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Shot his wad

Posted by Marcus on February 03, 2001

In Reply to: Shot his wad posted by Harry Brassen on February 02, 2001

: need to know origin of this expression. Think it might be from the civil war period. Thanks.

: im going out on a limb here, but I think it refers to muzzle loading rifles and how in the heat of battle as one is reloading, it was common to forget to drop a ball down the barrel before packing the wadding in. hence a wasted shot.

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