Chips in the face

[JCB]

I’ve been getting a lot of chips in my face while shooting. I’ve been shooting flint for over 25 years and have never noticed it being this bad before. Does anyone know what causes this and if there is a fix. The only thing I’ve really been doing different is not using 4f to prime. I either use 3f or 2f depending on what’s in the horn and what gun I’m shooting. I wear prescription glasses and there getting pretty beat up. In the meantime I’ve bought some safety shooting glasses to go over my regular glasses to protect them from getting chipped.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@JCB, do you have a flash guard that will direct the ejecta from the pan away from your face. I think you may be feeling some of burning larger grains as they are thrown out of the pan.

 

[64Springer]

You're slamming a rock into a piece of hardened steel that sits atop 5 grains of gun powder that creates a fireball when you pull the trigger.

You're going to get hit in the face with something.

I've often wondered how many soldiers were permanently blinded by flintlock debris.

 

[S.Kenton]

Have you tried reducing the powder in the pan? It doesn’t take very much to ignite a charge, a few grains actually will do the job.
When I was out squirrel hunting last year, I had to reload quickly, when I done that I noticed in my hurry I put way too much pan primer in, I was in such a hurry to reload i didn’t care. When I touched that off.. man I got pelted in the face with quite a bit of debris, that was the last time I ever filled the pan up that much.
I havnt had that problem since..

 

[JCB]

Have you tried reducing the powder in the pan? It doesn’t take very much to ignite a charge, a few grains actually will do the job.
When I was out squirrel hunting last year, I had to reload quickly, when I done that I noticed in my hurry I put way too much pan primer in, I was in such a hurry to reload i didn’t care. When I touched that off.. man I got pelted in the face with quite a bit of debris, that was the last time I ever filled the pan up that much.
I havnt had that problem since..

S. Kenton I believe you and Grenadier are leading me in the right direction. For about five years or so I was mainly just shooting one rifle, and thought it was just that gun. At the time I thought it was flint chips pelting me. Since then I’ve picked up a few more guns and have had the same problem with most of them. I recently realized the problem never really started until I started priming from the horn. Your probably right about overloading the pan. I’ll be more careful not to overload it in the future, and see if it helps. I’ve been shooting flint since the mid 90’s and cannot recall having this problem before. At least not to the level it is now.

 

[S.Kenton]

S. Kenton I believe you and Grenadier are leading me in the right direction. For about five years or so I was mainly just shooting one rifle, and thought it was just that gun. At the time I thought it was flint chips pelting me. Since then I’ve picked up a few more guns and have had the same problem with most of them. I recently realized the problem never really started until I started priming from the horn. Your probably right about overloading the pan. I’ll be more careful not to overload it in the future, and see if it helps. I’ve been shooting flint since the mid 90’s and cannot recall having this problem before. At least not to the level it is now.

Yes give it a shot and report back, good luck and good shooting!

 

[1950DAVE]

With a little experimentation you will be surprised with how little primer powder is required to get consistent ignition.

 

[Flintleather]

Try using 4f again to prime and see if you notice a difference.

 

[nhmoose]

This is why one always wears safety glasses. Be safe

 

[user 34300]

I consider my shooting glasses to be disposable. They get gouges in the lens from flying rock chips.