Anyone ever experienced burning embers in your barrel after a shot?

[Whitworth]

Only happened once must have been 30 years ago and I still have the burns scars . It was the first load after capping off a full flask exploded above my head and I was burnt down one side for which I found out that loading from the flask can be dangerous so take heed
Feltwad

View attachment 83796

You just made a believer outta me

 

[hanshi]

Never had a smoldering ember or even a patch that smoldered. Of course one can not always spot everything going on around oneself. But still, I think I would have noticed or have forgotten about it if it has indeed ever happened.

But two things I always do: blow down the barrel and move a lot slower than you do. I don't know what it is, but I was born moving like a fly in hot tar. And when I say "blow down the barrel" I do NOT mean to imply my face or any part of it touches the muzzle. I'll either blow it from a few inches away or through my cupped hand. Doing so softens any fouling and makes it obvious whether or not the vent is plugged. And so-help-me-God I've never gotten a flintlock to fire more than just the one time without reloading the booger.

 

[Whitworth]

I just walked down range the other day and retrieved a smoldering patch from my M1842 pistol. After my brother touched it off and I saw smoking rising from the grass about 20 feet in front of him. Laid it on the blacktop and it smoldered into a nice crescent moon before going out.. The patch had been lubed with Wonder Lube. YMMV

 

[Musketeer]

I cannot, will not advocate blowing down a barrel.
Do I turn the vent or muzzle into the wind? Sure, but I aint sticking my gob over a muzzleloader for nothing!

I realize it's pretty obvious that a single shot muzzleloader is no longer loaded once a shot has been taken, but the idea of putting the muzzle of any gun up to my face still gives me the heebee jeebees.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

I digress for a moment, my apologies ,

Why do we say round balls Balls are round.....guess it just sounds nice. One could say extra round balls , lead balls. Patched lead balls, Perhaps we differentiating between round footballs and oval rugby balls Do you say round baseball balls across the pond , Golfers maybe a bit more intelligent than us They don't mention round golf balls, as the know they are round, but is that the right word , one should say I "loads sperical lead patched balls". No replies from English teachers please, we can sort it out ourselves.....not got up yet rain tumbling down in UK, nothing better to do than write a load of rubbish. I wish you all well.

Ps lost it on the forum string. but I used to shoot 12g slugs and 1.25oz balls that's around 560grains I recall. Modern nitro guns , They were mighty powerful if they hit something.....but at 1400 ft sec. They are only like 2400 ft lbs of energy, I was quite surprised at the low power, my little 400 g bullets from my 450-400 at 2125 ft sec double produce 4100 ft lbs more than enough for elephant or rhino. I always wanted a flintlock .5BMG ...it's possible . I see some talk of patched balls at 1800 ft lbs sec is that the norm, and will it work with .5" patched balls , interesting topic

Back

Roy Jones
mentioning golf.....

There is some logic in the term "round ball". "Ball" is the generic term for a solid bullet, rather than tracer, explosive or incendiary. Hence the term "ball ammunition" for standard military cartridges and "hard ball" for pistol ammunition loaded with jacketed bullets that don't have either a soft point or hollow point design. If someone is talking about a round projectile the term "round ball" would prevent any confusion. The term that irritates me is "heads" instead of "bullets", often because that person uses "bullet" when they mean "cartridge".

Roy

 

[Gordoncourtney]

There is some logic in the term "round ball". "Ball" is the generic term for a solid bullet, rather than tracer, explosive or incendiary. Hence the term "ball ammunition" for standard military cartridges and "hard ball" for pistol ammunition loaded with jacketed bullets that don't have either a soft point or hollow point design. If someone is talking about a round projectile the term "round ball" would prevent any confusion. The term that irritates me is "heads" instead of "bullets", often because that person uses "bullet" when they mean "cartridge".

 

[Stumpkiller]

Nope. But I always assume they are there when transferring a measure or tipping in a paper cartridge load down the bore.

 

[Eterry]

Ever heard of Ken Burns ? The guy who became famous for documentaries on PBS? His work is considered the best in the business and extremely well researched.

In his cover of the ACW he quotes the diary of a Union soldier at Little Round Top who shot his rifled musket until it cooked off a round. Then picked up another and shot it until it got so hot it cooked off as well. He had THREE muskets cook off before it was over.

I've seen SMOKELESS rounds cook off in a full auto, and it has a much higher flash point than Holy Black. There's no reason to think a muzzle loader CANT do the same, under the right circumstances.

 

[tenngun]

Ever heard of Ken Burns ? The guy who became famous for documentaries on PBS? His work is considered the best in the business and extremely well researched.

In his cover of the ACW he quotes the diary of a Union soldier at Little Round Top who shot his rifled musket until it cooked off a round. Then picked up another and shot it until it got so hot it cooked off as well. He had THREE muskets cook off before it was over.

I've seen SMOKELESS rounds cook off in a full auto, and it has a much higher flash point than Holy Black. There's no reason to think a muzzle loader CANT do the same, under the right circumstances.

As I said I’ve never seen it. But as I’ve also said I’ve known people who have seen it and read first hand accounts of it happening.
move done some speed loading in my day. My best was nine patched round ball in three minutes and forty five seconds.
Well, maybe I’ve gotten old and afraid of everything so I stress go slow….. and even shooting slow I’ve made barrels warm to the touch

 

[Whitworth]

Ever heard of Ken Burns ? The guy who became famous for documentaries on PBS? His work is considered the best in the business and extremely well researched.

In his cover of the ACW he quotes the diary of a Union soldier at Little Round Top who shot his rifled musket until it cooked off a round. Then picked up another and shot it until it got so hot it cooked off as well. He had THREE muskets cook off before it was over.

I've seen SMOKELESS rounds cook off in a full auto, and it has a much higher flash point than Holy Black. There's no reason to think a muzzle loader CANT do the same, under the right circumstances.

Paper cartridges rapidly jammed down the barrel might leave a few embers to deal with too.

 

[Stony Broke]

The fella that actually got me started into muzzleloading was at a rendezvous once and when loading his flinter while he was standing on the shooting line, it went off. He hauled to a medical facility and pretty much recovered the use of his hand, but it took some time. Never knew what actually caused the problem. He thought it might have been a spark from one of the other flinters next to him on the line, but we'll never know.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

As I said I’ve never seen it. But as I’ve also said I’ve known people who have seen it and read first hand accounts of it happening.
move done some speed loading in my day. My best was nine patched round ball in three minutes and forty five seconds.
Well, maybe I’ve gotten old and afraid of everything so I stress go slow….. and even shooting slow I’ve made barrels warm to the touch

That's some fast shooting sir!

 

[tenngun]

That's some fast shooting sir!

Had a loading block and a short starter with a large flat handle. It fit in a hole in the block.
Was shooting three f g with a 5/64 touch hole.
Here is the stupid part
My block had a measure built in, or drilled in as the case met be. I could draw my block measure starter from bag, pour a charge, invert and withdraw the starter then start the ball.
Leaving the starter in the hole. Then stick the starter with block in my belt. Ram ball home with frizzen closed. When home pan was primed.
set trigger cock and shoulder in one continuous move.
yes it was stupid to load like that over a primed gun.
So I don’t recommend any try it….. ever

 

[tenngun]

Had a loading block and a short starter with a large flat handle. It fit in a hole in the block.
Was shooting three f g with a 5/64 touch hole.
Here is the stupid part
My block had a measure built in, or drilled in as the case met be. I could draw my block measure starter from bag, pour a charge, invert and withdraw the starter then start the ball.
Leaving the starter in the hole. Then stick the starter with block in my belt. Ram ball home with frizzen closed. When home pan was primed.
set trigger cock and shoulder in one continuous move.
yes it was stupid to load like that over a primed gun.
So I don’t recommend any try it….. ever

 

[Widows Son]

The first firearm I ever bought with my own money was a CVA Philadelphia Derringer kit. I was about 12 years old. Next at 14yrs old was CVA Kentucky Rifle kit, which I began to blow down the barrel after each shot because I saw older and wiser men do it at a ‘buckskinner shoot’ (it was the early 80’s).

I continued to do it for 3 valid reasons:
1. To ensure the flash channel is clear (didn’t stop the occasional misfire however )
2. It looks cool
3. Chicks dig it.

I don’t do it anymore because I’m mostly a target shooter these days and I wipe the bore better shots.

 

[Frod733]

Was at a NSSA shoot many years ago. Saw a guy shooting an original M1861 rifled musket. It was a hot day, and as he loaded, the gun cooked off and burned his hand badly. He went to a medical tent, got it bandaged up, and went back to the line when his relay was up. Apparently, he did not clean the gun after his burn, and (you guessed it) he had another cook off. With that one, his bandage caught on fire! Back to the med tent again. This time, he got his original musket and threw it into the creek just behind the line. It was, of course, the guns fault(!). Think the guy was more of a reenactor type.

FWIW, I once had an original civil war musket. Thought I would pull the breech plug to get a good look at the barrel. Could not see through the barrel at all. Turns out there was a wafer of hard charcoal fouling at the breech plug that was hard as rock. About the thickness of a quarter. I could see that this might have presented a problem on a hot day and repeated firing. Might have started glowing in the breech?

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Have yet to see this issue, belong to a club out west and we do the rapid fire events, along with the other clubs in the surrounding area.

The "fort shoot" comes to mind, usually consists of four person teams, starting with loaded firearms and you get fifteen minutes to knock down as many targets as you can, another such event is the "bear shoot" this activity consists of two person teams competing side by side, the object is to knock down your three "heavy" steel targets and ring the gong before the other team can do theirs, this is a timed event with the trophy and prize money going to the fastest team.

I've had my barrel so hot you couldn't hardly touch it to load it.

Wont get into the blowing down the barrel issue, but if you insist on doing such things please be mindful of the young shooters "pee wee class and younger" that may be watching.

 

[Whitworth]

View attachment 84019

That is hilarious

 

[bisleyjohn]

I was taught to, and did, blow down the muzzle. Lady luck was, I believe, sitting on my shoulder. I don’t do it now. Lyman book says this:-

Caplocks: After firing leave the hammer down over the exploded cap as you reload. This helps smother any sparks left from the preceding shot. Keep your hands and face away from the muzzle.

Good enough for me. As for burning embers? Not YET!

Druther have a hole in me finger than me face

 

[French Colonial]

You blow down the barrel to keep the fouling soft, go to any BPCRS match and you will see blow tubes being used to introduce moisture and keep the fouling at a consistent level. They are not worried about burning embers that is for sure.
Or you can wipe with something wet to do the same thing, I have been blowing down the barrel for a lot of years and never seen a cook off.
The BPCR shooters rig up blow tubes usually with one of their cartridges fixed on the end of it so moisture gets in the barrel but not in the chamber. A guy could get some flexible tubing that just barely entered the muzzle and made a seal and blow down the barrel that way I suppose. That would keep your head off to the side and might let you use it even at ranges where they forbid blowing down the barrel directly.
Hmmm... I might try this