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VERY embarrassing & valuable lesson

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Bruce H

36 Cal.
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
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As the title says, this past Saturday I got a very embarrassing and valuable lesson about paying attention when loading. It was the gun club's annual Ladies Day where women only are invited out to the club for an introduction to and a chance to shoot all types of firearms; I was there demo'ing my Pedersoli Frontier. The very first group came through and I got so intent on describing the rifle and it's parts, operation, etc. that I dry-balled the darn thing!! So everyone got a lesson on PAYING ATTENTION, removing a ball by dribbling some 3F powder down the nipple opening and that a muzzle loader is not dummy-proof. Only the second time in my life that I've dry-balled a rifle. Just have to be sure this doesn't happen at Youth Day this fall.
 
Bruce H said:
As the title says, this past Saturday I got a very embarrassing and valuable lesson about paying attention when loading. It was the gun club's annual Ladies Day where women only are invited out to the club for an introduction to and a chance to shoot all types of firearms; I was there demo'ing my Pedersoli Frontier. The very first group came through and I got so intent on describing the rifle and it's parts, operation, etc. that I dry-balled the darn thing!! So everyone got a lesson on PAYING ATTENTION, removing a ball by dribbling some 3F powder down the nipple opening and that a muzzle loader is not dummy-proof. Only the second time in my life that I've dry-balled a rifle. Just have to be sure this doesn't happen at Youth Day this fall.

Nice looking ladies huh :rotf:

Sorry :slap:

some distractions can be more distracting than others! Good that you Caught the error and didn't create yer own disastrous distraction! I shoot alone near 90% of the time, and :redface: yes I have distracted myself too many times. Last summer I went shooting though and never dry balled once :thumbsup: :blah:
 
Hopefully right before you tried to shoot it, you didn't give it a big build up witht he classic line of; "now hold my beer and watch THIS!" :redface:
 
azmntman said:
Nice looking ladies huh :rotf:

Sorry :slap:

some distractions can be more distracting than others! Good that you Caught the error and didn't create yer own disastrous distraction! I shoot alone near 90% of the time, and :redface: yes I have distracted myself too many times. Last summer I went shooting though and never dry balled once :thumbsup: :blah:

I refuse to answer on the grounds....

Got that puppy about half way down the barrel when I realized my mistake. :redface: Pushed it down the rest of the way and told them they would get a special demonstration hopefully no one else would get that day.
 
hanshi said:
Every time I happen to dryball, It's always only my second time. Helps save face. :rotf:

You really know how to hurt a guy :grin: I guess it would be the third time if I count the time I just barely started the ball and was able to grab the patch with a needle nose pliers and pull it out. That's it, I swear!!
 
Mooman76 said:
So you mean you didn't save face buy telling them you did this on purpose as an example of why you need to pay close attention? :haha:

Not that smart any more! Old age has some real "fun" surprises :grin:
 
Bruce H said:
a lesson on PAYING ATTENTION


I have been shooting muzzleloaders a long time and as of yet no dry ball yet.

I have shot a lot of ramrods down range, much more fun. :shocked2:


William Alexander
 
Have dumped two plus 25 pound shipments of BP down barrels (into third bulk order) over the past couple of years. One dry ball. Happened when chatterbox at range was firing away with questions. My mistake was being polite. Then I had to listen how unreliable muzzleloaders were and why he didnt shoot them. Idiot now thinks I am anti social and avoids me. Perfect solution.
 
Thank God it was only the dry-ball embarrassment! I've never once done it in all my 70 years but have twice...yes, twice, burned all the hair off from chin to about three inches in my hairline by forgetting to hold muzzle away from me when dumping powder! We all bear, or bare, our own crosses! :wink: :youcrazy: :rotf:
 
I manage to dry ball about once a year, usually from talking and getting sidetracked.

But speaking of pretty distractions. One college summer, I worked at the Hershey Chocolate factory. I was in the syrup production line. I stood at a machine that packaged cans of syrup, 24 to the case. As the cans rolled down the various chutes, it was my job to open a flattened box from a skid of die cut box blanks. , place the cardboard box on the machine and wait for the cans to be lined up and then push the lever, which started the machine cycling through it's working, placing the cans in the box and gluing the flaps, closing the flaps and sending the box to the pallet stackers in the next room. That was the last summer that the factory was open for tours. Needless to say for a young college student, young summery dressed similarly aged women was an interest. Well, I can still remember a platinum haired young lass about 18, with a dark tan wearing a gleaming white halter top and shorts. I must have been really gawking. When the guy at the machine next to me poked me and said stop staring, he startled me and I pushed the lever to start the machine. Well I pushed just a tad too early and 24 cans of syrup were smashed against the frame of the machine, sending 24 mini geysers of syrup in every direction, including all over me. That drop dead gorgeous gal saw it all and I recall her and her family laughing heartily the rest of the way around the room. The foreman was an otherwise kindly black gentleman. He just would not leave it alone. I got constant remarks about how I tried to become a minority, etc. or that I did not have to try to change color to get an invite to his summer department picnic, etc.
 
I am very methodical in putting powder in first but when it comes to the ball I am more mythical
Why you ask? Because the gun goes off but there is no holes in my target :idunno:





William Alexander
 
zimmerstutzen said:
IThe foreman was an otherwise kindly black gentleman. He just would not leave it alone. I got constant remarks about how I tried to become a minority, etc. or that I did not have to try to change color to get an invite to his summer department picnic, etc.


I don't blame him. It's funny as all get out. Bet you got a new nick name at work too. I certainly would have given you one. So, do you want to share with us what it was? :idunno:
 
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