Gave in to the nervous nannies

[sturmkatze]

The proper safety thing would to be to put your pole down for 3 minutes so embers are not hot.
Blowing on a fire does not make it go out, it excites the embers to flame

Horse feces. If there are any and you blow until the smoke stops, they're gone.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

Anyone who puts their lips directly on to the muzzle of a freshly fired muzzleloader is some kind of weird. Or brand new. LOL

 

[2 shots]

'had a ball and rod go through thier hand'... so now they are trying for their head??

 

[bigstick6017555]

What is more scarier than a man blowing down a bore of a muzzle loader, is a man that does not know that his gun has or has not fired the main charge and was a misfire or hang fire

 

[springfield art]

As the title says finally got tired of arguing with the nervous nannies at our gun club.

I started muzzleloading in the 70's and everyone that I shot with (at this same club) blew down the barrel and used spit patches and I have been doing it and (back when I could see) winning matches.

For those that do not know, the moisture in your breath keeps the fouling soft and a spit patch wipes the bore on the way down and even with a tight ball and patch combination (think short starter) you can still shoot all day long. If you question this, find a BPCRS shooter and ask him why he uses a blow tube (although bore pigs have some proponents), and if he's not using one or the other his scores suck.

After forty years the only damage the empty gun has ever done to me was sometimes I noticed that my lips were black on the way home (wondered why the waitress looked at me strange).

Anyway her is my solution
View attachment 154755

7/16 OD vinyl tubing with some white duct tape wrapped around it. So far, I have used it on a .45, .50 and a 54 and the duct tape has enough wraps that it has sealed on all three of them.

Personally I regard it as an unnecessary evil and will not use it unless at the bench and the nannies are singing their song, (you know the one "You'll put your eye out" .

Hate to let them win but I am pretty sure Simon Kenton had vinyl tubing so there you go.

I never liked shooting muzzleloaders around other people; especially with BP guns, everyone's all nervous and poking into your techniques. I have a club where I can shoot un-viewed and would blow down the barrel all I wanted if I wanted. I don't like any competition, even friendly, so I guess I'm a "loner" target shooter!

 

[springfield art]

Met a shooter at a gun shop in WV who claimed an ember ignited and resulted in the loss of a few fingers. After he left the shop, those who knew the guy said he was notorious for capping the gun before loading. Claimed it saved time.

Why would you want to 'save time' if you're using an old-fashioned, time-consuming, shooting method like BP anyway!

 

[tenngun]

Anyone who puts their lips directly on to the muzzle of a freshly fired muzzleloader is some kind of weird. Or brand new. LOL

And I sir am that weirdo

 

[Coinneach]

I've been loading and firing ML's since the mid 80's on firing ranges and at reenactments, the only incident of premature ignition during loading was by a fella who loaded an Indian repro of a .75 cal "Brown Bess" Musket, and it happened after the main charge was rammed home.
The Pan had been primed before the main charge and the Hammer was on half-cock which let go as he was ramming. The Ramrod missiled its way skywards and then came back down to earth many seconds later right in front of the guy. (I always wondered why one of us wasnt impaled by it).

Later inspection of the Flintlock itself revealed that the internals were held together by screws that had coarse loose threads and the tumbler notches were gummed up with crud.

The owner admitted that he never bothered removing the Lock for cleaning maintenance.

Should we wear Helmets and Condoms when firing ML's ?
Everyone of us is our own Risk manager, theres no need to be paranoid about it though.

 

[tenngun]

'had a ball and rod go through thier hand'... so now they are trying for their head??

With all due respect to Mark Twain, a single barrel single shot ml, can not shoot anything after it’s been shot until some one loads it.

 

[LRB]

The proper safety thing would to be to put your pole down for 3 minutes so embers are not hot.
Blowing on a fire does not make it go out, it excites the embers to flame

True, exactly what you want. Force it to burn out before a load does it for you. No need to wait.

 

[dave951]

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/blowing-down-the-barrel-etc.31955/
I though this one got hashed over sufficiently here^^

BUT- I recently had a musket nipple break off flush across the threads. It happened as I was capping to shoot. Come to find out, there was a run of musket nipples with incorrect hardening and there's still a few floating around. So I tried to "drown" the charge with water in the barrel for an hour or so at the range and put some into the remaining hole in the nipple. You'd think that the charge was neutralized right? Well after getting the remains of the nipple out, I found fresh powder in the flash channel. I carried the musket to the range, put a fresh nipple on, capped, and it fired like nothing had happened. So don't go thinking that some water in the barrel will render the charge inert. It WON'T.

 

[jim mencken]

i am trying to understand ,if you fire your gun and then blow down the barrel . what makes it go bang ?? its already been fired

 

[Grenadier1758]

I've been loading and firing ML's since the mid 80's on firing ranges and at reenactments, the only incident of premature ignition during loading was by a fella who loaded an Indian repro of a .75 cal "Brown Bess" Musket, and it happened after the main charge was rammed home.
The Pan had been primed before the main charge and the Hammer was on half-cock which let go as he was ramming. The Ramrod missiled its way skywards and then came back down to earth many seconds later right in front of the guy. (I always wondered why one of us wasnt impaled by it).

Later inspection of the Flintlock itself revealed that the internals were held together by screws that had coarse loose threads and the tumbler notches were gummed up with crud.

The owner admitted that he never bothered removing the Lock for cleaning maintenance.

Should we wear Helmets and Condoms when firing ML's ?
Everyone of us is our own Risk manager, theres no need to be paranoid about it though.

I have been doing reenactments almost as long as @Coinneach. My unit has a safety inspection before we do any loading, whether it is firing blank rounds or live rounds. A musket that wouldn't pass the safety checks wouldn't make it to the firing line. The half cock has to hold during the hang test. The musket is hung on half cock with our thumb on the trigger. We only prime the pan first when firing blank rounds. After firing a few rounds, the barrel is too hot to want to blow down the barrel.

Several events have a group safety inspection.

Usually once a year at the start of the year and before we start going to events, we have a unit weekend and one of the topics is a workshop where we go over and all of us clean our muskets. There is some grumbling, and we try not to be paranoid.

 

[springfield art]

I've been loading and firing ML's since the mid 80's on firing ranges and at reenactments, the only incident of premature ignition during loading was by a fella who loaded an Indian repro of a .75 cal "Brown Bess" Musket, and it happened after the main charge was rammed home.
The Pan had been primed before the main charge and the Hammer was on half-cock which let go as he was ramming. The Ramrod missiled its way skywards and then came back down to earth many seconds later right in front of the guy. (I always wondered why one of us wasnt impaled by it).

Later inspection of the Flintlock itself revealed that the internals were held together by screws that had coarse loose threads and the tumbler notches were gummed up with crud.

The owner admitted that he never bothered removing the Lock for cleaning maintenance.

Should we wear Helmets and Condoms when firing ML's ?
Everyone of us is our own Risk manager, theres no need to be paranoid about it though.

I re-enacted Rev War for ten years, and could almost swear that some guys NEVER cleaned their muskets! A really good re-created regiment will have equipment discipline enforced; if guys don't want to keep their equipment clean they should not join up. Although enacting is a fun hobby, you need a modicum of obeyance to orders and drill.

 

[granth]

Blowing down the barrel gives me the ick. I know it's near impossible for something bad to happen, but I'm not willing to take the chance for something to go wrong.

 

[tenngun]

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/blowing-down-the-barrel-etc.31955/
I though this one got hashed over sufficiently here^^

BUT- I recently had a musket nipple break off flush across the threads. It happened as I was capping to shoot. Come to find out, there was a run of musket nipples with incorrect hardening and there's still a few floating around. So I tried to "drown" the charge with water in the barrel for an hour or so at the range and put some into the remaining hole in the nipple. You'd think that the charge was neutralized right? Well after getting the remains of the nipple out, I found fresh powder in the flash channel. I carried the musket to the range, put a fresh nipple on, capped, and it fired like nothing had happened. So don't go thinking that some water in the barrel will render the charge inert. It WON'T.

When one swabs, or blows down a barrel before loading this is in an empty gun.
I try to stay away from them cap guns (I think they’re just a flash in the pan anyway) and while a blow down the barrel May extinguish any thing left in the bore it does meals sure the vent is open.
In a fired flat breach gun or even a patten breach with proper jag there is not much place for an ember to hide

 

[Skeggs]

Well, in the 70's it was called shotgunning, and it's the only dumb reason to stick a barrel in your mouth.

 

[Mad L]

I used to blow down the barrel, but one day when I did a tiny voice down there yelled up at me "Hey Up There! Knock That Off!!"....I tell ya, I was so shook up that I never ever took my flask to range again!
But I do from time to time blow down the barrel, just to see if that tiny voice person ever came back, pretty sure it was he that caused me to miss from time to time.

 

[NorthFork]

Some of you need to put down the hobby/lifestyle of muzzleloading and walk away forever. How do you cope with all the unforeseen dangers of general life? I don't care what YOU do, nor do I care what the NMLRA says is kosher.

If I shoot a muzzleloader and feel the recoil, see the smoke, see the impact on target (be it paper or steel), THEN, and only then, do as I was instructed in the mid 1980's as a young lad surrounded by experienced 'greybeards' to blow down the barrel to make sure the nipple/flash hole was clear and to extinguish any embers. How am I in any danger????? The darn powder has burnt. The ball or conical is long gone. How am I going to shoot myself in the head? If YOU don't know that your firearm has gone 'BOOM' after a deliberate trigger pull, then I don't know what to tell you.

We are surrounded by ambulance chasing lawyers who protect the dumb. Don't fall prey to their antics. If YOU don't want to blow down the barrel after a shot, then fine. But If I do, leave me to it. It's my life I'm risking according to some of you, not yours.

 

[deerstalkert]

OK. i am going to break the promise i made myself and respond to a contentious discussion.
HI my name is deerstalker and i blow down the barrel of my muzzleloader. whew! i feel so much better admitting my sin!
also i would like someone to explain to me how a tube down the bore and then into my mouth is safer in the impossible event of a discharge.
Hot gas directed into my mouth and esophagus, then expanding into my lungs turning them into fried fritters via a tube is going to make me wish a ball had gone through my head.