NEW silly things you've witnessed (or done)?

[horkeye]

Last month I took my DP Indian Trade Musk to the range for its first outing; it performed admirably, but that is not the reason for this post, but this is what I witnessed during the comp:
One of the competitors (I'm not saying it wasn't me) had a misfire, he prudently waited for 30+ seconds with the gunne pointing safely down range; then checked the priming powder, and again wiped the frizzen & flint, then proceeded to have another go; nothing happened again. He again waited for 30+ seconds then proceeded to blow the priming powder from the pan, & wiped the pan clean & the frizzen. He left the frizzen open & proceeded to knap the flint as he has always done in this situation. When finished knapping he did something, that he was aware at the time he had never done before, and that was to check to see if the freshly knapped flint would spark, so he closed the frizzen, full cock on the other thing, securely gripped the gonne as it rested on the bench rest (the gunne was now pointing approximately at the 50yd targets) then proceeded to pull the trigger. I stress that he was NOT caught by suprise, but the gonne did go BANG without any priming powder in the pan! Throughout the above procedure, the gunne was appropriately pointed down range. Now I'm not saying that this was me, but has anyone had similar experience?

Jim.
:thumbsup:

 

[Flint50]

I have never had this happen, but I always understood that it was possible

 

[Zonie]

I haven't seen it happen, but I've read that this happens occasionally. Makes sense to me. It only takes one of those bouncing sparks to go thru the flash hole and BOOM!!

Good thing the person was wise enough to keep it pointed down range and to not do his knapping during the cease fire period. :shocking:

 

[horkeye]

Good thing the person was wise enough to keep it pointed down range and to not do his knapping during the cease fire period. :shocking:

Appropriately, you are not permitted to handle firearms at this particular range during a cease fire. The events as described was whilst the range was open.

Jim.

 

[doverdog]

I read a thing somewhere, some time, about a guy that did a very unscientific test along these lines. He had an unprimed gun and the gun went off about once every 10 tries, just from the sparks alone. I have been meaning to try this but haven't got around to it.

 

oooh ,,,oohhh mee yep mee over here .
i had it happen , scarred the hell out of me .

I think the dumbest I ever saw though was a guy at a situation walk lighting a fire .
Seems he thought a little 4F would get here going much quicker then char cloth so he dumped a good amount on his little pile of twigs and then took out his strike alight and proceed to get ready to blow or something LMAO well to make a long story short he got her going alright . It was burning in his beard, over there, over that way , his hat was smoking ,,,,, every where but the clean smooth ground where he had intended it to be LMAO

 

[Tumblernotch]

I'm going to tell something on myself that I'm ashamed of and probably shouldn't tell it, but it shows that even an experienced shooter can have his head up his %#@&*$! once in a while. Several years ago a cousin was visiting who never had any experience with muzzleloaders. I was showing him one of my flinters. He wanted to know how the lock worked, etc. and being the obliging idiot that I am, I pulled the cock back, snapped the frizzen shut and pulled the trigger showing him how the flint scraped the frizzen forming a beautiful spray of sparks. The rifle was tilted a little to the side so he could see it better from where he stood, meaning the vent was downhill from the pan, and sparks were bouncing off the barrel and going everywhere. Thankfully, it didn't go off. If it had, since the muzzle was elevated the only damage would have been the upper wall and my dignity. Immediately after I snapped the lock, I remembered that the gun was loaded. It was deer season and all I had done was remove the priming fom the pan. I no longer leave any of my rifles loaded on the rack. Not necessarily because of this episode, but because bringing a loaded BP weapon into a warm house from the cold will cause condensation to form in the barrel and dampen the powder. I lost a deer one season due to this. I have seen sparks into an empty pan set a gun off but it seems to be fairly rare. But, it can happen so be careful. My memory lapse could have been tragic or at the very least, embarrasing and hard to explain the hole in the wall to the wife.
:redface:

 

[roundball]

I'm going to tell something on myself that I'm ashamed of and probably shouldn't tell it, but it shows that even an experienced shooter can have his head up his %#@&*$! once in a while. Several years ago a cousin was visiting who never had any experience with muzzleloaders. I was showing him one of my flinters. He wanted to know how the lock worked, etc. and being the obliging idiot that I am, I pulled the cock back, snapped the frizzen shut and pulled the trigger showing him how the flint scraped the frizzen forming a beautiful spray of sparks. The rifle was tilted a little to the side so he could see it better from where he stood, meaning the vent was downhill from the pan, and sparks were bouncing off the barrel and going everywhere. Thankfully, it didn't go off. If it had, since the muzzle was elevated the only damage would have been the upper wall and my dignity. Immediately after I snapped the lock, I remembered that the gun was loaded. It was deer season and all I had done was remove the priming fom the pan. I no longer leave any of my rifles loaded on the rack. Not necessarily because of this episode, but because bringing a loaded BP weapon into a warm house from the cold will cause condensation to form in the barrel and dampen the powder. I lost a deer one season due to this. I have seen sparks into an empty pan set a gun off but it seems to be fairly rare. But, it can happen so be careful. My memory lapse could have been tragic or at the very least, embarrasing and hard to explain the hole in the wall to the wife.
:redface:

I for one appreciate your candor...and I never leave a rifle loaded for those very same two reasons.

Stuff comes up like weather changes, family emergencies, car problems, and before you know it a week has gone by and there's still a loaded gun in the house.

And as you said, $%&#@$% happens...for me, it's not worth the risk...I could forget and do the same thing as you did, hurt / kill someone accidently, Wife, Grandaughter, etc, etc...plus, then I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something like that happened either.

So for the past 10 years or so, when I come home from a hunt, I simply pull or blow the load out in the garage, wipe it down and rack it...and I also like starting the next hunt with a known clean, warm, dry rifle with a fresh charge...takes 15 seconds and only wastes 5 cents worth of powder & ball...so it's a win-win all the way around in my personal opinion.

 

[Tumblernotch]

:agree: You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. It was stupid and dangerous. I taught my daughter before she was even big enough to hold one of my guns to never touch one unless I was with her to supervise. She leaves them alone. She's 17 now and couldn't care less about guns. (I guess I've failed as a father :cryMy wife doesn't fool with them either. But to get back to what you said, you never know what will come up and make you forget about that loaded gun. And, because of reasons already stated, I like a fresh load every day when I hunt. If I have to empty the gun, I'll shoot at a target or clay bird on my range on the hill behind my house, or I'll pull the load. I save the ball in my scrap lead can, and if possible I'll save the powder if it's not crushed or otherwise damaged.

 

[2172]

I've told this story before, but it sorta fits here: 2 of my friends, brothers, while we were in junior high school, would play with a musket their gr grandfather had brought home from the War Between the States...this was during WWII, so caps for cap guns were not available, but they'd learned to take the white tip off the end of a strike-anywhere match and put it on the[url] nipple...made[/url] a pretty good bang. They'd done this for a couple of years...one day, the gun went off...it had been loaded all of those years...luckily, while one thought he was aiming at the other he had a lousy aim and just blew a hole in the living room couch...they were playing in the house....I especially assume that any old gun is loaded...Hank

 

[rich e]

went to a meat shoot a few years ago, we were shooting at 50 yd targets and when it was lunch time they stopped the shoot for lunch, the club who sponsored the shoot was making hamburgs and hotdogs and was trying to make a few bucks. Oh well, the range officer asked if there was any hot loads and the guy next to me had just finished loading his gun but didn't want to waste a shot and shoot it off, so he stuck his ramrod in the barrel to remind himself that it was loaded, placed the gun in a gun stand and went to eat, when they opened the range again we all went back to shooting, the guy that left his ramrod in his barrel couldn't find his ramrod and was wondering if someone walked off with it, but when someone looked down range to check on there target there was the ramrod sticking out of the guys target. Messed up the rod a bit, but it was in the black ring.

 

[patrick4]

I have a cousin that knows first hand that can happen in that he accidentally shot himself in the PA during the late MZ season many moons ago. He was taking the gun out of the back seat of his truck and grabbed it by the barrel and pulled it towards himself. There was no powder in the frizzen pan and the hammer was not at full cock. But during this process the hammer caught on something in the car and while it did not lock in the full position it went back enough to throw a spark that set the gun off. After many years of rehab he is OK. After hearing his story we tried on several of our guns to get them to go off without being primed and we did get them to go off some of the times like this.

 

[doverdog]

This is more of a case of sheer stupidity than casual carelessness. It was related to me by my gunmaker friend, Ron Luckenbill. He had made a gun for a club to raffle off and he received a call from the guy that won the gun. The guy had never shot a ML before and knew nothing about them. He had taken it hunting during PA's late flintlock season and was kind of ticked with Ron, claiming Ron owed him a new hunting coat. The gun had damaged his coat. Ron asked how this happened and the guy said it went off and had burnt a hole in the coat. After some questions, it turns out the guy was walking through the woods with the gun loaded, hammer at full cock, and the trigger set. The predictable result caused the jet of hot gas from the touch hole to burn the coat. Some times I am if favor of the European method of having to pass a proficiency test before you are allowed to run around in the woods armed, where you might encounter other people.

 

[roundball]

:agree: You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. It was stupid and dangerous.

But that's the point...it wasn't stupid, it was just a mental lapse...we're all humans and all have those moments and tragic events occur...as you know, with firearms there's no second chances...once that projectile has left the muzzle, there's no putting it back in and all the remorse in the world won't bring back a dead person...all I do anymore is thank my lucky stars that in my younger, less cautious years I didn't end up doing something that hurt someone else...this has probably been a good reminder thread for all of us...if we get complacent and lose our focus, that's when it'll happen

 

I was shooting at a range years ago and the guy next to me pulled the main trigger instead of the rear set trigger by accident and I could feel the heat from the blast on the back of my neck!:shocking: I was so thankful to be alive that I didn't even get mad.

 

[kentucky bucky]

My .36 went BOOM without a priming charge the first time I shot it. I forgot to adjust the flint before I loaded because I was anxious to try it out. I got it where I wanted and snapped it to see if it sparked good. IT DID!
I was recently getting ready to proof an old ML shotgun barrel from an old gun that I put new locks on. I lit an inch of the fuse on the next bench over to see how long to make the fuse for the proof test. When I lit the thing, it took off like a bottle rocket right for the table where my powder horns were. It landed right between them an the fire was lapping against my main horn with about 2/3 of a pound of 3f powder. Luckliy I had plugged them both back up and nothing went kaboom.

 

[oldarmy]

I went to the range with a hunter friend last fall. I was showing him my new flinter and he was shooting his ultra modern inline. I was loading mine when I saw him cap his and shoot. I asked what was going on and he was tickled pink that his went of and hit close to his aiming point.
I asked him if he left it loaded from last year and was told "yep"
I just can't believe how stupid that is. One it can go off when you don't want it too and two what's going to happen if you double load it?
You can't just rack back the bolt of a M/L to see if it's charged like you can a cartride rifle.
I am very carefull when I shoot mine. That .50 cal ball will do a lot of damage to your hands and I make my living using them.

 

When I finish hunting , I empty my rifle into the nearest piece of dead timber . :m2c:

 

[hwalker]

Seems to me, it's safest to treat any weapon as loaded, until verified that it is not. I never pick up any of my rifles, shotguns, or handguns, either M/L ot modern, without checking that there is no load in the barrel, chambers, ot magazine.

I always assume that through carelessness, absent mindedness, or intent, that a weapon is loaded, either mine or someone else's.

 

[roundball]

When I finish hunting , I empty my rifle into the nearest piece of dead timber . :m2c:

I did that the first time I ever went ML hunting 15+ years ago because the guy I was with did it...have never done it since, because I don't want to needlessly:
1) Have to clean a rifle for no reason when I get home late;
2) Call attention to an area that I'm hunting;
3) Get neighbors calling 911 "that a poacher is shooting"
etc, etc,

:m2c: