Anyone ever experienced burning embers in your barrel after a shot?

[Widows Son]

Has anyone ever had an accident or seen an accident due to burning embers after a shot? (Excluding cannons)
Personally I’ve been shooting side lock muzzleloaders, flint and cap, for 40 years and have never experienced it or seen or heard of anyone else having experience of it.
I am not deriding any safety procedures here! I’m really curious.

 

[tenngun]

I’ve seen folks who have had experience with it, never had happened to me, never seen it, but I’m careful with all the precautions anyway.
Been shooting ML since 1973, almost exclusively.

 

[deerstalkert]

Blo..... ah , introduce moist air into the barrel after a shot and don't worry. have never seen a charge flash, only ever heard about it. never even heard about it first hand. always "my cousins uncles brothers second wifes grandpa scorched his eyebrows."
Now, having written that, next session i probably will lose my eyebrows!

 

[Britsmoothy]

30 plus years and nope.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Not once. Not one time. Not a hint in over 50 years of shooting front stuffers. Perhaps this happens in cannons where one loads charcoal briquets and cloth bags.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

YES
I've seen powder cookoff twice. BUT those were "firelock speed volley matches". It would be very odd if it happened to any of us with the ways that we are known to shoot. Not too many "speed volley" contests out there...at least from what I've heard.

LD

 

[Tasbay]

30 years of muzzleloader and No but always swab with moist patch between each shot religiously.

 

[mooman76]

Never. Been shooting for 35 years.

 

[deermanok]

Nope.

 

[Horse]

Never had it myself but once at the NSSA Nationals in Winchester VA in the early 70's I was shooting on the Dismal Swamp Rangers team and a team mate next to me had an earley fire in the hole experience, we all just kept firing. War is hell.
Horse

 

[LongWalker]

Outside of an experimental context, I've not experienced one. Some years back I did some experiments on the amount of force needed to seat a ball when blowing/not blowing down the bore after each shot. I did get a flash when dumping powder down the bore after 7-8 shots w/o blowing down the bore. (Conditions were ideal for this: high temps, low humidity.)

I did see one once a couple years ago on the firing line at a blanket shoot. And I found a thumb once after a guy who'd been shooting parade loads didn't keep his hand clear of the muzzle when dumping powder down the bore.

 

[William Lincoln]

Deep crud build up, neglected at the breech end

 

[Musketeer]

Going on 25 years myself and not thus far.

 

[Don Steele]

I've seen it happen, and it ain't pretty.
We had a relatively new BP shooter coming to our club a few years back (4-5 iirc). He was very enthusiastic about his new found sport. He shot a caplock T/C Renegade...shot it VERY well, and he shot a lot. He used a Range Rod with a large bulbous wooden ball on the end, about the size of a tennis ball. He shot FAST, loading with Goex powder. Very little time between shots.
He came back to the loading bench after firing a shot and proceeded to immediately recharge his rifle with a fresh load of Goex, then ram a patched roundball home. While pushing the ball down the barrel, it went off. His hand was over the top of that round ball on the end of his range rod. The range rod went through the roof over the loading bench. The good news is that he didn't suffer any eye damage. He did suffer severe damage to the hand that was holding the range rod including lacerations and other internal tissue damage (tendons, etc.) and a couple of broken fingers. Two fingers broken if I remember correctly, possibly three.
He did heal eventually, pretty much back to normal but never came back to the BP range again.

 

[Mike Payne]

Over 40 years of shooting the holy black and have never seen or had one.

 

[dave951]

I've been shooting the holy black for over 40 years with thousands upon thousands of rounds downrange and also reenacted for a number of years with thousands of blanks fired and in all that time, I've had 1, that's ONE, cookoff. I had loaned my smoothbore and it was returned "clean". I'm guessing it was crud in the breech building up. Since I was loading according to safety procedure, it was just a flash and a check of the underdrawers. Lesson learned, don't trust others cleaning job.

 

[59sharps]

Has anyone ever had an accident or seen an accident due to burning embers after a shot? (Excluding cannons)
Personally I’ve been shooting side lock muzzleloaders, flint and cap, for 40 years and have never experienced it or seen or heard of anyone else having experience of it.
I am not deriding any safety procedures here! I’m really curious.

Yes my son in his 3rd year of skirmishing. During a team event. After it went off he snap a cap reloaded hit that target and keep on going. Didn’t even rattle him. I’ve seen and hear the sound many times at shoots never had one myself.

 

[deerstalkert]

seems we have established that it does happen, now what is the real cause? patch shred smoldering? crud ring still burning? inquiring minds want to know! i only have a short time to know and i won't go to the yonder mountains until i know!

 

[Okie Hog]

Nope.

While visiting a firearms shop in WV that carried a great selection of muzzleloader stuff i met a guy with mangled fingers. He blamed it on "embers in the bore".

After the guy left two others told me to disbelieve anything the guy said. He was noted for capping and cocking the muzzleloader prior to loading: Claimed it saved time.

 

[Artificer]

Has anyone ever had an accident or seen an accident due to burning embers after a shot? (Excluding cannons)
Personally I’ve been shooting side lock muzzleloaders, flint and cap, for 40 years and have never experienced it or seen or heard of anyone else having experience of it.
I am not deriding any safety procedures here! I’m really curious.

YES!! I've seen it mostly during reenactments when using blank rounds and re-loading very quickly.

Saw it one time when we were firing a four "person" team stake contest shooting. Fortunately, the powder went off before the shooter got the patched ball in place. Again, this is fast reloading on the line.

I saw it once on a percussion rifle that had been fired and the shooter moved back to the bench to reload, so it wasn't a quick reload. He dumped the powder and it went off. No one got hurt, but it was a bit embarrassing for him. Have no idea what in the bore caused it.

Finally, I had it happen once when I was firing blanks in my M 1851 Colt Revolver. Now I was VERY careful to use tight fitting wonder wads over each charge and picked even a single stray grain of powder off any chamber when I loaded it and holstered it. The second shot sent the last three cylinders off. (Even for reenacting, I NEVER loaded more than 5 cylinders and put the hammer down on a bare nipple.) No one got hurt, though I was asked on numerous occasions where I got the "Nock's Volley Revolver?"

Gus