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

pab1 said:

Haven't been around here in a while but you are correct. I knew it was loaded and marked the gun as a reminder,,

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Well it's good to see you ain't gone under!
And that yer 2yr old thread of experience shared, is still alive with folks that want to learn more stuff.
Good post-Original Poster,,

It is a crazy thing to leave a gun loaded , it will go BANG and if in someone hands other than yourself may end up someone been shot .Over many decades of restoration I have come across many guns that have been loaded some for more than a 100years so is a couple drms of powder ball or shot worth more than a serious accident
Feltwad

DBrevit said:

Nothing if there is no powder in the pan.

P.S.

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Oh contraire.
Many years ago we had a breakfast shoot. About a dozen dressed in funny looking clothes, shoot our fire locks, toss a Tommy hawk or to all scoring went to a blanket prize so like participation trophies every one wins.
Then have a big breakfast put on by a rotating club member.
Old Doc Lindsey brought out his new Centermark TFC . After a few shots he has him a dull flint.
He dumps the pan, sweeps it clean with a horse hair brush then uses the back of his knife to retouch the flint
Suddenly boom, he got spark and it set off his unprimed gun.
In testing as many as one third of the time an unprimed flinter can go off just from sparks in an empty pan.

Clueless on the Delaware said:

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)

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Where in Philly? I am from SW Philly.

pab1 said:

Haven't been around here in a while but you are correct. I knew it was loaded and marked the gun as a reminder for myself or anyone else if I would up going under

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that gun will certainly go off , if it were me and it has been , yes remove barrel and what i did was i wet the thing so it couldnt go off, let it get mushy over time and then use a long drill bit clamped to a vise grip pliers so my fingers wont be in line while its being dug out and then cleaned. thanks for listening.
does anyone know what black powder gun is .495caliber, i am looking for a bullet mold in that caliber and knowing the gun it comes from will help.
the bullet mold will be for an air rifle sirs one that can harvest buffalo not that id shoot one of those. but deer it leaves a deer drt.

tenngun said:

Oh contraire.
Many years ago we had a breakfast shoot. About a dozen dressed in funny looking clothes, shoot our fire locks, toss a Tommy hawk or to all scoring went to a blanket prize so like participation trophies every one wins.
Then have a big breakfast put on by a rotating club member.
Old Doc Lindsey brought out his new Centermark TFC . After a few shots he has him a dull flint.
He dumps the pan, sweeps it clean with a horse hair brush then uses the back of his knife to retouch the flint
Suddenly boom, he got spark and it set off his unprimed gun.
In testing as many as one third of the time an unprimed flinter can go off just from sparks in an empty pan.

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goodness darn true,,,

It will go "BANG"

LawrenceA said:

Boom chucka lucka lucka boom

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I coached a young fellow last year on shooting muzzleloaders, he went out and killed a bull elk in Montana's first muzzleloader season. He used a .50 T/C Hawken caplock that belonged to his father. Before shooting the rifle to check sights he ran the ramrod down the barrel which indicated something was in the breech, turns out his father had left it loaded after his last hunt some 20+ years earlier, he capped it and it fired. I only wish the last youngsters I trained before retirement would have heeded me as well as this fellow did.

tenngun said:

Oh contraire.
Many years ago we had a breakfast shoot. About a dozen dressed in funny looking clothes, shoot our fire locks, toss a Tommy hawk or to all scoring went to a blanket prize so like participation trophies every one wins.
Then have a big breakfast put on by a rotating club member.
Old Doc Lindsey brought out his new Centermark TFC . After a few shots he has him a dull flint.
He dumps the pan, sweeps it clean with a horse hair brush then uses the back of his knife to retouch the flint
Suddenly boom, he got spark and it set off his unprimed gun.
In testing as many as one third of the time an unprimed flinter can go off just from sparks in an empty pan.

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Yes INDEED! It happened to me one with my Charleville. I loaded the main charge, got interrupted for a moment and neglected to prime the pan. The gun fired when I pulled the trigger. A few grains of powder had sifted out of the vent and into the pan.

necchi said:

Well it's good to see you ain't gone under!
And that yer 2yr old thread of experience shared, is still alive with folks that want to learn more stuff.
Good post-Original Poster,,

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Thank you! I'm still kicking and burning powder.

OK, here is a valid question:
Supoosed you visited someone and they had an old wall hanger and you asked to see it. Say you pull the ramrod and run it down the barrel, then line it up against the barrel and find that it is loaded. Now what do you do?
Running a bit of water into the flash hole or nipple will safely kill the charge, but then it will start rusting. Would a squirt of oil render the gun reasonably safe? Obviously pulling the ball would be best, but if you are just visting you might not get permission to run off with a family heirloom, besides, how many gunsmiths know how to pull a ball?

Feltwad said:

It is a crazy thing to leave a gun loaded , it will go BANG and if in someone hands other than yourself may end up someone been shot .Over many decades of restoration I have come across many guns that have been loaded some for more than a 100years so is a couple drms of powder ball or shot worth more than a serious accident
Feltwad

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I don't encourage anyone to do anything they're not comfortable with. If you're not comfortable having a loaded gun around by all means don't. Stating it "crazy" to leave a gun loaded is a bit extreme. Keep in mind, there are some who think its crazy to have a gun in your house period.

Every year, during hunting season my gun stays loaded for up to a month. The only time its unloaded is if I shoot at game or I encounter wet conditions. Then its cleaned and loaded again.

Every gun I handle, whether its mine or someone else's is treated like its loaded. I have purchased a couple used guns that were shipped to me with a load in the barrel. When this has happened I removed the load, then cleaned the gun.

I don't know if you read the first post, or like some seem to do, replied based on the thread title alone. I marked the gun making it clear that is was loaded and had a frizzen stall in place. I also stored it in a safe, secure place.

Obviously I was completely comfortable with the conditions it was stored in or it would not have been stored loaded. Everyone's situation is different. I don't encourage anyone to store guns loaded based on my situation. Store your guns in a manner that's safe and that you're comfortable with.

Scota@4570 said:

Maybe a better idea is to keep a modern gun in a quick access safe with a loaded magazine close by.

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Did you read the first post. Never once did I state or imply that my smoothbore flintlock was stored loaded for self defense.

Oldbear63 said:

OK, here is a valid question:
Supoosed you visited someone and they had an old wall hanger and you asked to see it. Say you pull the ramrod and run it down the barrel, then line it up against the barrel and find that it is loaded. Now what do you do?
Running a bit of water into the flash hole or nipple will safely kill the charge, but then it will start rusting. Would a squirt of oil render the gun reasonably safe? Obviously pulling the ball would be best, but if you are just visting you might not get permission to run off with a family heirloom, besides, how many gunsmiths know how to pull a ball?

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I'd invest in one of the compressed air ball dischargers.
If that failed, I'd unbreech it.

LD

And the OP's question has been well answered by many venerable sources.

LD