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What is the worst than can happen?

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Joined
Sep 11, 2021
Messages
129
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Location
Peoples republic of Massachusetts
I have an in the white LR sitting here and for a number of reasons I want to shoot it this weekend.
There is no finish on wood or steel or brass.
I want to put a few rounds through it.

What is the worst thing that can happen?
 
You will get some stains on the stock from fouling that might be a bit difficult to clean off. You might get a few bumps and scrapes.

I am going to speculate that you have a properly fitting breech plug to barrel fitting, the correct sized balls, a working rod and a well-defined process for loading. You have verified that your triggers will release the sear on your lock so it is likely to fire. You have verified that the barrel and flash channel is clean from preservative and not blocked in any way? If you have a failure to fire, you might have to deal with pulling a ball and load.

The absolute (and quite unlikely) worst case is that a ball is not set properly on the powder or the threads in the breech are bad and the barrel blows up or the touch hole liner blows out.
 
You can be mistaken for a white supremacist and extremist. Your black powder
is similar to that used in the attack by the Boston marathon bomber. obviously
your pipe looking item must be intended for an explosive device. Unfortunately,
you are not a member of Antifa or BLM , therefore you are detained without
bond pending being cleared by the bomb squad which is on the way. Now
then, hands against the car while this police lady frisks you and then puts you
in the back of the squad car. Your strange looking items and powder are being
seized as evidence. This is a National Security arrest and no Miranda warnings
will be given. No comment allowed and no phone calls permitted. Your guilt
is established by a preponderance of the evidence. As you are whisked away to
a confidential detention center you ponder your fate, and deeply regret taking
that ill-fated rifle out for some test firing! Welcome to the Peoples Republic of
America.
 
...Unfortunately,
you are not a member of Antifa or BLM , therefore you are detained without
bond pending being cleared by the bomb squad which is on the way......
But ALAS I am a card carrying member of ANTIFA and BLM was birthed in my neighborhood by Chinese separatists.
 
Finish the gun. If you don't, someone will get greasy fingerprints on the wood, the cat will upchuck on it, or somehow mess up your hard work. Possibly no one will notice, but you will always see it and wish you'd gone ahead and completed the project.

When you shoot a M/L, there's no way to avoid powder burns, cap flash, etc. which leaves black ackumpucky around the lock area. Some burning powder or fulminate may actually land on the wood still aflame in small particles, darn hard to get out.

Yes, I had a cat upchuck on an umentionable left on my workbench overnight. Friskies Seafood, so be exact.
 
While I would be strongly inclined to finish the rifle before shooting, the worst that would happen is that you would have to clean/remove any residue or handling marks given the rifle had been prepped for finishing. If it doesn’t shoot to your expectation on that first outing, and requires load work, what will you do? I like to separate the building/finishing of the rifle from the tuning/shooting performance, focusing on each stage of the process…..But that’s just me.
 
The worst thing that can happen? Barring some unusual circumstances, your stock will get dirty and you might cause some staining when you go about cleaning it. The worst thing in this scenario is that the stains will mess up any future finishing applications. That’s probably all. Enjoy your rifle!
 
I shot the first flintlock rifle I made in the white, I just couldn't wait, just a few shots. I hadn't done the final the whiskering and sanding prior to my shots, I was careful with cleaning, no evil staining occurred, the rifle was finished with a darker aqufortis stain and Chambers oil finish. I had shot a flintlock before but had never built a gun, I just had to see if my creation would actually work, it did just fine.

Come to think of it, I shot my second build in the white as well, again out of curiosity as it was a walnut stocked fowler, another new one on me. In this case I had to see if the jug choke I had Caywood cut in the barrel made any difference, not much until I loaded the gun with a Skychief load long after the gun was finished and the shot pattern started looking like a swarm of bees.

I didn't feel the need to shoot any of my subsequent builds before they were finished, my curiosity had been satisfied by my first couple of in the white test runs.
 
Knowing that your lock directs sparks into the pan and doesn't bash flints to pieces, there is little to be gained by taking your unfinished rifle to the range for a shot or two. You have verified the integrity of the breech plug and barrel. You have verified that the barrel and flash channel are clear. You made a good decision to finish the rifle before going to the range and firing it.
 
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