Muzzleloader Misconceptions

[Bill Hall]

Joining this forum has caused me to think about way back when I first started shooting muzzleloaders. It was mid 1970's, and there was still alot of misinformation about ML's out there, mostly generated from movies or T.V. or stories guys heard from their grandfathers. I've got a ton of funny stories, questions, or "advice' about shooting black powder, from folks who were sure they knew what they were talking about. Things like "The recess in the hammer is what holds the cap". Or "When you pour the powder down the barrel from your horn, always count to three". Or "When the cap goes off, just keep holding on target cuz you get about a three second delay". I could go on and on.

Just wondering if any of you guys have any funny stories about ML myths, advice or questions you may have heard.

Here's a personal story that happened about 1978 when I was hunting with a ML during the regular rifle season: Pointing at my T/C Hawken, my uncle asked me how fast I could shoot downhill with "that thing". "Uh, what do you mean?" I asked. "Well" he said, "I want to put you up on that rock up there and I could hunt up to it and maybe run a buck under you, but I'm wondering if you can aim at a deer below you and shoot before the ball rolls out of the barrel." He was dead serious.

 

[blacksmithman64]

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: This is going to be a funny topic!!

 

[George Holton]

Back in the sixties I had an old man ask if I knew why there was so much drop in a muzzleloader stock? I bit. and he told me with a perfectly streight face and showed me with a full stock, how the fronteiersmen would hold the rifle sideways around the tree and they were hiddden and safe behind it. but you have to shoot fast to catch a spark in the powder of a flint. :surrender: :rotf: :blah: Bob

 

[RedFeather]

Back in the sixties I had an old man ask if I knew why there was so much drop in a muzzleloader stock? I bit. and he told me with a perfectly streight face and showed me with a full stock, how the fronteiersmen would hold the rifle sideways around the tree and they were hiddden and safe behind it. but you have to shoot fast to catch a spark in the powder of a flint. :surrender: :rotf: :blah: Bob

I think I've seen that mentioned here, but not as a joke.

I have an old circa 1972 Black Powder Digest that I had to go into and make pen & ink corrections to. Like, don't worry about how much powder you pour in, the excess will just blow out the barrel.

The bit about holding for three seconds may have been referring to holding through a hang-fire. When first shooting my Zouave I was using Crisco to lube the bases on a hot day and soon found what hang fires are like.

Two not so funny incidents from the early daze:

Had a guy come up to me with a CVA percussion pistol he was given as a gift. Said there was aproblem with it. He was holding it about waist high and rolling it from side to side, the muzzle occasionally in the direction of my belly button. I asked what it was and he said it just didn't want to go off. (Hang fire.) Got him pointed in a safe direction, but it still gives me the willies today.

Another time I was shooting and had my cute sister along. This guy comes over with a T/C Hawken and proceeds to impress her. I think he got to talking so much that he forgot to put the powder in. When it didn't go off, he tried adding powder to the nipple straight from the flask, re-capped and fired with the butt on his beer belly. I packed up pronto and we made it out with him still priming/capping/priming. Didn't hear a boom, so guess he made out ok.

Speaking of misconceptions, I recently saw Jerimiah Johnson on tv. Hadn't seen it since 1972 in the theaters and it did help get me hooked on ML. One thing I noticed this time around. Why does Robert Redford keep falling on his ass every time he shoots at game? You'ld think he just touched off an elephant gun, not a .50! :haha:

 

[akroguy]

Lets see....Liberal, horse-whispering Hollywood weenie falls over when lighting off a .50. Go figure. :haha:

 

[Robert an saa fan]

Two situations have stayed with me:

1. In the late 1980's am at an unsupervised range and a guy sets up next to me and pulls out his new, just purchased, cap and ball revolver. He proceeds to start to load it from a can smokeless powder.

Took a while to get him to believe he was risking his body parts including his vision. Think what convinced him was when I said that if he insisted on shooting smokeless powder he first needed to let me pack up and stand way far behind him so that I could take him to the ER.

Was very glad I paid attention cause it could have turned out badly for him and for me being in shrapnel range.

2. Was at a gunshow standing at a guy's many tables of black powder stuff when an un-nervingly attractive young woman asked me what a nipple pick was...

luckily somebody else answered her question before I said something all wrong and embarrassing. :cursing: :rotf:

 

[RedFeather]

Was at a gunshow standing at a guy's many tables of black powder stuff when an un-nervingly attractive young woman asked me what a nipple pick was...

This be what she was after?

IMAGE REMOVED

Talking to a shop owner recently, he recounted how a guy once sued someone because his C&B revolver went south on him as he was shooting it. (Shop owner was asked to be an expert witness). Put smokeless in it, he did. The shop owner did say that it made him rethink how he stocked Hogden's on the shelf - I think it's the Pydorex that has almost the same label color scheme as one of the smokeless powders. Don't want them sitting too close to each other. Of course, the barrel said the usual warning in capital letters. Maybe they out to put it in braille, as well? For when you want to shoot again after you get out of the eye surgery.

 

[Jumpshot]

Thanks. My kids just saw that picture.

 

[BRUN]

Thanks. My kids just saw that picture.

Mine wont.Im glad I pre-view.

 

[Old Salt]

Just a few weeks ago during a woodswalk one gentleman was shooting a percussion rifle. Towards the end of the shoot he was getting consistent "no fires" on the first fall of the hammer. When he asked for advice, one guy recommends that he just pull the trigger on the next target to get the rifle ready to fire for score.

At the next target the shooter was standing on a dock with a small pond in front of him, he was holding the loaded rifle at the hip and pulled the trigger. As bad luck would have it the rifle fired perfectly, making a big spash in the pond.

We all got a laugh out of that one. I guess no one expected him to follow that very questionable tip.

Old Salt

 

[Napper]

Only thing that has happened to me is a guy we were huntting with when he seen what I was huntting with he got back in his truck and went home. I was latter told that he didn't think that a cva mont. rifle would kill a dear.

 

[dtruex]

When I was doing substitute teaching in the early 80's I found an Ohio History textbook that said that the rifles that the early settlers carried were 8 feet long and weighed 20 pounds.

 

[omgb]

Here's a few:

You can tell the correct charge of powder by placing the ball in your hand and pouring power over it until it is covered. That is supposed to be the perfect charge for that rifle. I can't imagine how that would work with a 12 bore.

BP is so corrosive you have to take the whole gun apart after fireing it or it will rust into junk in one night.

WD40 is a good BP patch lube

Damascus barrels are ALL unsafe

You should fill the nipple with powder to insure reliable ignition

You can't over-load a BP rifle. The unburnt powder will just blow out of the barrel. I have seen it otherwise often enough to know that is pure bovine by product

You can make pretty good BP at home safely, the key words being pretty good and safely

 

[tg]

This is not a slam towards the ML maker mentioned but I have heard this a couple of times and it does kind of relect the "what is traditional" threads we have from time to time...

While sitting around the fire at an event a gentlmen proceeded to explain how an original Hawkin rifle and the mould for a maxi ball were found in a cabin/cave in the Rocky Mts. and used to create the TC Hawkin and maxi ball replicas.. I have heard it in similar forms on two occasions in the seventies and heard of others hearing similar history lessons.

 

[roundball]

TG... :surrender: :surrender: say it ain't so !!!!!!

Does this mean...could it be...oh no...are my TC Hawkens...not THE originals ???????
They were made way back in the last century ya know!


( :grin: )

 

[RedFeather]

My sincere apologies to all for the cacti picture. Wasn't thinking about youngun's. Just playing along with the original pun. :redface:

 

[Bill Hall]

Ya, Tg, you just sparked my memory. I recall back in the seveties hearing a couple of stories about a friend of a friend of a guy someone knew finding "original" maxi-balls. I guess muzzleloading has its own urban legends.

 

[Robert an saa fan]

I also apologize if part 2 of my post offended anyone or caused anyone a problem... but it did happen as posted.

 

[PreglerD]

Some tales from Germany, especially from hunters who are against ML hunting, but don't know anything about ML.

- Loading the rifle in the morning makes the powder become wet because of morning dense/fog

- Ignition comes with time fuse after a few seconds

- with ML you can't hit anything because they are old

- ML don't shoot straight so you have to aim high

More wil follow.

 

[PreglerD]

one more:

- when shooting at moving targets you have to aim very far in front of the target because the ML bullet is very slow