Originally Posted by
Earlwb
As I understood it, they used unpatched balls in a combat situation, where they may be moving and firing on the run. No time to mess around with a precision load. They would keep some balls in their mouth to get the wet so the balls would tend to stick to the powder in the barrel and not roll out easily. it would not be a problem as they would be firing it off in seconds anyway. Accuracy wasn't much of an issue if an assailant was charging you and you fired from short range.