Very stupid, very lucky

Licespray said:

Poor Diesel went missing though.. suspected either murder or suicide.


Back to muzzleloaders - does anyone else wince when they see someone smash the ramrod down a hundred times whilst saying between hits “you..have..to..make..sure..it’s..seated..firmly..against..the..charge” lol

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Licespray, I was talking to a 70 something gentleman about muzzleloading. He had never fired a muzzy but he said he had been told how to load one. He said”after the powder and seating the PRB, you punched the ramrod down with force until it bounced back up off the ball a few inches into the air”. I told him the correct way and that bouncing the ramrod would only flatten the ball. Don’t know if he took my advice but kind of don’t think he did.

Licespray said:

Back to muzzleloaders - does anyone else wince when they see someone smash the ramrod down a hundred times whilst saying between hits “you..have..to..make..sure..it’s..seated..firmly..against..the..charge” lol

Click to expand...

I "wince" when I see someone learn over the muzzle and apply all their weight onto the rod.

When I was in high school there was a boy named Steve C. who acquired an old break open double barreled 12 gauge with exposed hammers and damascus barrels. In the summer between our junior and senior years Steve cut the brass off a couple of modern shot shells, stuck those in the breech and proceeded to load it from the muzzle with I don't remember what. When he touched it off everything came apart. The tang sliced his left hand off at the wrist. He went through our senior year with a hook.

The lesson to be learned: "Don't squeeze off another fellow's load. Especially that of your cousin's..."

Two true stories, years ago the Log Cabin Shop in Lodi Ohio had pieces of an exploded cap and ball pistol cylinder with a note: "Two friends loaded this borrowed pistol with very fine powder from fire crackers. It cracked the chamber when first fired. In an 'oh ****' moment the guys discovered a piece of found brass fit perfectly in the damaged chamber. To fix the borrowed pistol they took it home , put it in a vice and started to solder the brass in place. The other still loaded chambers exploded!"

Since boyhood, I own a home built cannon that will put a glass marble thru a oil drum. I usually load it with a fire cracker fuse, thimble full of 2-3f and one sheet of kleenex packed tight. Glorious noise and mess of shredded paper. Needing more fuses ,the next pack of 2" firecrackers said "do not take the string apart" ,which I did ,as usual, to get the fuses. After using the first 1/2 dozen good fuses the next set the cannon off almost instantly. The string was designed to light normally then rapidly fire, not what I was used to. Know what you are doing, read and understand the fine print.