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IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP

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Loyalist Dave

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Do not lean over the muzzle when loading, and do not cap nor prime your piece except as the LAST step....,

SAFETY TIP.JPG


LD
 
While I indubitably agree safety, safety, safety. Many youtube videos which show paper cartridgesin, let’s say a Brown Bess always, for the most part, show priming the pan after bitting the paper then loading the powder and ball after. I always thought this could be somewhat dangerous. I guess the leaning over the barrel was a most of his problem. Anyway, my only thoughts when loading is doing it safe.
 
While I indubitably agree safety, safety, safety. Many youtube videos which show paper cartridgesin, let’s say a Brown Bess always, for the most part, show priming the pan after bitting the paper then loading the powder and ball after. I always thought this could be somewhat dangerous. I guess the leaning over the barrel was a most of his problem. Anyway, my only thoughts when loading is doing it safe.
It's the military way, as it eliminated the need to have and handle a powder horn.

My club considers a firearm loaded if it has been capped or primed, which we aren't to do until on the line and preparing to fire.
 
Remember reading a quote from an old military manual that specified holding a number of lead balls in the soldier’s mouth to facilitate quick reloading. Loading directly into the barrel from one’s mouth leads to multiple levels of safety concerns, but for those that insist on nothing but historical correctness......
 
The br
While I indubitably agree safety, safety, safety. Many youtube videos which show paper cartridgesin, let’s say a Brown Bess always, for the most part, show priming the pan after bitting the paper then loading the powder and ball after. I always thought this could be somewhat dangerous. I guess the leaning over the barrel was a most of his problem. Anyway, my only thoughts when loading is doing it safe.

The British Manual of Arms, at least in the early 19th century Napoleonic wars, shows the piece was primed before loading the main charge. The worry was that otherwise some nervous or clumsy private would dump his whole cartridge down the barrel with nothing left for the pan.
At Fort York in Toronto I watched a student portraying a redcoat load his Bess according to the Manual. But he didn’t actually put powder in the pan, just mimed it. Nobody was the wiser. He went to fire and of course nothing happens and he explained to the crowd this was a common occurance with flintlocks. WRONG. He “Re-primed” and fired. I understand the idea of safety versus historical accuracy but it annoys me that the tourists leave with a false idea of the reliability of rocklocks
 
How could this happen and not blind him?
A friend of mine when I was a child was a Marine who survived WWll but was shot through the back of the head by a Japanese machine gunner. The bullet exited through his left cheek and he lost vision in that eye. The doctors said if the bullet had had I/4 inch different trajectory in any direction it would have killed him instantly. His name was 'Teeny' Hayes.
 
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