Loaded guns on storeshelves?

[Norinco]

Today I was at the pawn shop and they had two traditional muzzleloaders. Both were Thompson Center: the .50 cal for $190 and the .54 for $192, negotiable. Both were obviously loaded when I dropped the ramrod down the barrel and then checked to see where they bottomed out. The .54 easily had a 3" gap between where the nipple was and where the ramrod bottomed out, which sounds like a lot of powder to me. The guy behind the counter didn't even know how to check if it was loaded and wasn't surprised or even cared at all that they were.

Anyone else come across loaded muzzleloaders at stores?

 

[spud]

YES twice in the last five years at local tampa bay pawn shops

 

[BrownBear]

It's almost a rule of thumb for pawn shops, and I've seen a few in the used gun racks of general gun shops. I don't recall ever seeing it in specialty muzzleloading shops. Might have something to do with knowing what they're doing in the specialty shops! :rotf:

 

[necchi]

Pawn shop gun's are notoriuos for being loaded, that's half the reason they get there, folks are clueless,,

Had one just this weekend, a feller at the vous got a cabelas hawkin carbine for his grandson (pawnshop).
Rod depth showed something was in there, we ran a screw down and couldn't get ahold,,tipped the barrel into the palm of my hand and little pieces of plastic came out,,who ever had it dryballed a sabot,,trickled a little powder down the nipple hole and shot it out, kid had fun the rest of the day :grin:

Know another feller that bought a CVA bobcat on sale at a local walmart, long story short, there was a sabot pushed in that barrel,,upside down, and seated tight, no powder.

 

[rabjr]

Had a few desperate guys with loaded guns they couldn't get to go off come into the shop when I was there back in the 80's. Don't ever remember a black powder user, all were Pyrodex users and the gun was usually loaded to long or do to dampness. But we knew soon as they came in they were loaded. Any used gun taken in on trade for a new gun was checked, so there was never any loaded gun on the rack.

 

[Norinco]

It's almost a rule of thumb for pawn shops, and I've seen a few in the used gun racks of general gun shops. I don't recall ever seeing it in specialty muzzleloading shops. Might have something to do with knowing what they're doing in the specialty shops! :rotf:

That shop did have a CVA (I think) Colt 1851 brass framed with some light rust listed at $150 a year ago. The guy behind the counter said they sold it for $100 a few weeks ago.

BTW, those two rifles I looked at today had rusty bores.

They have some dead inventory, like a Luger holster for $150 and an M5 bayonet with a bent blade for $50. Many of their handguns from a year ago are still there.

 

[mykeal]

Actually had one at Friendship this week.

I was working on the Offhand line Sunday afternoon when one of the other RSO's was approached by a shooter with an FTF. He said he'd been unable to clear the round and wanted to use the CO2 discharger. I got to do the job as part of my training. However, it failed to discharge the round so the other RSO took him to the armory, and came back with an incredible story.

The guy had just bought the gun used from one of the sheepshed vendors (I don't know which one). After pulling the ball the new owner had installed the armorer said, "There's another one in there." and promptly pulled out another ball and powder charge. The new owner swore he'd only loaded one, and he had two friends, both experienced shooters, who backed him up. Apparently it was loaded when he bought it from the vendor.

 

[Zonie]

Ya never can tell what's down the bore of a used muzzleloader.

Kids seem to have a fascination with the idea of putting stuff down the hole.

Then, there's the guy who doesn't know what he's doing and loads his gun and tries to fire it, only to have several mis-fires before he says, "To hell with it! I'm going to sell this piece of junk."

Then, I'm sure there are a few cases like mine.

A number of years ago I bought a used muzzleloading rifle at the local gunshow.
I suspected something was in the barrel because the ramrod stopped too soon.
When I got it home, I removed the barrel and the side drum to see if any powder was in there.
Sure enough! Powder!
I started picking it out only to discover the powder was dark gray and in the form of little cylinders. Some idiot had loaded the gun with smokeless powder!

I pulled the ball and flushed out the smokeless powder, cleaned it up and reassembled it.

The gun was in good shape but who knows how many pieces it would be in if I had tried to fire out the load?

 

[Robert an saa fan]

Have bought loaded muzzleloaders at gun shows, several were flintlocks with a flint installed.

 

[nkbj]

Another case.
In the mid 70's where I worked an elderly gentleman on staff relayed a story to us one morning in the coffee room. Having a side line in the antiques business they had a nice flintlock pistol come in. It was loaded. They got the ball out. They chipped out the caked in powder. Tested the powder and it whoofed like brand new.
To all appearances and from the source, it had apparently been loaded a long, long time.

 

[Norinco]

At the gunshow last April, the guy I bought my Euroarms Colt 1851 from also had a pair of US musket barrels, both appearing to be .69 caliber smoothbore. One was missing the breechplug and the nipple was rusted shut and clearly seized in. That had a rusty, but unloaded barrel. The other one had a coating of surface rust but the spots under where the barrel bands had been were still shiny. I took my flashlight and shined it down the barrel and surely enough, I saw a lead ball at the other end.

 

[BrownBear]

Gotta really be careful with "empty" muzzleloaders. A friend of mine is acknowledged as one of the more gifted machine/metal workers in the country. Someone brought over a muzzleloader barrel for him to work on.

I don't know the whole story but the long and short of it, on assurance that it was unloaded he took a torch to the breech area for some reason.

Sad to say, when the smoke cleared pieces of the barrel were missing along with pieces of his right hand.

That's the reason they call him Lefty now. He acknowledges his mistake in not checking for himself that it was unloaded, but none of us can figure out why it detonated like that with a "normal" powder charge.

 

[Norinco]

Could anyone tell from the smoke if it was blackpowder or nitro?

 

[ol vern]

:shake: Have ran across loaded muzzleoaders and loaded modern guns
at Gun Shows-Pawn Shops-Gun Shops Yard Sales. you name it. Treat em all a loaded one untill you check it yourself.

 

[BrownBear]

It was definitely black powder. The guy who brought it in is a long time "name" muzzleloader who does a lot of hunting in far and wide places. I know he defines "normal" a lot higher than I do, but he's been shooting the loads for years.

Bottom line, check for loads before applying heat and save a thumb.

 

[Norinco]

I wonder how many of the Nepalese cache guns were found loaded? IMA-USA says all they did to the guns was check to make sure they weren't loaded.

 

[token tory]

I had a guy next to me at the range with a caplock rifle that refused to fire. This irritated him as it was "Brand new in a box" from a local gun shop.
I got involved when he asked to borrow some tools I had & we discovered the "new" rifle was used in a box & was loaded with powder & ball that had been in there so long they had fused into a solid mess as we discovered when we finally got the breech end apart.

Its just as well it wouldn't fire as it was loaded with charge & ball & charge & ball & charge & ball. :surrender:

I don't know (& prefer not to find out) what would have happened if he'd got the original (rear) charge to ignite :v:

 

[boom]

I saw a pic on some other forum about a guy loaded
smokless in a inline M/L, he did not seat the ball
on the powder ( the fool should know you do not use smokless in a M/L :nono: )anyway you should see is hand, part of it was missing, and the rifle looked like a banna. :shake: .
Boomm.