Discharge while loading

[Woody Morgan]

Not necessarily a pleasant subject but...
I understand that cannoneers of old and maybe new have a chance of a discharge while loading powder into the bore due to a remaining spark from wadding or whatever hence the mop but what are the chances of our firearms accidentally discharging a powder load?
I'm sure it can be something always on our minds which is a good reason not to be over the bore with any body parts.
Discussion?

wm

 

[Dibbuk]

Quite real. I have seen it happen. It is just one of the reasons you ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

 

[azmntman]

This should be a popular subject, hope it don't blend into blowing down the bore!

Common sense rules here. Swipe every shot and don't cover the muzzle with any parts needing to be reused.

 

[TreeMan]

Another good reason to swab between shots.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

What you are referring to is commonly called a "cook-off." It is more likely to happen in a rapid fire match with minnies, like when my Enfield cooked off while loading my thirteenth rapid fire shot in about three minutes. The barrel was already too hot to hold with bare hands. Hot July day in Virginia.

For patched round ball shooting, it should be nearly impossible to have one. Impossible for me, because I clean between shots. Shoot, one damp, one dry, reload. PRN.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[mooman76]

Another good reason not to load directly from the flask.

 

[Woody Morgan]

I don't swab between every shot since my chosen lube keeps fouling very soft but I do have the habit of using a squirt of co2 from the discharger to put out any remaining coals. I may have to reevaluate that practice and simply swab after each round. Still learning hence this thread.

wm

 

[mooman76]

Just take your time and shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Woody Morgan]

Just take your time and shouldn't be a problem.

Can you expand on that a little bit for us, moo?

wm

 

[Josephg]

I don't wipe betweens shots everytime. Depends on the rifle. PRB rifles, seldom wipe between shots with medium charges. Never worried about a rifle going off during loading, but rather worry about keeping all my parts away from the muzzle. Somewhere here I have a cast iron loading handle that fits a ramrod. Supposed to be a safety device. But then I got to thinking, if a rifle did go off and the ramrod splintered under the weight of the device, where would the splinters go? I don't use it. The hands are always at risk. Maybe that's why we got two.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Just take your time and shouldn't be a problem.

The embers are relatively short lived. Maybe 30 seconds to a minute. Unless you are doing a speed loading event there is little likelihood of an ember or enough heat in the barrel to last that long. I would think that blowing down a barrel and providing some oxygen would prolong the life of an ember and hardly enough moisture in your breath to keep the fouling soft. Don't blow down the barrel thinking you are extinguishing embers. I am a use a damp patch to wipe the bore between shots and eliminate any possibility of an ember style of shooter. At the range, the time it takes to look at your target is long enough for any embers to be extinguished if you are using a relatively clean powder and there is little fouling or paper patched debris to hold an ember.

Even on Woods Walks and I am rapidly shooting paper cartridge wrapped round balls, I have a damp wad of tow to wipe the barrel occasionally to clean up the fouling and kill any possibility of having a cook-off. The benefit is that one can keep shooting instead of looking for a substantial tree to use to hammer a ball past the fouling. One Woods Walk we had two members of our team out of action until the stage was over because their muskets were so fouled that they could no longer load a fresh round. It took a sip of water from the canteen to spit down the bore to soften the fouling and fire the round into the woods.

 

[hanshi]

I'm so slow that any spark residing in my rifle bore would have to have a half life of around 30 minutes.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

Just to be clear, above. I don't swab between shots for safety reasons. I am not concerned with embers. I want my bore to be in the same condition for every shot. I want my gun to shoot with consistency for the smallest groups. Do I always clean between shots when hunting? I don't know; I have never shot more than one round at a deer with a muzzleloader. The first one is the only one that counts.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[biliff]

Never understood why people think wiping the bore will eliminate embers. For a plain flint breech, yeah. Any type of a drum or patent breech and you ain't wiping that section at all. Seems to me that's where any embers would most likely be . The extra time taken wiping/drying is probably doing more safety wise than the wiping itself.

 

[oldwood]

At the Spring shoot , Friendship Indiana , in the 1980's was standing behind the Pistol shooting line on the range. Guy was loading a target pistol in a pistol loading rack on a bench during a match. We had our backs to the guy , and for some reason the gun cooked off. He was bouncing the ramrod on the load and "BOOM". Amazingly , the ramrod shot upward missing his fingers. Luckily , his fingers only slightly got scorched , no other harm done. There was enough pandemonium , none of us were informed how the accident happened. ..............oldwood

 

[Eras Gone]

With artillery, the danger is embers left from the woolen powder bag, the base of which was often left in the breech of the gun. That is why us modern cannoneers usually use alum foil powder cylinders instead of fabric. We worm AND sponge between shots to ensure the is nothing left in the breech. Even a blank charge can blow your arms off it you get a premature ignition.

 

[Grenadier1758]

In some instances, artillery is required to wait five minutes before loading the next round after worming and sponging.

 

[Okie Hog]

The only case i'm familiar with happened to a guy who insisted on capping prior to loading.

 

[mushka]

I'm not a paranoid man but I am safety conscious around any kind of gun whether it be an unmentionable or one of our beloved BP guns. I've heard of unwanted discharges of BP guns so I just spit patch and dry patch between my shots. I'm comfortable with this procedure as I'm not in any real big hurry to load quickly.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Never understood why people think wiping the bore will eliminate embers. For a plain flint breech, yeah. Any type of a drum or patent breech and you ain't wiping that section at all. Seems to me that's where any embers would most likely be . The extra time taken wiping/drying is probably doing more safety wise than the wiping itself.

You make sense with respect to actually touching and removing an ember with a moist or wet patch where it can't reach. In my mind however, the air pushed in and out via the RR pumping action should help extinguish a lazy ember. You are also adding time between pouring powder. Speed powder dumping is not good for safety. JMO