Bridgers Best Patches (dry) that I lube with pig fat rendered to lard. I can start the ball/patch down the muzzle with my thumb and then easily seat the ball/patch with my ramrod. My groups are excellent and I can hit a cottontail rabbit in the head at 40 paces. To mold the 0.520 round balls, I use a Larry Callahan bag mold. Larry can make any size mold you want and has a quick turn around time once the order is received. Otherwise, Track of the Wolf sells 0.520 and 0.526 round balls that you might try with 0.010 and 0.015 inch patches to find the best balance between starting the patched ball at the muzzle easily and that gives acceptable accuracy.

Larry's web site address is, http://www.bagmolds.com/
 
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IMHO I would not use a gun that I had to use a hammer to start a ball in the barrel. Too many things to go wrong wacked fingers or damage to the gun.
If you don't mind a couple of suggestions. Have you measured the bore and fit the ball and patch to the barrel.
Are you using a commercial lube or home made one.
Until they get the hang of it I would use prelubed patches. :idunno: :2
 
I realise it may not be the best for hunting, but at the range we all (including the girls) use small mallets to start the balls. A couple use a small rubber-headed hammer from the hardware store, I made a mallet from 2" diam Nylon, drilled a hole through it and made a wooden handle - light-weight and won't damage the barrel. And you soon learn to keep your fingers out of the way!!
 
I use a wooden crab mallet :thumbsup: Pick one up at the local grocery store there great. :thumbsup: Place the patched round ball on the barrel use your thumb to slightly seat it into the barrel (where it doesn't roll off) then whack it a couple time with the mallet. Once its even with the end of the barrel I flip the mallet around and use the handle end as a short starter. This seats the ball about 6" into the barrel then ram rod it on home. What's nice about the crab mallet is its wooden & light weight. It even goes into my shooting bag nicely. I been using the same one for a couple of years now without any problems. :wink: :thumbsup:
 
Just rummaged through the garage and cut up an old maul handle into two short mallets.

The short starters are T-handle types so they can keep their fingers well clear.

Hopefully they'll be piling up the venison in a couple weeks.
 
Sometimes a smaller ball and thicker patch will group as well as a bigger ball and thinner patch, and, will be easier to load. You might try a slipperier lube too. Plain old spit patches seem to be surprisingly slippery, and have the benefit of slightly swabbing the bore for each shot.
 
Most of my favorite short starters are made from sections of sledge hammer handles and pieces of hickory dowel. The handle being oval in cross section has the dowel drilled and pinned to the lower flattened side. This is by far one of the most comfortable starters I have ever used. The other best bet is one with a hand filling, flattened oval top. Best of luck for the ladies! BJH
 
In our group of b/p shooters the age and range of female shooters range from 11-84 years of age and I can't recall any of them having an issue loading ,cleaning is another matter of course , I would be double checking patch ball combos and technique for loading ,something is not quite right . :)
 
Be cautious when using "slipperier" lubes. I did a study where I compared spit as my lube with a commercial lube that was reported to be quite slick. I fired several rounds of each lube over a chronograph and found that with the lube that was "slipperier", my standard deviation of my muzzle velocities was significantly greater. To me, this means that when a lube is too slick, it allows the bullet or patched ball to start moving sooner. By moving sooner, it results in varying breach pressures and resultant greater variations in muzzle velocity. These variations in muzzle velocity cause a loss of accuracy. So, use caution when selecting lubricants and try to avoid those that may be too slick.

If you read Dutch Schoultz' "Black Powder Rifle Accuracy", you will find that he, too, addresses the issue of lube slickness and that some lubes can be too slick. He first addresses it on the first page of his segment entitled "A Consistent 'Dry' Patch Lubricating System"
 
I've been following this thread and kinda scratching my head at the talk of mallets and such. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all shoot our muzzleloaders in a pretty full range of styles and calibers, and this question has never popped up with them, even when my granddaughter started shooting almost a decade ago at a scrawny 8 years old. It just never came up, so it's kinda befuddling that it would be an issue.

The only difference I see is my ongoing prejudice for balls a little "undersize" for caliber, the difference made up with thicker patching- whether ticking or some heavier canvas-type stuff I have around. They don't have to slap the short starter even. Just a good firm push.

It all started with my own hatred of mallets for field shooting, which is about all we do. For every single gun, I was able to find good solid loads using smaller balls and thicker patching. I might be able to thumb start loads which they have to start with a short starter, but not a mallet in sight.
 
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