Night time muzzleblast

[cyten]

4th of July blank firing

1851 Navy

Zouave

 

[oldwood]

I'm thankful someone fired salutes (blanks) from a new .45 cal. FIE percussion rifle. Bout 1972 , I went into a local gun shop on the way to work. In the line of muzzle up vertical stacked used guns for sale , was a new looking octagon barrel m/ler. I wanted a rifle to try and see how accurate a m/l rifle might be. So , in the store , pulled the ramrod from it's pipes , stuck it down the bore . The rod stopped about 6" from the breech. Pulled the rod and found it covered with powder ash. Figured someone had fired salutes w/the gun and got rid of it when it wouldn't go boom any more. Took my stash of saved up lunch money , and paid the $35 cash price for the gun. Took the rifle home and soaked the plug of ash out of the breech , cleaned the rifle and headed to the range. Fired a few shots at 50 yds off a bench . Saw an abandoned full sized deer target at 100 yds. , and since I was the only guy at the range , I touched one off at the deer target. Checked the hit in the heart/lung area of the cardboard deer , and was hooked for life on m/l rifles. Whoever fouled that little .45 cal . rifle shooting salutes , shoulda been thanked for inadvertantly getting me started shooting m/l rifles..oldwood

 

[Commodore Swab]

I'll have to dig up some more later when I get the computer online.