CONEHEAD RANGE DAY

[Eric Krewson]

I drove 50 miles to the local public range but absentmindedly left my powder and stuff at home. I had my rifle loaded from hunting season so I took my one shot and headed home. I didn't do this only once but twice, I call these days "Bozo days" like the clown.

 

[Jaeger]

As I know from personal experience, it's hell gittin' old....

 

[Zonie]

I've never forgot everything but more than once I took a couple of my rifles and found after I got to the range, all of the balls I had with me were the wrong size. :redface:

Somehow a .440 ball doesn't shoot very well in a .50 caliber rifle and trying to load a .530 diameter ball in a .45 takes too much work.
Especially if the ball is patched. :grin:

 

[Mean Gene]

I had the same thing happen to me a week ago, fortunately for me it was only thirty miles, however at the time it didn't seem fortunate.

:rotf:

 

[azmntman]

2 years ago at 3:30 AM I got my 12GA out and me n the boy went turkey huntin! Second stop got a goblle and grabbed the stuff (as the kid calls my walmart bag :redface: full of components, started loading and my wad dropped right on the powder :shocked2: Seems I should have used more light (not wanting to wake the lil lady) as I grabbed my 20GA components :youcrazy:

I switched from hunter to guide right quick and called in a pair (or course) of young jakes to approx 5 feet. They came right to the big ponderosa I sat behind and strutted and he couldnt shoot cuz I was to close :haha:

 

[Rum River]

Years ago I managed to stick a bronze brush in the bottom of a .50 Hawken. Thought I'd broken the brush in, guess not.

As I flailed around in vain to remove the item I managed to twist off the wire too. Perfect, now we're getting somewhere.

Not having a 30" needle nose pliers available I tried my go-to response of staring at it while invoking various chants. No luck.

After calming down a bit, I pulled the nipple and
dribbled in about 5 grains of 4F from my flinter.
Not quite enough, a repeat using 10 grains shot it out.

The brush is on the shop wall to reinforce my one basic rule: "Try not to be any more stupid than you can help."

On the other hand I truly now can say I have a brush load for my rifle. Get it? Brush load?

 

[MSW]

of all the things i've lost in this life, i miss my mind the most

 

[SgtMaj65]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[gearheart]

That's my line too. :rotf: :rotf: I once took both ml rifles to my brother's cottage so he could try them out. It was mid winter and nobody around. We had to snowshoe in the last 1/4 mile. Arrived on site and looked for my shooting bag. Left at home. No powder no ball and no caps. I call it having a stupid attack.

 

[dragnetbill]

of all the things i've lost in this life, i miss my mind the most


I would second this, if I could remember that I have lost my mind.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I did it again, I drove 50 miles to the range to check my .54 at 100 yards. I got on the bags took a shot and reloaded for my second shot. I started to prime my lock and saw material sticking up of my touch hole. What's up, I tried picking the touch hole and dribbling in some 4F to see if the gun would go bang, nope, I tried again 5 or 6 times, no go.

I had a ball puller and a range rod, but, my range rod was 8-32, my ball puller was 10-32, no go. My hickory ramrod is 10-32 but with little to grab on to I couldn't get the ball moving.

Fortunately I took some modern guns to play with so the outing wasn't a complete bust.

When I got home and cleaned my rifle I found I had gotten out of sequence when I loaded the first time. It should be powder, wool wad, patched ball, I did wool wad, powder, patched ball. The gun fired the first time but blew parts of the wool wad out the touch hole instead of out the barrel.

This was a management area public range so I did some scouting for a 5 day hunt coming up in Feb and found a nice place to park my butt, tons of deer sign.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Next time take a sharpie and write "POWDER" on your hand... :wink:

 

[SgtMaj65]

:metoo: I've gotten to the point that as soon as I get back from range shooting session and clean my ML's, I restock everything right then. Otherwise, the next time I'll get to the range with my powder flask almost empty or no round balls in the bag or no patches or not enough No. 11's. And, I may be the king of dry-ball musketry. I need to shut my mouth at the gun range and concentrate. Concentrating is hard to do sometimes when AR brass is flying all over the place and I'm taking 5 minutes between shots. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm beginning to think I'm not going to get any younger. :wink:

 

[MN284]

"Concentrating is hard to do sometimes when AR brass is flying all over the place and I'm taking 5 minutes between shots"

Yes, but I always notice my ML groups are better than those from the AR-types. :wink:

Tom

 

[SgtMaj65]

So are mine ... much better! :thumbsup:

 

[coloradoclyde]

"Concentrating is hard to do sometimes when AR brass is flying all over the place

Tom

Especially if one finds it's way past your shirt collar and down your shirt. :shocked2: :td:

 

[Mean Gene]

Maybe I should try that, dry balled my gun again today.... some people can't chew gum and walk, I can't load my gun and talk.