I don't understand your rant, either. As I indicated above, the very procedure for loading a flintlock tends to negate any chance that your priming powder will ignite as its being placed in the pan from ANY SOURCE.
COMMON SENSE dictates that NO ONE would pour priming powder onto a fire, or burning ember intentionally. Only a very dirty flash pan would have enough powder residue on it to carry an ember, and in any event, the ember would be giving off smoke to show its location.
The Reason we wipe the pan, and the bottom of the frizzen, and barrel around the TH is to get rid of the BP residue. The primary reason is to eliminate this "SPONGE" that sucks up water from the air, and quickly will foul the priming powder you put in the pan.
But, I guess a secondary reason for wiping off the pan residue is to make sure there is no ember or fire going there. I use a lightly dampened cleaning patch to wipe off the crud, so that moisture would also EXTINGUISH any ember that I might miss visually.
I use a dampened patch down the bore after EVERY SHOT, to clean the bore, clear the vent with forced air, and extinguish any embers in the barrel with the forced air, and the damp patch.
FOR ME, this IS a SAFETY ISSUE, more than a necessity before shooting a second shot.
If You want to lie awake at night worrying about every possible thing that might go wrong, and cause you injury, then I guess worrying about some ember igniting the powder in your priming horn is your huckleberry.
If you are a re-enactor, shooting lots of blank charges, without cleaning ANYTHING before the next charge is dumped into the barrel, You have cause for concern. But, those I have seen doing this kind of thing over the past 50 years do Not prime from any horn or tool at all: instead, they have a paper "cartridge", and following the Military Manual of Arms of the time, prime the pan FIRST, close the frizzen, and then pour the rest of the powder down the barrel, before stuffing the paper and ball/bullet down the barrel with a ramrod.
My BP gun club( Pioneer/buckskinner, ex-scouts) used to march in parades, and do shooting demonstrations in the area for small town centennials, etc. The Safety Rules we used at our club range applied to shooting demonstrations, with some extra rules added to deal with specific concerns at the site of the demonstration.
For parades, we disallowed the use of any Ramrod, or wadding. Just powder down the barrel. No balls or bullets carried in parade. Flintlock shooters were required to blow down their muzzles before putting the next load in. Most waited a minute or so before reloads to let any powder completely burn in the barrel before the next time we loaded. We took turns loading and firing the guns to save powder and to space out the noise along the parade route. PANS were wiped clean, as were the Nipples on Percussion guns.
There was NEVER any concern about an ember igniting powder poured from any source, whether it was from a powder horn, flask, or plunger tool. I have used all three kinds of powder sources over the years, under the conditions I have described, for parades.
My club did NOT DO battle Re-enactments, where people faced each other and fired blanks in the general direction of the opposing "force", as some of the more organized groups do. We simply were not that organized, nor drilled properly to make sure everyone was being "safe".
Personal safety around firearms is never just a "ONE THING YOU HAVE TO DO" deal. Its paying attention to a lot of details. I have met many people over the years who seem unable to concentrate on, and discipline themselves to follow safety rules, whether its driving a car, or engaging in other activities that involve a risk of injury. They simply have to stay away from those things. Thankfully, the total number of folks like that is relatively small in number. But, I have also seen new shooters like that who, with a lot of immediate, close supervision, have been trained to handle firearms safely, given the time to do so. It just took a lot more time to get it into their heads. :shocked2: :nono: :hmm: :hatsoff:
