I can’t vouch for the safety of this, but here is an example of firing a musket without the use of a ramrod and wadding. This is called ‘tap loading’. Simply drop powder, then ball, ‘tap’ the musket in the ground two or three times and fire. Spitting is involved too, but not sure how effective this can be at lubricating a barrel–especially during battle where imagine dry mouth would be common. The danger of this technique must increase as the musket fouls.

This result here is six shots in two minutes, which is an impressive rate of fire. Accuracy is not bad either. The comment thread in the video inevitably leads to the comparative effectiveness of a bow and arrow, but I’ll save that discussion for another day.

I wonder if this method was used during the revolution? Need to reach out to my contacts.