I debated posting this as this is only my second post and I reeeealllly don't want to come off looking like a moron, but I feel like this important.
I've been shooting muzzleloader for 20 years. Literally 66% of my life. Today, however, I had a kerfuffle that has never happened to me before.
So a couple of weeks ago I picked up that Traditions Trapper Pistol kit for a sweet Black Friday deal, and I threw that sucker together in a weekend. It looks great. Feels great. Shoots great. Etc. So I began loading the pistol up and cracking off shot after shot at Dr. Pepper cans, wooden sticks with bottles on them, sporting clays, paper with concentric circles, and whatever other debitage shooters had left at the range. The sun was going down and I only had two No. 11's left before I had an empty tin. So I double charged the thing with a reasonable 50 grains FFG, stuffed a ball on top, went to cock the hammer and all of a sudden I see that trademark orange/yellow fire blast from the muzzle, and without the any semblance of grip on the thing, I watched in disbelief as my firearm clattered to the hard matrix below.
Best I can assume, my thumb slipped off the hammer while my finger slipped inside the trigger guard -OR- the hammer never made it past the half-cock position and slammed down on the cap. No one and nothing was hurt except for my pride...
...and my pistol which flipped out of my hands and got scuffed up on the concrete at the range...
Don't do like I did. I got in a hurry, and got complacent with basic muzzleloader safety.
Lesson learned.
DON'T BE DUMB!
-RM
I've been shooting muzzleloader for 20 years. Literally 66% of my life. Today, however, I had a kerfuffle that has never happened to me before.
So a couple of weeks ago I picked up that Traditions Trapper Pistol kit for a sweet Black Friday deal, and I threw that sucker together in a weekend. It looks great. Feels great. Shoots great. Etc. So I began loading the pistol up and cracking off shot after shot at Dr. Pepper cans, wooden sticks with bottles on them, sporting clays, paper with concentric circles, and whatever other debitage shooters had left at the range. The sun was going down and I only had two No. 11's left before I had an empty tin. So I double charged the thing with a reasonable 50 grains FFG, stuffed a ball on top, went to cock the hammer and all of a sudden I see that trademark orange/yellow fire blast from the muzzle, and without the any semblance of grip on the thing, I watched in disbelief as my firearm clattered to the hard matrix below.
Best I can assume, my thumb slipped off the hammer while my finger slipped inside the trigger guard -OR- the hammer never made it past the half-cock position and slammed down on the cap. No one and nothing was hurt except for my pride...
...and my pistol which flipped out of my hands and got scuffed up on the concrete at the range...
Don't do like I did. I got in a hurry, and got complacent with basic muzzleloader safety.
Lesson learned.
DON'T BE DUMB!
-RM
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