Ever here of a powder horn blow up?

[Joe Yanta]

I have never heard of a powder horn blowing up but while talking to a friend about wooden vs iron pegs to hold the end plug of the powder horn and then including static electricity to the conversation I could see where it could be possible but I think highly unlikely.

Has anyone ever heard of any case of a powder horn blowup of any kind?

Your comments will be appreciated.

Joe

 

[Rebel]

Static electricity will not set off black powder.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Once saw an inebriated faux MM who decided to dance in the camp fire, got off to a bad start. but when his PH stopper came out, he did dance a jig fairly well.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I understand that someone was hurt several years ago at Friendship, Ind. at the NMLRA range when he poured powder out of a horn into the barrel, and it ignited. No one killed but he was badly maimed, and someone else was injured by flying debris.

That is the only story I have heard about involving a horn blowing up, and, of course, we all know that was a serious violation of safety rules. Never pour powder into your gun directly from a horn, flask, or other powder supply source. Always use a separate powder measure. I don't even know for sure if that story actually occurred, or if it is not one of those stories that get started and floats around, attaining a life of its own. The range officers are pretty hard on anyone who looks like he might violate that rule on the line.

 

[silverfox]

Hunting camp Bad show. The cook forgot to put his horn up in a rush to cook dinner and get back to hunting before dark. Need I say more? Ok? No dinner no evening hunt a bunch of excited hunters and one lucky cook just lost his horn and had to go down to the local creek to clean up. Also lost a little hair.
I think the man upstairs was watching over all of us that day.
Fox

 

Here's an old thread about using metal on a horn and explosions.
The static electricty part is several posts into the discussion.[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/169551[/url]

 

I saw a horn blow up. To my horror there was a finger laying at my feet, reminded me of the bad old days in RVN. loading from the horn is bad policy, just ask captan Jonh Smith who wad a horn blow up in his hand. Messed him up and spoiled his romance with pocahauntus. He went to England to heal up and never came to America again.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I saw a horn blow up. To my horror there was a finger laying at my feet, reminded me of the bad old days in RVN. loading from the horn is bad policy, just ask captan Jonh Smith who wad a horn blow up in his hand. Messed him up and spoiled his romance with pocahauntus. He went to England to heal up and never came to America again.

Uh, that was a keg of powder in a small boat that ruined John's day.

PDF] TITLE: PUTTING IT IN WRITING WITH THE SOUTHERN COLONIESFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
In 1609, John Smith’s powder keg exploded, causing extensive burns to his body. Because of this accident, he had to return to England. ...

 

Well then, I have a question. I charge my pan with a brass devise made by Thompson Center that holds a quantity, about 30 + charges, of prime. The devise has a retractible point that when depressed on the pan deposits, by virtue of good old gravity, a small charge of 4F. Should I be using a different method? If so - what? What advantage, in terms of safety, would a powder horn have over what I am using now?

 

[MSW]

Well then, I have a question. I charge my pan with a brass devise made by Thompson Center that holds a quantity, about 30 + charges, of prime. The devise has a retractible point that when depressed on the pan deposits, by virtue of good old gravity, a small charge of 4F. Should I be using a different method? If so - what? What advantage, in terms of safety, would a powder horn have over what I am using now?

imho- insert disclaimer here, and only in my experience, bla bla bla... i use essentially the same gadget, and i'm confident that i won't blow myself (or anyone else) to kingdomcome, for a the following reason:

what sets off the powder (when you pour into a barrel from the horn directly) is an ember lodged somewhere in the rifling or the base of the tube. once the BP hits the ember, it ignites and then sets off the powder in the horn. if there's not the ember hiding somewhere in the works, you get away with this idiocy, but just that one time.

since you aren't pouring the priming charge into a space which you cannot see, a bit of ember would be easily detected. also, most people blow or wipe the smoke away which would thereby remove the ember. additionally, since the pan is open to the air (and the bottom of the barrel, as a practical matter, is not) there is virtually no chance that partially burned material would be present in or around the pan.

i always prime with the muzzle "up and down- range" so in the highly unlikely chance that something does go wrong, nobody is accidentially shot.

if you are really worried about a flashback from the pan igniting your priming horn (the T/C guy is brass, if i remember correctly, but anyway...) you might want to put a pinch of prining powder in your fingers and put that into the pan, but i suspect you'd be wasting a good worry.

good luck, keep shooting, and don't worry too much

 

[jdixon]

There appears to be historical confusion on what happened to Captain Smith. the following is from - http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:H3uUyIa-JoUJ:www.mpsc839.org/_Info/ALMANAC/10OCT/09.HTM+%22powderhorn+exploded%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

"1609-

Invalid Captain John Smith is put on a ship back to England. Smith had earlier gotten stung by a sting ray and almost died. This time a powderhorn exploded on his hip and blew out part of his side. While Smith was leader of the Jamestown Colony he had many enemies among the jealous gentry and some don't think he had an accident. Opinions also differ as to why the Jamestown settlers put Smith through a two month sea voyage that would kill even healthy men. Some say they were hoping he wouldn't make it. He survived but never returned to America.

Nobody told Pocahontas he had left and when she visited camp the men told her he was dead and forget about him.

She would meet him ten years later in England when she was a wife and mother of the children of settler John Rolfe."

 

[fatboy]

I dont belive a horn is goingto blow up on its own because of static electricity . I do know the one main founder of our club lost the use of a thumb and had some eye damage from pouring directly from horn to gun this was 25 or 30 yrs ago

 

[Deadeye]

Several yrs. ago one our club members was standing by the fire and unknowingly his horn plug had fallen out and a spark went right in the
that hole. Luckily, it didn't have that much powder in it, he'd been shooting all day, but he still got a bad burn to his side. Don't worry about static electricity but stay away from fires.

 

[Mad Monk]

There was a tale told at one of the Gunmaker's Fairs.

The shooter had his powder horn on a separate strap. Not hung on the shooting pouch straps.
He shot his flintlock rifle. Burning powder fell on the tip of his powder horn. Next thing you know the powder horn is flying around his neck like an old control line model airplane.

Most incidents with horns and flasks involve shooting with it hanging on you are where careless smoking set one off next to the shooter.

Some years back I was at Dixons. Some flintlock hunter came into the shop. Sort of smiling.
He had purchased his rifle and shooting supplies at Dixons. He had at first picked one of the brass cyclinder pan chargers. He was talked out of that for one of the 4 oz. poly bottles of 4F.
He went hunting up state. Hunkered down between some big rocks. He primed the pan and forgot to flip the spout closed on the poly bottle which he laid on the ground next to where he sat. The deer walked away and off into the woods. So he figured it was time for a smoke. When he flicked the hot ash off the cigarette it ignited the trail of powder on the ground to the spout on the poly bottle. The poly bottle blew up. But what saved the day was the mold line on the bottle. The weakest point on blow molded poly bottles. A loud bang and a lot of smoke. But no fragments. The bottle simply split at the seam.

So the guy starts telling Chuck about the incident. I am off on the side. Chuck calls me over to talk to the guy. I was the one who suggested to Chuck that the 4 ounce poly bottles are a lot safer than brass tubes that would otherwise be called pipe bombs. So the guy thanked us.

Now the really funny part is that the guy's job is in blasting in construction. The guy blows things up for a living. He realized after the boom and the smoke that had that been one of the brass chargers he would have been looking at shrapnel wounds.

One some years back in Berks County involved one of the large brass cylinder flasks used for main charge powder. Again. Careless smoking while hunting. Flicked ash onto the spout of the flask.

With powder horns and powder flasks it is important to keep the spouts, plugs, valves, etc. clean and free of any powder residue. Even the fine coating of powder that forms on these will act as a slow fuse into the contents of the flask or horn should you get an ignition source outside of the horn/flask at the spout or plug.

 

[Cherokee]

Ive heard of it. I have also been told the log cabin shop has a few blown up horns hanging up as examples.

 

[Will Bison]

The only powder horn explosion I have witnessed was when the dog drug the horn in the fire---- inside the Tipi. It lifted the cover a mite and give the pooch a bit of a start.

 

Janet Lecompte mentions a period example in her book 'Pueblo, Hardscrabble, and Greenhorn' where a trapper on the upper Arkansas River leaned over the fire, but had not put the peg back in his horn. The horn went off with a hiss and a loud report and everyone scattered with the cry of "Indians!" Aside from some scorched clothing, hair, and a bruised ego, there were no injuries. Could have been worse with a pound of black powder going off. They were lucky.

Sean

 

[ky_man]

Someone should offer replacement plastic screw caps for the brass powder primers. There are plenty of threads on them for a good grip, and the plastic would yield before the walls, causing a "bang" for sure but no dangerous shrapnel.