Your rod was your last round. Out of ammo and about to die? What have you got to lose? Pour in some powder, push in a patch and without a ball or bullet it will expel the rod with, hopefully, enough velocity to do damage.
Under those circumstances I guess you might as well give it a try.
“Your rod was your last round.”
Can’t remember the name of the book but it was about a mountain man who was chasing down a band of indians that had raided his camp and killed his young wife. He chased them for months taking them one at a time until it came to the leader of the group. He was out of bullets and the leader was coming after him with a tomahawk and a knife. He threw some powder down the barrel, primed the pan and stuck the rod in the barrel and shot the leader at about 5 ft. This was over 50 years ago and I can invision it as if it were a movie.