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Funny Stories about Muzzle Loaders that left you wondering.

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Zonie said:
I'm sure Musketman won't mind if I mention him taking his Brown Bess out for some shooting.

Noting some hay bales handy he rested his trusty gun on them and touched her off.

As the smoke didn't clear as quickly as he thought it should he looked around to discover the hay was burning brightly! :rotf:
goode thin bg ihda to p;ee :haha:
 
At the range one day a man showed up with three oriental men and one oriental woman guests and a number of modern pistols and a rifle.

The host loaded up a pistol and each of the guests took a turn firing it. He then loaded another and they all repeated their shooting.

I in the meantime loaded up my modified TC Hawken and cut loose with a shot. They all stood there watching me as I reloaded and touched off another one.

This caused the guests to move from their bench over to mine and they surrounded me as I reloaded.

They were all talking and pointing but I couldn't understand a word anyone said.
I asked the host to ask them if they would be interested in shooting my TC which he did. They all started talking and they all made every movement that could possibly indicate the answer was yes so, even though I couldn't speak or understand what they were saying I used some primitive sign language to try to tell them, as their turn came up what to do.

I did all of the reloading for them and capped the gun only when each was seated in their turn with the rifle pointed down range.

After each one fired there was nothing but grins and happy talk (that I couldn't understand) all around. While I asked the host to ask them if they wanted to shoot again there was much oriental talking emphasized with "BOOM" and laughter. Of course their answer was yes.

After 3 shots each I came to the conclusion that they no longer had any interest in the hosts modern weapons at all but they sure wanted to shoot my TC!
Figuring they would gladly run me out of powder I told the host I had to go so I packed up and left.

As I mentioned I have no idea who they were or where they were from but I do know one thing.
They LOVED shooting old style muzzleloaders and I know they took some fond memories of our country and black powder guns back to their country. :)
 
Claude said:
smokin .50 said:
I call 'em "The Gang Who Can't Shoot Straight". Holes in the ceiling of our indoor range, ...
I visited an indoor range once. This was a place where anyone could rent a pistol to try it out or just have some fun shooting. Well... there were bullet holes not only in the ceiling above the stalls, but there were holes in the tables of the stalls and in the dividers between them. I haven't been to an indoor range since.

I run a PPC League Match once a month on the second Friday in the evening. Our League is beginner-friendly so I help others to shoot the B-27's & B-34's better and have fun. It's a private club range with a scheduled event with NRA RSO's overseeing & running the line with 6 shooters firing simultaneously. It in NO WAY is as bad as you describe Claude! We allow our members to bring guests, but the member is responsible for any problems that the guest causes (and there are very few problems).

What you describe sounds like there isn't any formal range training or a range officer present. That's a whole different scenario. At a gun rental place in NJ someone committed suicide and it was a while before the place re-opened.

Back to the point of the thread! I can't tell you how many times we get Newbies that want to try muzzleloading. We get them all that they need for the Match, and then they have a great time! They don't know anything, so they do what they're told! It's the people that think they know everything that you have to watch-out for! Pyrodex in a flinter filled with oily residue, snapping a cap only to discover a fully loaded rifle just went-off into the stones in front of you, sweeping the line with a single-shot ML pistol after applying a cap behind the line at the loading bench, etc., etc. I've seen them all! Thankfully these problems are caught and nothing has come from them. One has to be vigilant in regards to safety, and never let one's guard down, that's for sure!

Dave
 
A couple of weeks ago we had a late and very rare snow storm here in east Texas. My brother and I decide to take our new flint locks out and see if we can find a couple of feral hogs in the river bottom. It was an adventure for us because we never get to hunt in the snow. We saw a lot of tracks but no hogs and were speculating that they were laid up because of the snow. Just as we were headed back to the truck we spotted a sow rooting the snow with just her back sticking up in view. My brother motions that he is going to take the shot and when he did the smoke, snow and low afternoon sun made it look like the world had exploded. My brother says "did I hit it?" and as the word "hit" is still hanging in the air, the sow hooks his pant leg with a tusk, he goes flat on his back with his rifle pointed straight up in the air. I looked down at him and said "No".
We both started laughing so hard we couldn't find the truck and got the guffaws again when we got home and his wife wanted to know how he managed to lose the whole pant leg from the knee down.
We were both kids again for a while. It was great.
 
Safety is always a big problem with people and firearms. Muzzleloaders IMHO have their own unique problems to deal with in the safety department, and IMHO are pose bigger safety problems to deal with modern firearms.

I know at the Ben Avery Facility in Phoenix they have been pretty much accident free on the main range except for minor cuts, and bruises when like a Auto Hand Gun cut a hand, or maybe some one got a bruises from a Big Recoil of a Magnum Rifle Recoil in to the Forehead. They had had server firearm blow up with bad reloads, but because EYE Protection is MANDATORY again the injuries were minor.

New Customers to the Ben Avery Public Range are REQUIRED TO WATCH a safety video before entering the range to shoot. :thumbsup:

I know that almost ever year after the NMLRA Winter Shoot the covered range they use for Off Hand seems to have a new hole or to in the Metal Roof. Maybe it is object falling off small planes land at DEER VALLEY AIRPORT. :grin:

The one thing that I know is most of the USER GROUPS like SASS, IDPA, ISPC, etc., have a safety meeting before each day shooting. You either sit through the safety meeting, or don't shoot,

I have personally always scratched my head that the NMLRA is not more Safety Conscious, and you can go register to shoot at National, or WNS Shoot, pay your entry, pick up you Shooting Badge & Rules, go buy your Match Target, and show up on the shoot line and shoot with no safety briefing. Be you Nee Bee, or SEASON VETERAN of shooting front stuffers.


Non of this SAFETY STUFF is a BIG DEAL Until an Incident Happens, and some one is SERIOUSLY HURT, INJURED, or DIES, than the LAWYERS file suit.

Pick apart the incident, summoned all parties to the accident to court, tear apart the Club, Organization, Range, Insurance Carries look for why the defendant allowed this to happen. Why were the safety procedure to prevent this incident..

Recall years ago showing up at a ML Shoot, there was not DESIGNATED SAFETY PERSON, as everyone was Competing in the Match. I ask the Club President where, and who was the Designated Safety Person.

He pointed to a Member who at the time was Shoot a Buffalo Target on his Belly looking Down Range taking careful aim.

I question how this safety person could be a participant & safety officer at the same time. got some BS answer, and decided to leave the UNSAFE MATCH that was UNSAFE IMHO.

Told the officer of the club should a accident happen, and a lawyers get this to court your Club is History. They were not incorporated, so all members had liability.

IMHO Safety with Firearms is a VERY BIG DEAL!
 
I am surprised there are no reports of black powder archery. I have watched this happen at our range. a fellow loaded in a rush left the ramrod in the barrel and sent it downrange with the ball on its tail. No harm done except to the rod and his ego. The rod made a funny swishing noise as it flew toward the target. :rotf: :rotf:
 
This incident didn't happen at a range. Since no real balls(hahrhar) were injured in this actual incident. I do civ war reenacting. One event at a hot dry field with a couple of hills in it. Us rebs, and yankees met on either side of the crest, and started firing away. The yankees to get a bang for thier buck after loading the proscribed 60grains of powder decided to ram the paper cartridge after....... We the unit oppisite us fired by company, meaning fhey all fired at the same time. We were about 100 yards apart, and then the next thing you know the field 1/2 beteen us caught on fire. thier paper came out smoking and set the field on fire. Nothing like having the battle stopped so that 100 guys could run around in the field pouring tier canteens and stomping out mini fires. It looked like we invented a new dance "The Brush field stomp".
 
Another time we were doing a Memorial Day parade and our commander said to load a a parade load. Thats were we pour down the powder and ram home the paper cartridge. We stopped on the bridge crossing over the river in town to give our fallen sailors a salute we fired our volley then heard some cheering down below. It seems that we gave a few boaters down below a nice confetti salute.
 
Stop me if you've heard this before. Oh, that's right. You can't. :rotf: :blah:

I posted this about 3 years ago, so maybe some of you have forgotten (you know, old age, etc...)

I've only been at this 30 years, and hold no illusions about my ability to dryball - I can do it any time, any place, for no good reason at all. But this was a new experience:

Technically it wasn't actually a dryball, as there was a full load of powder under the ball. But it wasn't a proper load either.

The gun was a .54 cal Lyman GPR flintlock. I had taken 4 shots and swabbed after each. I carefully measured 70 grains of ffg Goex and poured it down the barrel. There were no distractions; all the onlookers knew not to talk to me during the loading process. I picked up and carefully separated a single 0.015" lubed patch, placed it on the muzzle. I picked up a 0.530 round ball and placed it on the patch, and noticed that the patch was not well centered. So, I placed one finger on the ball to hold it steady. I took my thumb and forefinger on the other hand and carefully captured an edge of the patch and pulled it across the muzzle to center it. And promptly pulled it out from under the ball, which disappeared down the bore assisted, by my finger.

So now I have a full powder charge in the barrel along with a loose ball. Let's see, .530 ball, .540 bore, should fall right out, right? Nope. Wouldn't budge. Tapped the barrel on the carpet I use to protect the butt when loading. Nope, still no ball.

Ok, rammed the ball down all the way with the range rod, checked the mark, yep, full powder load and round ball. Primed the pan, got a flash, no boom. Great. Picked the touch hole, primed and tapped some 4f into the touch hole. Got another flash, but no boom. Now it's starting to rain.

Packed up the gear and went home. I'd shot 4 guns yesterday and decided to wait until after supper to clean them. I did the .54 flinter last, and decided to try to pull the ball. The timing is important because now it's about 11 pm. The ball came right out with very little effort. Normally I'd just wash the powder out with water, but something made me decide to shoot it out - after all, how much noise would some loose powder make?

It's not loose, stupid, it was compressed when you rammed the ball down. It's still compressed, stupid. 70 grains of compressed 2f out the back door across the lake at 11 pm is impressive. I swear the echo went on for 15 minutes. SWMBO had fallen asleep reading. I now have very clear instructions about how and when to clear bore obstructions. I know exactly how many neighbors I have that retire before 11 pm, and how far away you can hear 70 grains of 2f at 11 pm. I know that the odds of the only Sheriff's road patrol car on duty at 11pm being across the lake in view of my house at that precise moment are slim but not that slim. I have learned that it is a misdemeanor to discharge a firearm at my house, since, although it's an undeveloped rural area, it was platted as a subdivision in 1921 and the county considers it an urban area. He may have made that part up, but he didn't charge me and I'm not going to do it again in any case.

Sheesh. All I did was accidentally pull the darn patch out from under the ball...

In the cold light of day, it's clear that the deputy's civics lesson about misdemeanor firearms violations was embellished somewhat - there is an ordinance about discharging a firearm within 450 feet of a dwelling, which I did not violate because your own dwelling doesn't count. He just felt the need to vent, for some reason.

I don't really blame him for being upset and feeling the need to put the fear of 'Jurisprudence' (that's the nickname of the local lockup Bubba) into me. The lake is down in a bowl amongst some small hills. He was sitting at the top of a short boat ramp, lights out, watching for some kids that were up to some mischief. The flash and boom 'from out on the lake' scared him to death, and he'd completely lost his sense of humor (and perhaps even control of some bodily functions) at that point.

This morning I also realized that by stepping just outside the back door I was in an area completely surrounded on 5 sides by concrete, decking and house walls - in the middle of a big speaker cone pointed directly at the boat ramp on the other side of the lake. Did I mention the lake is in the bowl of surrounding hills? The deputy's reference to 105mm rounds makes a little more sense to me now.

Behind the garage would have been a much better idea. But, when that ball disappeared down that barrel it took my thinking material with it.

A gentleman on another forum has suggested an alternative scenario with respect to the officer's point of view.

I assumed the deputy was sitting in his car quietly watching for some kids doing mischief (we'd had a little bit of the upended outhouse type of shenanigans lately), and was just scared by the sudden flash and boom out of the darkness.

However, considering the already improbable lineup of events, why not add one more: the deputy was actually out of his car, down on the bank by the boat ramp attending to a little personal call, when, in the midst of a quiet commune with nature, KABOOOM!!.

It's possible. That might have colored his view of the event somewhat.

And then, a few days later:

I was in town for some errands today and went by the Sheriff's office to register a new unmentionable. The clerk on duty looked at my DL and said, "You're the guy that scared the #*%@! out of Deputy ______!" It seems the story is all over the county offices. Apparently the "alternate scenario" where he was out of the car and 'busy' down by the water is more than just possible. Seems I'm some kind of local folk hero.

The deputy did not mention my name, but the 911 calls did reference an address that the clerk recognized. He filed a report since the 911 dispatcher log showed his unit responded to their dispatch call. But the report was a 'no violation' report. The clerk put two and two together. She said the office 'coffeepot lawyers' agreed there was no violation as the gun wasn't actually loaded.

zonie said:
Ya know, you might have the makings of a good job here.

At your local retirement home where constipation can be a real problem, if they get all of the sufferers sitting on their pots and you sneak in with your "unloaded" rifle and touch her off when no one is looking........

I can just hear it now, "Thank you so much! I haven't felt this relieved for over a year now! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I don't know how I can repay you. "

oldnamvet said:
Gives a whole new meaning to the "black powder movement" that has been going on.

ranger said:
ALL RIGHT PEOPLE LET"S GET THAT FOULING CLEARED!
 
Norinco said:
He told me he knew it was fact because he's read French accounts of that happening (he's a scholar of French history). Maybe it was just soldiers cursing their guns like you do.

Could maybe something have been lost in the translation?

I mean, if you have a mortar tube and no water, you risk cookoff if you don't piss on it to cool it down.

They're loaded from the muzzle... And I'm talking about the rocket launching ones fielded by troops in 'Nam and such, not the old style cannon-type mortars.

You get what I'm saying, I'm sure.

Josh
 
I've heard stories of buffalo hunters peeing down the barrels of their breechloaders, when they ran out of water, but took it with a grain of salt. I think it's just kind of "earthy" to pass on stories of this sort. Makes people say, "Wow, really!". Bill
 
Claude said:
smokin .50 said:
I call 'em "The Gang Who Can't Shoot Straight". Holes in the ceiling of our indoor range, ...
I visited an indoor range once. This was a place where anyone could rent a pistol to try it out or just have some fun shooting. Well... there were bullet holes not only in the ceiling above the stalls, but there were holes in the tables of the stalls and in the dividers between them. I haven't been to an indoor range since.

There is a shop about an hour from me that has an indoor range. They have a full auto mak-10 looking
thing available to rent to the general public. Didnt sound like a very good idea to me considering the ventalation holes people are able to acheive using only semi auto guns.
 
.
. mar 13 / 14:00

this is an exerpt from my original post of sept 26 2008, when i had slightly less than two months of experience.. it's a true story; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent:


"...wednesday, however, i really topped the charts.

while testing these adjustments i added some fiber wads to the 20g smooth bore. they're called "c" wads on track of the wolf's site. supposedly they will take some of the recoil out of the shotgun. that's not all they'll do.

with everything running lean and mean, the fire was literally pouring out of both barrels so much so that during my last volly, i noticed a bright light out in front of me (we shoot 'til 9pm outdoors here) that was flickering and obscured the target somewhat. i looked up and over the trigger sight only to see about 3' of bright orange flame leaping up from behind the shooters barricade - directly in front of me.

apparently, with all this wadding and hot lead, i had somehow ignited the grass and spent powder in my "lane" and it was quickly getting out of control. i yelled "fire ! fire ! fire !" (probably not the best choice of terms for a gun range, but...) and the rangemaster quickly grabbed a hose and doused the area with water which then turned the mess into a smokebomb that choked nearly everyone back to the parking lot. oy, vay. this is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

thus, we end this saga on a happy note nonetheless. my lemat is not a lemon afterall, nothing fell off of it this time, and i'm getting much better burn per load than ever (no pun intended) which makes for less orange gunk at cleanup and no wasted powder.

so, you see, shooting black powder can be lots of fun even for beginners like me. the end..."


:thumbsup: ~daniel~
 
I really hate telling on myself but I was at the range one day shooting my flintlocks.

When I shoot I usually am sitting on a small wooden stool resting my left elbow on a pad I put on the benchtop. I support the stock with my left hand.

Anyway, at that time I was using a small pistol flask with a 10 grain spout on it to prime the pan after I had set down and aimed the muzzle downrange. During this priming some loose powder would end up falling on the pad and benchtop. I would pay no attention to it and lay the flask down next to me right before I fired the shot.

This had become common practice until one day after shooting many shots I primed the pan, took aim and squeezed her off. FOOOMP !! the whole benchtop and pad went off singing the hair off of my left arm!
I was damn lucky the gate in the flask had closed tightly or the flask could have easily blown up.

Following this little bit of fun I always make real sure ALL loose powder is blown off of the benchtop and pad and the priming flask is at arms reach away from me before I fire a shot.
 
It was the middle of winter many years ago and I needed to smell some smoke. So I loaded up my 1860 Colt, no caps, and went to the local indoor range. I told them I was shooting blackpowder so they gave me the lane directly under the exhaust fan. I got to my assigned lane and had my hearing protection on. Guys to the left and right of me were shooting AK's, 44 Mags, 9MM, whatever they could carry.

I put the caps on and then proceeded to shoot my first cylinder full. After the second shot everything got quiet on the range, I didn't pay it any attention and kept on shooting. On the third shot I heard one guy yell to another, what in the Heck is he shooting? Turns out the flame from the barrel was about 6 foot long and really impressed the other shooters. I finished shooting my 6 shots and then had to explain what I was doing to a bunch of interested shooters.

My next cylinder full set the range on fire (sort of). Turns out that a lot of unburned powder covers the range floor and when they sweep up the brass at the end of the day all that powder collects in the expansion joint in the concrete. First thing I knew my muzzle flash had set the powder on fire in front of me and I had what looked like a slow match burning in the concrete joint running all the way across the range. I finished up and left. After that, blackpowder shooting was not allowed on that indoor range again.

Many Klatch
 
.
. mar 13 / 16:15


:applause: :rotf: what do they say in the air force..."any landing you walk away from is a good one..." you were indeed lucky that time.

i better not tell you how much loose powder i spill on the bench during a day's shooting, but i definitely will not just ignore it from now on.

thanks for that confession,

:hatsoff: ~dg~
 
I was fresh out of the Navy in '73 and had picked up an 1858 Remington in .44. Joined a local club that had, at the time, a VERY informal range - picnic tables and a hundred yards to a hill backdrop. I loaded her up, per my couple of black powder books I had bought at the same time and re-read till they were dog eared, and used a repro Remington flask to keep my powder in, which I laid on top of the picnic table. I also wore some thick gloves and, about the third round, I cocked the gun, tilting the barrel up in the process. As I took my thumb off the trigger, the weight of the barrel dipped it forward and my thick glove triggered it. Just missed the table top by an inch, leaving a large hole in the ground, curling gray smoke, about six feet away. That gave me pause, but not nearly so much as the flask which was maybe another foot away from the table's edge and right in the line of fire. Really tightened up my range safety from that day forward!
 
I was for a while a "range Master" at a privately owned retail Co. range. I was watching the line when a muzzle loading "expert" started explaining about all the aspects of black powder shooting. I had only been into black powder muzzle loading for about 40 years at the time , so I thought I could learn something. One of the more "interesting" things I learned was the reason "musket loaders" his term, fell from grace is that because round balls have no point they won't kill anything. I am trying to figure how I can sharpen my round balls as we speak. I also recall warning a shooter about smoking around an open container of propellant pellets. He was very irate telling me that it wasn't powder and he could do as he wished. I kindly explained to him what the term Range Master involved.
 

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