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Shooting Marbles?? Is that smart?

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Sort of got ‘forced’ into using marbles one time. Guy I worked with asked if I could let his boys shoot a muzzleloader. Told him sure, we could even do it on his property, as it was much closer than the gun range. Then his wife laid down the law. Kids were not allowed to handle or be near lead nor was lead to be used on their property. I had a tub of marbles that I used to teach simple statistics and probability and sorted out a quantity that measured between .52” and .55”. Remember being surprised how much they varied in diameter and they for sure were not round. Patched over 30 grains of powder in 58 caliber flint and percussion guns, the boys were destroying clay pigeons at 25 yards or so by the end of the session. Saved a quantity in case ever needed again, or maybe for slingshot ammo.
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Why stick a bunch of junk down your barrel? Not good for huntingput a bunch of loose firecrackers down the dang thing,,,,sheesh
Hmmm, “Comfortably_Numb” and “Heyyou”48307. Two Pink Floyd songs. These two folks are one in the same. They are the same poster, busy supporting each others posts while belittling BP Maniac Shooters posts.
 
Hmmm, seems like it would be tough to pull a marble....just not good practice for any reason. Someone afraid of lead exposure? Wrong sport no matter what...
So you are suggesting not giving the kids a chance to shoot? Where do you think the next generation of shooters and hunters are coming from? Using marbles I gave 11 and 13 year old brothers their first opportunity to shoot guns, not to mention they were percussion and flintlock guns, with approval from a helicopter mom. And as far as pulling one, if you read my post you would have noticed the marbles were way under bore size, plus I own a compressor and a number of grease guns.
 
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I had an opportunity to shoot a few marbles from a smoothbore per request by a viewer.
Not as many as I wanted to shoot due to a loading FAILURE...!!


Have you ever tried this with steel ball bearings? I would think you'd have better consistency of size and weight. If you patch 'em you shouldn't have any barrel damage. I'd have been afraid of getting shards of glass all over and/or maybe having the ball shatter within the bore where it might damage the barrel. I'm liking that Pedersoli though. Now I gotta go Google it up!
 
Hmmm, “Comfortably_Numb” and “Heyyou”48307. Two Pink Floyd songs. These two folks are one in the same. They are the same poster, busy supporting each others posts while belittling BP Maniac Shooters posts.
Well, I'd guess that BP Maniac has pretty thick skin or he wouldn't be posting a video of himself shooting marbles out of a muzzleloader. It WAS an interesting video, and I would not have been brave enough to try it in one of my own guns. Just recently discovered BP Maniac and look forward to more videos.
 
Have you ever tried this with steel ball bearings? I would think you'd have better consistency of size and weight. If you patch 'em you shouldn't have any barrel damage. I'd have been afraid of getting shards of glass all over and/or maybe having the ball shatter within the bore where it might damage the barrel. I'm liking that Pedersoli though. Now I gotta go Google it up!
Might be a bit hard on the barrel.
 
Might be a bit hard on the barrel.
It might, but ball bearings wouldn't shatter like I would've expected a marble to do (apparently it didn't), and if you patched it in a smooth-bore, the steel shouldn't contact the bore. Plenty of history shooting odd stuff down the bore... chain, nails, steel shot, etc. I'm also sorta wondering if anybody tried shooting turned wooden bullets... maybe made of lignum vitae or ironwood.

These are all probably Bad Ideas that the "Good Idea Fairy" or the "Emperor Mong" whispered into the ears of different people over the years, but we humans like to experiment...
 
It might, but ball bearings wouldn't shatter like I would've expected a marble to do (apparently it didn't), and if you patched it in a smooth-bore, the steel shouldn't contact the bore. Plenty of history shooting odd stuff down the bore... chain, nails, steel shot, etc. I'm also sorta wondering if anybody tried shooting turned wooden bullets... maybe made of lignum vitae or ironwood.

These are all probably Bad Ideas that the "Good Idea Fairy" or the "Emperor Mong" whispered into the ears of different people over the years, but we humans like to experiment...
Well I tend to recommend all my bad ideas to @B P Maniac Shooter to try out for me ;)

Truth be told it was Mark's videos that got me over the line when I was looking for my first smoothbore. I was interested in the history but the idea of how much fun they could be sold me.
 
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