"one of the little prongs" ? a muzzle loader "worm" does not have any little prongs, it resembles a screw and its hard to imagine a steel worm breaking off in a lead mini ball but if that did happen I would expect he would have rammed it back down and seated it on the powder charge before shooting it for an unseated ball will punish the shooter severly and has been known to destroy the rifle and severly injure or kill the shooter..

Yes I have seen ramrods shot by mistake but the ball was seated and thre only harm was a hard recoil and a ruined ramrod...I believe I have read where Daniel Boone one killed an indian by shooting him with his ramrod when he did not have time to complete loading.

No I have not been in combat BUT should the South rise again .........