Holy smoke! Glad is wasn't me.

[Joe Yanta]

I was talking to a gunsmith today who went to the Colorado School of Trade gunsmithing school here in the Denver area.

He told me of a story where a customer brought in a muzzleloading rifle for repair. The student assigned to the repair placed the barrel in a vise and tried to remove the breech plug. Didn't have much luck at loosening it up so he decided to apply the heat of a torch to the area in attempt to free things up. You probably already know where I am going with this, yep the gun was loaded. It fired, the projectile missed everyone in the area but happened to smack the door and penetrate the office of the school master. The student was permantly expelled.

If you ever pick up a used BP firearm, measure that barrel, run a dowel down the barrel and measure it to be sure it is not loaded.

Joe

 

[pondoro]

A buddy of mine buys old muzzleloaders, almost obsessively. He says they are loaded more than half the time.

 

[bioprof]

Shhhhhhh. Don't tell the USPS that. :nono:

 

[Ridge]

OMG I killed someone.

Everyone's ok.........oh lord, I'm screwed.


I figure it went something like that.

 

[rebel727]

Around 35 or so years ago there was an article in the local paper where a farmer found a Civil War rifle barrel on his property and decided it was just what he needed to fix his broken gate hinge. He stuck the breech end in his forge and the .58 minie took the top of his head off.

 

[fw707]

I would guess that's an accurate summary!! :rotf:

 

[musketman]

Rule #1: All guns are to be presumed loaded...
Rule #2: See Rule #1...

This holds especially true with older guns, in days of old an unloaded gun made the difference between life and death, so they were kept loaded...

Time passes on, as did the owners, the message of it being loaded however, didn't...

 

[2172]

I've told this story before...2 jr high friends of mine frequently played with an ancestor's Civil War rifle..they used the tip of a strike anywhere match to be a cap to provide noise...about a year after they started doing this, and they played with it daily, the gun went off as one pointed it at the other...luckily, the pointer was a lousy shot and they just put a hole in the living room couch....Hank

 

[flashpanner]

When will we ever learn? I made it a practice and made my own lttle saying: "Even if you just fired the gun, it is still loaded." It is all about muzzle control.

 

MM said "Rule #1: All guns are to be presumed loaded...
Rule #2: See Rule #1..."

should read Rule #1: All guns are loaded.....

Rule #2: See rule #1...
Don't ever presume anything, it'll get you in trouble. I presumed my wife was using birth control, and I knew the gun was loaded....and that's how I have three daughters instead of two. :rotf:

Bill

 

[Swampman]

I believe Hacker Martin unloaded old barrels this way.

 

[philo426]

Just like my dad told me never assume a gun is unloaded and never point it at anything that you don't want to hit.Applies to all firearms.

 

Hey Mark! Welcome back. How are things going with you?

 

[Zonie]

One of our members shot a hole in his driveway by heating an old barrel. Fortunately the driveway was all that was damaged.