Accidents It can happen to you

[Feltwad]

With many decades of shooting muzzle loading shotguns ,rifles and pistols I have come across several accidents . Some are unusual and some are the shooters neglect the two unusual ones were in the 1960s .
The first was a double barrels 12 bore repro by Pedesoli which had a weak mainspring ,the caps were brass Italian caps which needed a good strong hit for the fultimate to explode ,although the gun did not belong to me a shooting friend at a shoot was having this trouble he called me over to take a look , he then pulled the hammer back to half cock removed the cap which had left the fulitimate caked onto the nipple top , he then began using his finger nail to remove the fulitimate from the nipple ,this was enough to ignite firing the gun lucky the gun was pointing in a safe direction , this is the only time I have seen this happen
The second was a Belgian repro flintlock musket the lock was poor it needed some fine tuning and the main spring was weak against the frizzen spring which on firing caused flint particles from the flint to fall into the pan with a no fire . Pulling the cock back to half cock I re primed the pan I then closed the frizzen and the gun went off ,the only explanation I could think of was that there was flint pieces lodged between the frizzen and the barrel which caused the spark .If I now get a misfire with a flint I now brush out the pan and re prime.
The last two are down to neglect the first was a exploding powder flask caused by loading from the flask which happened to me which exploded above my head and left me burnt down my right hand side. see image
The second was a burst barrel which belonged to a fellow shooter caused by a obstructing in the bore. The obstruction was using a less than 1.1/6 over shot card wad was which on been rammed home ,the ramrod had by passed the wad which was left on the bore wall, on firing the wad opened up causing a obstructing which burst the barrel , lucky no one was hurt See image
Caution is always needed when shooting muzzle loaders even to shooters like myself who have been shooting for years has it can still happen to you
Feltwad

The remains of the flask that exploded

 

[MSW]

good examples of why it's very important to keep the "muzzle up and down range" (i do remember stuff from Basic Training, after all)

 

[fleener]

When I teach the haz mat cargo tank non destructive testing class I always hammer home that no one wakes up this morning thinking "I am going to have an accident today".

We all need to pay attention to what we do. I bet we all could tell stories of close calls with our ML.

Fleener

 

[old gunsmith]

I was at a shoot at my home club back in the 60's when one of the regulars and a very experienced shooter lost a hand to an accident that to my mind was never adequately explained. The shooter was pouring from a metal 1lb can into a brass measure when the can exploded, virtually blowing his hand off. At the time, there were a lot of potential explainations floated but I don't think there was ever definitive cause determined. I guess the moral to the story might be that no matter how comfortable we may be around black powder, it is still a potentially very dangerous substance. "Its not a question of if, its only a question of when and how bad!" P.S. Look up the story of Phineas Gage. P.S#2 Metal ramrods when shot from a rifle musket (1) kick a lot, (2) make an interesting whirring sound as they travel down range.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Why does that musket have a seam running down the barrel?.....and it looks mighty thin...

 

[Preflint]

It's the simple things in life that are the real killers.

 

[Black Hand]

I always hammer home that no one wakes up this morning thinking "I am going to have an accident today".

ALL accidents are due to inattention, poor training, stupidity or a combination thereof and can be prevented.

 

[garra]

On our monthly shoot a couple weeks ago I was loading my rifle. Placed the patched ball on the muzzle, positioed the short starter and slapped it down into muzzle. Wooded rod split in half and I drove the shaft into my wrist. Stiuck in there pretty good, good amount of blood everywhere after I pulled it out. Wrapped wrist, drove 30 miles to my local VA emergency for treatment.

 

[hawkeye2]

It's a fowler and not a musket so it would have a little thinner barrel though in rretrospect it does look a little on the thin side. I believe what looks to be a seam in the photos is the edge of the rib on top of the barrel.

 

[Black Hand]

...good amount of blood everywhere after I pulled it out.

NEVER remove an impaled object yourself - fix it in place and have medical personnel remove it after assessment. You could cause additional and permanent damage to critical structures (blood vessels, nerves, tendons, etc) if you pull it out...

 

[Rifleman1776]

Why does that musket have a seam running down the barrel?.....and it looks mighty thin...

Good catch. Good question.

 

[Feltwad]

Why does that musket have a seam running down the barrel?.....and it looks mighty thin...

Good catch. Good question.

The gun is a 12 bore s/b percussion sporting gun with a Damascus barrel and a patent sighting rib The gun I know well which had been used in many clay competitions by its owner and fired regular
Feltwad

 

[TFoley]

Thank you, Sir, for posting personal details of what must have been an underwear-changing experience, to say the least.

I, too, have been shooting BP stuff since the late sixties, but have yet to see any of the extremely unpleasant things that can happen when shooting ANY firearm, let alone the old-style whizbangs that give us so much fun, sometimes at the cost of fingers, or hands, or the ultimate, life itself.

However, I DO have one story that holds a salutory lesson, and that is never stand TOO close to a taller [6ft 5in] shooter with a Brown Bess musket, especially if wearing a jaunty straw hat. Just as the shooter fired, his next door companion to the right moved his head directly into the way of the jet of flame exiting the flash hole, setting fire to his hat as it did so.

After dowsing his headgear down with a handy bottle of mineral water, we all had a good laff, including the wearer of the burnt hat. He moved a couple of paces further away after that.

tac

 

[BillinOregon]

Sobering stuff. Thanks for sharing, Feltwad. We must always be vigilant who are blessed with the ownership and use of firearms.

 

[hanshi]

YIKES! I've never been around any kind of catastrophic accident involving BP. Hopefully I'll never see one. I started back in the mid 1960s so I've been around it a long time.

 

[Heelerau]

I started in the ver early 70's, we had 1 powder flask go up on a bench at the Adelaide BPMLC when a flintlock being shot off the bench ignited loose powder that was lying on the bench top, and a slug rifle went off driving the range rod through the shooters hand at the Aussie BP champs here in Perth. He was wiping between shots with a bore solvent. The thought is it might have dieseled. Blew his thumb off. Another chap at the same event got distracted and blew the muzzle off his rifle musket because he did not seat the bullet. All these things have given me pause for thought as I have got to the stage of being easily distracted myself. I had never dry balled until recently and that was with my .451 volunteer because of the more complicated loading procedure. Nearly all accidents are a result of a chain of events lining up ultimately human error.
Feltwad, did the chap ever re barrel that fowler, as it seems to have been a lovely piece?

Keep safe

Heelerau

 

[Feltwad]

I started in the ver early 70's, we had 1 powder flask go up on a bench at the Adelaide BPMLC when a flintlock being shot off the bench ignited loose powder that was lying on the bench top, and a slug rifle went off driving the range rod through the shooters hand at the Aussie BP champs here in Perth. He was wiping between shots with a bore solvent. The thought is it might have dieseled. Blew his thumb off. Another chap at the same event got distracted and blew the muzzle off his rifle musket because he did not seat the bullet. All these things have given me pause for thought as I have got to the stage of being easily distracted myself. I had never dry balled until recently and that was with my .451 volunteer because of the more complicated loading procedure. Nearly all accidents are a result of a chain of events lining up ultimately human error.
Feltwad, did the chap ever re barrel that fowler, as it seems to have been a lovely piece?

Keep safe

Heelerau

I do not know if he re barrel it but it was a good gun for which he won many prizes.
Feltwad

 

[SAJones]

I witnessed an unusual event at one of our monthly matches: a flintlock shooter took the lock off, laid the rifle on the ground, vent side down & pointed downrange. Working on the lock, about 18 inches above the ground, he snapped it to check functioning and the rifle went off. Only thing we could think was that a spark jumped around the rifle & hit some loose powder or maybe some spilled out of the vent. No one hurt, few scratches on his old firelock.

 

[Many Klatch]

I saw this happen at Friendship on the Primitive side. Friend had been shooting with a .62 smoothbore flintlock on one of the matches and had put powder down but hadn't gotten round to putting in the ball. The range was closed so they could change target on a neighboring range. He dumped out the loose powder and ran a wet patch down the bore. Waited about 10 or 15 minutes and then they reopened the range. He ran another patch down the bore before loading and his stainless steel range rod shot 50 feet in the air.

We have all studied on this, here is what we think happened. The gun was warm. The first wet patch caused left over powder to gunk up over the touch hole. In the intervening minutes it dried hard. When he ran a second patch down the small amount of left over powder dieseled and scared everybody. No one was hurt but the range rules have changed. If you have put powder down the barrel, finish loading and shoot, then they will close the range.

 

[curator]

"When he ran a second patch down the small amount of left over powder dieseled"

A number of "Expert" gun writers have dismissed the possibility of "Dieseling" igniting black powder in a gun barrel. An accident at a gun club I belonged to many years ago appeared to be a result of a ramrod being jammed forcefully while loading a warm gun. The bore had been wiped with a slightly damp patch previously. A powder charge was loaded, patched ball short started, then the ramrod pushed hard and fast. The gun discharged damaging the loader's hand. It was a .40 caliber percussion gun with a patent breech. Later the breech plug was removed to see if built-up powder scale had contributed to the accident. It was actually pretty clean with no evidence of burned on fouling. The only logical explanation was the rapid heating of air being forced through the tiny nipple orifice causing the powder to ignite. The State Police forensic scientist who investigated claimed this was impossible. I wonder----