Lyman Plains Pistol
- Thread starter TomcatPC
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The same concern about using a flask for loading a rifle also applies for loading a pistol such as the Lyman Plains pistol. Transfer the load measured by your flask in those spouts to another measure to pour down the barrel. True, it is very unlikely that an ember will remain in the barrel, but it can happen. The valve on a flask won't seal the powder contained is there is a flash when powder is poured.
Given the huge number of powder flasks produced during the 18th and 19th centuries and designed to dispense powder directly into the firearm, if the possibility of flash back was a significant concern it is curious that none were offered with some sort of transfer vessel. Something to hold the powder from the flask and then poured down the barrel. Cased sets of pistols, rifles and shotguns often include a flask, but not an intermediate container. I have wondered why this might be...
In my opinion, those flasks that came with cased sets of pistols were intended to be used to load a pistol that hadn't been shot for hours or days.
In this condition there is no danger of loading a pistol directly from the flask.
As far as flasks that use a flame barrier to keep the powder in the flask from igniting, there were dozens of different designs patented in the mid 1800's, all of them using some sort of method of blocking off the main powder reservoir from the measuring tube. Clearly, the problem of ignition of the powder in the flask was known about and many unique methods were designed to prevent it.
In this condition there is no danger of loading a pistol directly from the flask.
As far as flasks that use a flame barrier to keep the powder in the flask from igniting, there were dozens of different designs patented in the mid 1800's, all of them using some sort of method of blocking off the main powder reservoir from the measuring tube. Clearly, the problem of ignition of the powder in the flask was known about and many unique methods were designed to prevent it.
Thanks for this information. Very interesting. I have never seen such a devise. Might you have a link?
zimmerstutzen
70 Cal.
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In my years of match shooting with hundreds of participants shooting hundreds of shots regularly, most match competitors swabbed the bore between shots. I still remember a half dozen cases of folks getting singed fingers from powder being poured from a measure down a barrel and igniting. Whether it was a 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 10,000 chance and what the incidence may have been without the habit of swabbing, I don't care. I suffered an accidental hammer fall while closing a frizzen my first week of muzzle loading. Those powder burns in the fingers burned for weeks. It isn't like I have Red Coats or Indians bearing down on me that I need to rush.
Pete G
76 Cal.
Does it matter if it's one in a million if you're the one!!
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One in ten or one in a million, plenty of people buy lottery tickets regularly with odds against them above the one in a million. Also, odds don't matter if the incident happens the first time and it is you.
I pour from the flask the first time I load a clean revolver. Then....
I pour from the flask the first time I load a clean revolver. Then....
I don't have a web link at the moment. I get most of my information about powder flasks from the book named, "THE POWDER FLASK BOOK" by Ray Riling.
It is considered to be the best source of information about all of the different powder flasks and it has a number of pictures showing the various Patents for controlling the powder.
