Safety Question

[THBailey]

The only thing I don't like about anything hanging off the gun is i'm a still hunter. I try to keep all movement to a minimum. Anything swinging under the gun will be seen by the game.

The safety stays over the cap until time to shoot. I pull the trigger back, then thumb the hammer full back, release the trigger and let the hammer slowly forward to catch at full cock. No "cocking click". Then the safety comes off and, yes, at that moment it will hang a lanyard length below the gun for a few seconds before firing.

 

[user 36911]

The safety stays over the cap until time to shoot. I pull the trigger back, then thumb the hammer full back, release the trigger and let the hammer slowly forward to catch at full cock. No "cocking click". Then the safety comes off and, yes, at that moment it will hang a lanyard length below the gun for a few seconds before firing.

I explained how I do it in post #27. That seems safe enough for me. I've done it that way for 40 years with no problems. I hunt solo in solitude. I won't shoot anybody.

Nothing wrong with using those cap covers. I just like to keep it all simple.

 

[Crow-Feather]

I was curious how people carry a percussion cap rifle while hunting. With my flintlocks I carry at half cock while stalking or sitting. Is it safe to put a cap on your nipple and carry it that way while hunting? If I have a cap on the nipple and the hammer is at half cock then I think the nipple may fall off. If I let the hammer rest on the nipple then I'm afraid that if I bump the gun it could go off. Thanks for any comments / advise.

Before you trust the half-cock, put the hammer on half cock, then push forward on the hammer making sure the hammer won't fly forward. When hunting with the hammer on half cock, it pays to religiously obey the safety rules of shooting. Also a capped rifle in a vehicle is considered the same as a rifle with a round in the chamber.

 

[THBailey]

I explained how I do it in post #27. That seems safe enough for me. I've done it that way for 40 years with no problems. I hunt solo in solitude. I won't shoot anybody.

Nothing wrong with using those cap covers. I just like to keep it all simple.

It's all good. I wasn't trying to argue, just explaining how we do it. We hunt Nevada and Western Utah when we are lucky enough to draw tags, lots of climbing up mountains and picking around high rim rock. We carry the guns with slings to leave our hands free for the binocs.

 

[user 36911]

Sounds good. I'm up at 11,000ft in dark timber. It's my favorite type of hunting, so in my old age, it's all i'll do.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Hammer down on the cap. I always hunt alone, and have been extremely safety conscious. If I have to climb a tree and haul it up with a rope, I take the cap off and make sure the muzzle never points upward. Flint guns get a frizzen stall. If I'm with other people we are usually using modern guns.

 

[Griz44Mag]

What is that a popped cap inside a nipple protector?

? Nothing inside the cap, maybe you are seeing the machining marks? Or maybe the flash reflection.
It's deep enough the musket cap does not reach the back of the hole when mounted. (I tried it)

 

[russellshaffer]

Quite a few interesting ideas here, but it all boils down to watching the muzzle direction and keeping control of the rifle. Everyone is agreeing on this. I hunted ONCE with a friend who didn't understand where his muzzle was.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Quite a few interesting ideas here, but it all boils down to watching the muzzle direction and keeping control of the rifle. Everyone is agreeing on this. I hunted ONCE with a friend who didn't understand where his muzzle was.

Point well made.
I drove 8 hours once on a special invite to hunt.
I got there after dark and several were already there, drinking heavily around the campfire pit and handling/examining each others firearms. I poured myself a big cup of coffee and drove another 8 hours to get home.
SAFETY and SELF PRESERVATION - Don't leave home without it.

 

[Stony Broke]

I've been carrying one with leather over the cap for a long time, and have confidence in this manner of doing it. I use a fairly thick piece of soft leather, and the hammer holds it in place over the cap. It takes a fairly good snap over the cap to make it pop, and with that cushion I feel safe.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I tested that theory by placing a nipple in a vice and then placing a cap on it, then I placed thick .20 leather over the nipple. I then struck it with a hammer with force representative of a fall or stumble. On the 5th hit the primer went off.

While I agree that by whacking the leather covering the cap, eventually the cap will fire. However the leather must be considered expendable and replaced if any wear or thinning of the protection is noticed. In normal carry, accidental drop situations, the hammer won't be likely hit hard enough to penetrate the leather and set off a cap before the hunter should replace the leather.

The cap covers are probably better when it comes to long term protection.

 

[longcruise]

Revisiting the video at the beginning of the topic, has me thinking about the leather cap cover solution. The fellow who lost his finger carried with the hammer down on the cap and dragged it into a partially cocked position that pulled loose and fell setting off the cap.

If he had been using a leather cap would it have simply fallen off when the hammer lifted off? What about some of the other cap covers shown in this thread. Would they have fallen off?

 

[Grenadier1758]

Yes, they could have. The leather cushion and the brass cap cover work when reasonably safe muzzle control is practiced.

 

[russellshaffer]

A very good point. It reinforces the fact that no safety is totally fool proof. Some of the devices and methods describe so far would most likely have stayed on but the brush that lifted the hammer might have dislodged the safety as well. The gentleman in the video was just not careful enough. After seeing the suggestions so far, I am going to do things differently in the future but I will try to be even more careful. After all, I did once shoot myself due to an extremely stupid and reckless action on my part. Never again. I like the idea of the brass cap cover because it is surely possible to drop the rifle or fall and end up with the hammer striking the cap or its cover. A good blow could shear the sear or the half cock notch and fire the gun.

 

[DAKurth1]

I was watching the Laramie Miller “Sasquach - Mountain Man” TV program some time back and saw Laramie hunting elk.
He had a habit of carrying his muzzleloader over his right shoulder, barrel forward, with his right hand over the front sight.
He had wrapped his little finger across the front of the muzzle.
He was walking through some brush that snagged the hammer, pulling it back, but not far enough to get to half cock before it let go.
Of course, the rifle fired, blowing the end of his right little finger off!
They edited that scene out, but he talked about it on the next episode.
Lesson learned!

 

[Crane Senior]

Just keep this in mind....

Walk

Great reminder of how precious life is.

 

[Ames]

Of course, the rifle fired, blowing the end of his right little finger off!

I've heard that before and never forgot it!

 

[omark]

Nothing is foolproof because fools are so dammed ingenious. Mark

 

[Howard Pippin]

I was watching the Laramie Miller “Sasquach - Mountain Man” TV program some time back and saw Laramie hunting elk.
He had a habit of carrying his muzzleloader over his right shoulder, barrel forward, with his right hand over the front sight.
He had wrapped his little finger across the front of the muzzle.
He was walking through some brush that snagged the hammer, pulling it back, but not far enough to get to half cock before it let go.
Of course, the rifle fired, blowing the end of his right little finger off!
They edited that scene out, but he talked about it on the next episode.
Lesson learned!

I am amazed that people would carry a rifle in that position over the shoulder where most of the gun is out of sight. Of all the carry positions we teach to hunter safety students, that is not one of them. We would try to stress that you need total control of that gun to the point no matter what happens, you know where the gun is. Is it only black powder shooters that carry like this or do other hunters? That barrel is pointing down range, so however you turn its pointing in that direction rather than down or up. The two main ones that we stress are the two-handed and the sling carry.We try to stress carrying an empty chamber, and of course that only applies to cartridge guns, But not to load the chamber until just before you're ready to shoot.Can't tell you if the listen or not.
I'd too am guilty of carrying a muzzleloader with a load in the barrel, and only a leather wedge between the hammer and the cap. But as soon as I enter back out into a road, or to my vehicle or to camp I do remove the cap.I realize that a lot of this is a judgment call.
Squint

 

[Walkingeagle]

Squint, I do believe it is quite common in Africa to carry a firearm this way.
Walk