A Flintlock Has Been Loaded for 5 Years. What Do You Think Will Happen When The Trigger Is Pulled?

In October of 2015, on opening day of deer season I hunted with my .62 cal Renegade smoothbore flintlock. The gun/barrel were both clean when it was loaded for that hunt. The gun contained a load of 80 grains 3F Goex topped with a nitro card, Crisco lubed cushion wad and finally a .595" patched round ball. I planned to hunt with that gun the next day also. That evening, as I was packing my gear for the next days hunt, I had the sudden urge to hunt with my .54 cal Lyman GPR. I took a deer with the GPR the next day. I devoted the rest of that season to helping an elderly neighbor get out for what turned out to be his last year hunting.

I planned to take the loaded .62 cal Renegade out to the range after season. Every time I went to the range I was in the mood to shoot something else. Before I knew it years went by. This went on and on until today, almost 5 years later, when I was finally in the mood to shoot this gun. I should point out that while it was stored there was no powder in the pan and a frizzen stall was in place. It was also marked with flagging tape as a reminder that it was loaded.



So back to my original question. The gun has been loaded for 5 years. What do you think will happen when the pan is primed, the trigger is pulled and the flint scrapes the frizzen?

I'm sure most of you that have been around these guns know exactly what will happen. It did exactly what I expected. The gun fired with no hesitation and I hit my target at 100 yards. I had a similar experience with a .32 cal Crockett percussion rifle years ago. I wound up leaving a charge in the clean gun after a hunt. I planned to hunt with it the next day but that didn't happen. It didn't go out again until two years later. When I took it out it fired without hesitation. I missed the grouse I was aiming at that day but I couldn't blame the gun for me pulling the shot.

I also came up with a small game load for this gun today. I found that a 40 grain charge of Goex 2F was pretty accurate in this gun. On a previous target this load impacted to the left consistently enough for me to be sure it wasn't me pulling the shots. I adjusted the rear sight and put up a new target. The next shot was a little closer. After another sight adjustment the next two shots were right on target.

This is the first time I've had a light charge in a big bore muzzleloader not impact at the same point as heavier charges at close range. Usually out to around 30 yards light charges don't require sight adjustment. With the easily adjustable sights on this barrel its not a problem. I marked the sight so I can easily return to zero for my big game load. Hopefully I can try this load out on some small game this fall.

(I just noticed I wrote 06 instead of 07 for the date/month on the target.)

Kept dry, a charge will last a Long time. ;-)

Nothing if there is no powder in the pan.

P.S.

What will happen? BOOM will happen.

packed tight and stored right = BOOM.

I read a magazine article about a flintlock pistol being loaded for a couple hundred years, fired off at a party by accident. A young lady had requested the owner show her how it worked. Not satisfied with seeing the flint sparks, she asked for more so he primed the pan, and fired a round he didn't know was in there!

The article said, IIRC, "the smoke cleared and the owner said, 'now do you understand?'"

The gentleman who helped me build my Early Lancaster has a replica Springfield musket. He loaded it many years ago to hunt deer. Didn't see anything.

Life got in the way and according to him 12 years went by. The gun stayed in a cabinet in his shop, no cap, hammer resting on the nipple.

His grandson asked to borrow the musket to hunt opening morning. A fat doe walked out, boom, dead deer.
There's no reason a properly loaded, properly stored muzzle loader shouldn't be ready to fire for decades, just like metallic cartridges.

Greg......I have to share this story. Back in the time somewhere around 1970 when muzzleloading was being reborn and many of us were trying to find our butts w/ both hands and not succeeding well, there were these two guys that had what they thought was a m/l barrel w/ a ball stuck near the breech. W/limited knowledge of muzzle loaders , they came to the conclusion that someone just hadn't put any powder in the barrel before seating the ball , or the the powder wouldn't be operable due to the age of the gun. Not possessing the proper tools to pull the ball , or unscrew the breech plug , our two rocket scientists went down the cellar , understanding that everyone knows lead melts and could be simply poured out of the barrel when melted. Our genius's put the breech end of the barrel in the hot coal furnace.
This happened a long time ago , and all I remember was the guy who related this story to me was laughing so hard , I cant remember the rest of the story as to where the ball went , etc.. . I do remember no one was injured. A true story......Oldwood

Boom chucka lucka lucka boom

oldwood said:

Greg......I have to share this story. Back in the time somewhere around 1970 when muzzleloading was being reborn and many of us were trying to find our butts w/ both hands and not succeeding well, there were these two guys that had what they thought was a m/l barrel w/ a ball stuck near the breech. W/limited knowledge of muzzle loaders , they came to the conclusion that someone just hadn't put any powder in the barrel before seating the ball , or the the powder wouldn't be operable due to the age of the gun. Not possessing the proper tools to pull the ball , or unscrew the breech plug , our two rocket scientists went down the cellar , understanding that everyone knows lead melts and could be simply poured out of the barrel when melted. Our genius's put the breech end of the barrel in the hot coal furnace.
This happened a long time ago , and all I remember was the guy who related this story to me was laughing so hard , I cant remember the rest of the story as to where the ball went , etc.. . I do remember no one was injured. A true story......Oldwood

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I, uhm, did something similar once.

At the range a few 6 or 7 years ago, i was just getting in to front stuffers, shooting my Traditions .50 Pennsylvania flinter very slow and deliberately, explaining every step for the benefit of my buddies 9 year old son. Swabbed the bore after 5 or 6 shots and , apperently, didn't dry it out enough. Next shot, click! And so on. Figured after a while all the powder musta' stuck to the to the inside all the way down and dryballed it. It sat like that for 2 or 3 years while I tried every stupid trick I'd ever heard to unstuck the ball. Finally, someone tells me to unseat the barrel, elevate and heat the breach end, the patch will burn up and the ball will just roll out. Genius! So I take it out to my backyard, in the middle of Philadelphia, and after 5 or 10 minutes..... KERPOW! Good thing it was pointed at the ground or it would have been a very bad day.

Neighbors: what was that bang!?!
Me: I dunno, musta been some jerk with firecrackers.
(Slowly backs away)

Kept dry, black powder is forever.

Back in 2000, we got to shoot a local pub wallhanger that had last been loaded, but not fired, for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

It was capped up, tied to a gate and pointed into the woods.

It fired like it was loaded then minutes before, and the scraps of paper that came out gave us the date of 22nd of June 1897.

DBrevit said:

Nothing if there is no powder in the pan.

P.S.

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I can to tell if you are joking.

To enlighten folks, there is a good chance it will fire primed or not. A good sparker and a a touch hole liner ups the odds quite a bit. I am talking something like 1 in 5 tries it will fire.

Leaving loaded guns around is a good way to get someone killed.

Scota@4570 said:

I can to tell if you are joking.

To enlighten folks, there is a good chance it will fire primed or not. A good sparker and a a touch hole liner ups the odds quite a bit. I am talking something like 1 in 5 tries it will fire.

Leaving loaded guns around is a good way to get someone killed.

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I thought you were the OP at first.

I have loaded guns in the house, not in plain sight but around, never know when you need one.

Will have to try the no powder in the pan, I have problems from time to time with powder in the pan.

Scota@4570 said:

I can to tell if you are joking.

To enlighten folks, there is a good chance it will fire primed or not. A good sparker and a a touch hole liner ups the odds quite a bit. I am talking something like 1 in 5 tries it will fire.

Leaving loaded guns around is a good way to get someone killed.

Click to expand...

All guns are loaded.

Down here in Texas we have a saying... I'd rather be judged by 12, than carried by 6.

My father taught me years ago, to treat every gun as its loaded, and there are few things more useless than an empty gun.

Now for clarification, my black powder guns typically stay empty. Honestly, there are much better weapons for self defense. But... my self defense pistols are kept loaded.

DBrevit said:

Nothing if there is no powder in the pan.

P.S.

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I don't agree with you DBrevit.
I've saw a flintlock fire with an empty pan last year. No one was more surprised than me, well, maybe the owner was. Good thing it was pointed down range.

It just takes one spark to find the touch hole, and that's what happened.

Eterry said:

I don't agree with you DBrevit.
I've saw a flintlock fire with an empty pan last year. No one was more surprised than me, well, maybe the owner was. Good thing it was pointed down range.

It just takes one spark to find the touch hole, and that's what happened.

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First off, See the smiley face, it was meant as a funny.

Odd things can happen with anything, odds are it would not fire. I've saw a flintlock not fire with powder in the pan.

I'm going to go play with my caplock now, no cap no bang, much more safe.
P.S. sorry forgot to add the smiley face again .

Firing with an empty pan happened to me. After several failures to fire, I knapped the flint, pointed the barrel down range and pulled the trigger to watch for sparks. Plenty of sparks and the gun fired.

Surprising how many threads there are about priming powder, 3f or 4f or should I use Swiss OB,
apparently there is no need for powder, age old problem solved , ,