Has anyone ever bought a loaded gun before

[76monza]

I recently bought a 3 band enfield. Normally I will pull the ramrod and check how much is sticking out of the barrel and compare that to the total barrel length. this time I didn't. Instead I went to pull the nipple and it was tight, tighter than any I've ever had to pull. I tried all the tools at my immediate disposal, including a torch to heat up the nipple. Nothing worked. to make a long story short I took the barrel to a friend that has been gunsmithing for many, many years, and we succeded in getting the job done. I discovered soon after while cleaning the barrel that I still didn't have clear path from nipple to muzzle. Thats when I finally put the ramrod into the barrel and measured it against the barrel length and discovered that the gun still had a charge in it.

This sure reinforced the old adage "treat every gun as if it's loaded"

I've only found one other gun that had a load in the barrel and that was at a pawn shop. I informed the owner and he didn't seem that concerned. Oh well not my problem

 

[Flint311]

No, I haven't personally. But.......

I tried all the tools at my immediate disposal, including a torch to heat up the nipple.

I'm glad the torch didn't light off the charge left in the barrel! I agree, treat every gun as though it's loaded. Good luck and stay safe...

 

[pab1]

I bought a GPR on another site a while back and didn't get around to really looking at it until a couple of days ago. I did the same thing and put the ramrod down the barrel but didn't feel the familiar brass against the breech. I put a screw attachment on and after working it came out with what appeared to be compressed powder. My guess is that the previous owner pulled a ball but did not clean out the powder charge. :shake:

 

[necchi]

Bought one that was dry balled.
And at a vous this past spring a gent had a gun he got from a local pawnshop for his young grandson. He happened to set up at the same bench and,,well, long story short there was a sabot round over a 2 pellet charge in the bore,,!

 

[Semisane]

I've bought two. Many years ago I bought an 1860's era double shotgun at a gun show that looked to be in poorer condition than it really was. The seller called it a wall hanger. It had a load in each barrel and the lead shot was fused together. Those loads were probably in there for over a century. I've killed a passel of doves, ducks and bunnies with that gun.

A more recent purchase of a .50 rifle had a broken nipple and a sabot load in the lightly rusted bore. I got that one real cheap and it cleaned up very nicely.

 

[Birddog6]

I bought one on a auction site about 10 years ago & it arrived with 80 grains of 2F and a patched round ball in the barrel. :shocked2:

That is the first thing I check on one coming in......... shipped or brought to me to look at, makes no dif, I check the bore first as just always best to be safe than sorry........

You got lucky this time (with the torch) The luck may not be with ya the next time....... :shake: That could have easily been 100 grains of Bullseye & blew like a pipe bomb. :shocked2:

Keith Lisle

 

[Razor62]

A gunsmith friend of mine once took in a TC Hawken .50 cal for re-bluing. He was removing some rather severe pitting on the face of the snail when a spark from his bench sander set off the charge that had been left in the barrel. The bullet blew through a cinder block wall and was never recovered.
He was furious with the customer but in my opinion he should have checked that barrel himself. After all, he's supposed to be the professional.

 

[JMinnerath]

A gunsmith friend of mine once took in a TC Hawken .50 cal for re-bluing. He was removing some rather severe pitting on the face of the snail when a spark from his bench sander set off the charge that had been left in the barrel. The bullet blew through a cinder block wall and was never recovered.
He was furious with the customer but in my opinion he should have checked that barrel himself. After all, he's supposed to be the professional.

Major stupidity! Till it's checked, the guns loaded!
The Hawken I bought used was loaded, no big deal, I pulled the load and cleaned it up.
I have no idea how long it had sat, there was some minor rusting, but it's cleaned out.

 

[texcl]

I agree as an armorer and firearms instructor, I would have been really upset with myself. You have to accept that people do stupid stuff and you are there to fix it and hopefully have better and more experienced judgments in firearms related stuff, heck thats what you get paid for!

 

[rawhide]

I once had a guy with a inline that was loaded and said the gun was a p.o.s. and wouldn't fire! wanted me to refund his money. come in to my work. I work in a gun shop. asked what he ben doing and found out he was hunting in the rain all day.(well no wonder right!) well to make this um...guy(yes I'm being nice) happy told him where I live and told him for a small fee I would pull it for him on my day off. insead I took it to the range with him capped it up and BOOOOOM gun fired. of corse this is after the guy arguded it wouldn't fire the whole time. he was shocked. powder had to dry out. I know long story cut short came in the store and bought rain gaurds for the gun. he still didn't trust it so I got the gun for 100 bucks to make him happy. funny gun fires fine for me...

 

[J.D.]

I have bought several antiques that were loaded. I even bought a few when I was loaded...so I guess that makes us even. :wink:

God bless

 

[ebiggs1]

It seems quite common to buy or receive muzzle loaders in a loaded state. I guess it's because they aren't as easy to unload, who knows? I always check, 100% of the time with the ramrod and with a bore light, too.

 

[Dave K]

I bought my favorite perc. shotgun, with the left barrel loaded. Of course I didn't know it when I bought it. But I checked it when I got home. Looking back, it all made sense. The left lock was broke and the people way back when hadn't figured out how to pull the load, I guess. Anyhow, when everything was pulled out, there was a wad of fused together shot, a bunch of newspaper wadding and the BP. Kind of an interesting archeological find.

 

[token tory]

Bought, no.
Unloaded the same unloaded rifle not once but twice, yes. :surrender:
I was at the range & there were 2 folks with percussion rifles trying to get one of the "new" guns sighted in. Actually they were trying to make it fire at all.
I got involved because I usually carry a big toolbox to the bench & they needed to borrow tools.
We go the first (actually second) ball & patch extracted & the rifle still wouldn't fire. On checking the "brand new" rifle had a second ball & charge behind the first. :youcrazy:

They both left to return the "new" rifle to the seller who was only a few miles away. :rotf:

 

[curator]

For several years in the early 80s I had a part-time business unloading various antique guns for sevearl musuems. More than half of those on exhibit and in their collections were still loaded. That included wheellocks and matchlocks as well as many, many Civil war muskets. I have bought several modern-made muzzleloaders both online and in gunshops that were loaded as well. The worst one I ever saw was a T/C New Englander with a sabot (first), three Pyro-pellets, a mashed Maxi-ball, a threaded ball-puller and about 6" of a wood ramrod. I got it cheap because the owner claimed it was difficult to make shoot.

 

[Billnpatti]

I was given an antique long gun that had originally come from the middle east. Some refered to it as a "Camel Gun". It is an interesting matchlock firearm. One day I decided to gently clean it up just a bit. In the process, I saw that the cleaning rod didn't go all the way to the breach. So, I put on my patch puller and dug around a bit. I pulled out what appeared to be old crumbling paper followed by a white granular powder. I took this to be wadding and oxidized shot. Then, out came some more of the paper followed by something that looked like black powder. It was not completely black but had some gray mixed in with it. I sat this stuff aside and dumped the rest of the stuff from the barrel into the trash. I took a snall amount of the black powder outside and carefully stuck a match to it. It flashed and I knew that it was, in fact, black powder. This gun is a matchlock and is, thus, quite old and Lord only knows when it was loaded or who loaded it. :hmm:

The moral of this story is that even if, as in my case, a gun is a couple hundred years old or older and has sat in a museum collection, (the old Weatherby Museum in Houston, Texas) you had better assume it is loaded until you can prove it not to be. :shake:

 

[Norinco]

I've only found one other gun that had a load in the barrel and that was at a pawn shop. I informed the owner and he didn't seem that concerned. Oh well not my problem

The local pawnshop had five muzzleloaders on the rack. I asked to see the two traditional ones. Both were still loaded when I did the ramrod check. The .54cal one clearly had at least THREE INCHES of powder (or something else) behind the projectile.

Of course, the pawn shop owner didn't care they were loaded. He didn't even know how to shoot them.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I haven't bought any. But I have got several to work on that were! :hmm: :hmm:

 

[TFoley]

Here in rural East Anglia we fired a P53 that had last been used to fire a salute for the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond jubilee in 1897. The newspaper wadding shreds had a clear date of that year on it...

Seems that BP just gets older... but still works.

A bit like me, really.

tac
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund

 

[TexiKan]

After you phoned me about this, I have to agree you are one lucky person for not setting off the charge with the torch! (We don't call you "Dances With Fire" for nothing!) I think back when I watched you and Jack handle the gun and examine it with a bore lite, etc., and none of us had any idea it was still loaded. Amazing. Simply amazing.

TexiKan