Notable shooting experiences

[Larry (Omaha)]

Hey guys, thought I would pick your brains for everyone to share. I have been shooting muzzleloaders since the early 70's and plan on doing so till the good Lord takes me. In my experience with other muzzleloading competitors, I have seen and experience some good bad and ugly. Please share any weird, unsafe, funny or frustrating things you may have witnessed, or been involved in. Just two of mine................
I was at a Brownville NE shoot and one of the guys on the line blew his nipple clean out of the gun and if I remember, it went through the bill of his hat. (not funny he was lucky) Another time a feller must have double charged his gun cuz it nocked him back from his standing position, and he had that OH ship! look on his face
Flintlocklar :hatsoff:

 

[Wes/Tex]

Twice, that's right gang I said twice, I forgot to hold the muzzle away from vertical and got a flashback from an ember in the bore. Foosh! Not a single unsinged hair from the tip of my chin to about 3 inches into my hairline. Looked like Al Jolson in black-face, smelled like a scorched poodle and felt like a total idiot! Usually went....
FOOSH!
"Dammit!"
"Wes, you OK?"
"Yeah."
"Bwah-ha-ha-ha!!" :wink: :haha:

Have never once dry-balled in over 50 years of muzzleloading. Don't have to...got more interesting of screwing up! :rotf:

 

[yonderin]

At a stage in a match which required hitting a small gong that represented the heart on a deer target, everybody was having trouble hitting it. As I stepped up, the safety officer said he wondered if the gong would survive a hit as it was mounted solidly to the target.

He got the answer and a 15 minute pause in the shooting.

Missed that shot every previous match.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Well one time I was shooting a repro Colt Army cap and ball. This was one of the first time I loaded and fired one myself. Well a friend of mine told me to be sure to throw the muzzle up in the air while cocking to kick out cap fragments... which I did.

But I didn't follow the safety rules and had my finger in the trigger guard... threw the muzzle up while cocking and BOOM!!!

"AHHH!!!! MY FACE!!!", I managed to not send a ball through my forehead but the powder and fire came blasting out peppering me good!! Not fun at all, and this was right as my neighbor was walking up, making for an awkward situation! :redface:

I've also dry balled once so far and sliced my thumb open cutting patches from the muzzle... in the same range trip. That wasn't a good day! :shocked2:

 

[Walkingeagle]

Tried a few things over the 20+ years of shooting muzzleloaders. I remember loading a charge followed by folded patch and wasp nesting then seating a heavy wall aluminum arrow with 125gr field point. You see I had heard you can shoot an arrow out of a muzzleloader. Well, upon ignition that arrow wall collapsed instantly, bent in an arch and nose dived into the ground maybe 10 yards in front of me.
I also read in several pocket western novels of double shotting so just had to try. I don't think you could hit a man sized target anywhere beyond just a few yards doing this.
Oh, dryballing, ya I'm very familliar. Seems almost every shooting session it happens. Chemo brain is a real thing.
Walk

 

[BrownBear]

...blew his nipple clean out of the gun and if I remember, it went through the bill of his hat.

Had something very similar happen, but with a flinter.

Bud got his first ever and removed the vent liner in the course of first cleaning. And forgot to put it back....

Loaded her up, lit her off. I don't recall if the ball even made it out the bore. It was too interesting to watch the two guys standing on the line to his right side! Those old pics you see of flame throwers in WWII have nothing on the torch he launched sideways down the line. :rotf:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've seen muskets "cook off" at speed matches.

I've seen guys make "competition" loads for those same speed matches by using musket balls cut in half..., so when they were inspected the inspector only felt one ball per round. Funny though since one cannot control how the half-spheres fly, and wouldn't you know it, one hit perfectly edge-on...giving a nice "D" shaped hole...which suddenly explained why that team had nearly 2X the hits on the targets. :shocked2:

Had a fellow using round ball made from linotype shooting at a target propped up on a 4x8 folding table top....except that the edge of the table was sheathed in aluminum, and they were using light loads because the distance was close...so with like 40 grains of 2Fg the fellow's .490 ball hit the side of the table and bounced straight back, clocking him in the forehead..., made a nice goose egg on his head too. :shake:

Knew a fellow who had a deer watch him shoot at the deer, then reload and shoot two more times, before it scampered off unscathed. Those of us who knew Bill, and his lack of marksmanship pretty much understood why the deer was not in any danger.

Found a guy with a doe down one the edge of the woods, as I was moving to the area I wanted to hunt (I was late getting out that morning), and I asked if he needed help, but he was fine..., she had dropped in her tracks. Then I asked him what was with the blood trail about 15 feet away in the woods, heading deeper in and down hill, which it turned out he hadn't even seen. I went about 30 yards along the trail and found a second doe. Figured, that doe must have been standing in the shadow inside of the forest and a short distance right behind his deer (at least the tracks looked that way) and he'd not seen it when he fired. So he hit two deer with a single shot. :shocked2: I could only remember having heard one shot so I believed him....it's a nice story even if he was full of beans. Either way he let me have the other doe. :grin:

LD

 

[azmntman]

Had a 12 GA that shot low all the time. Gunsmith says I hold it wrong? I do have a cervical fracture repair with metal so I have lost a bit of movement up there? He says rather than try to reteach me to hold the gun correctly he's just but a notch in the barrel and attach a rear site. Done! Out to the birm behind the shop and I fire the gun. He says the pattern was like 10 feet wide so he couldnt tell if it was low or high! BS I call the gun patterns OK. He says load er up and I will shoot and you watch. So we go back in yacking and talkin while I load and I realize half way through I forgot the over powder card. Walk to trash can and dump the load. Hear lotta shot in the metal can So I reload and we go back out. BOOM. Great pattern I start to say as I turn and note him on his back in a fetal like position rocking slowly and screaming "I dont do recoil, I dont do recoil". This guy is like 6'4 and HUGE! I have never faced a harder task in my life than not laughing hysterically!

Anyway he swears I doubled loaded it and I of course did not! What must have happened was only the shot came out and I did, accidentally, double load it. So he shot 180 gr powder with 80 gr shot! Blew the front bead off! :rotf:

Other time my pop came back from shooting his fox river .50 and had a streak of black up his nose, eyes and to hair line. Hole in his baseball cap! Blew the nipple. Same gun smith re threaded and using a bigger size nipple I still shoot the gun years later

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Hey guys...........Here is one of my "Learning" experiences. Was at a Missouri shoot with my flinter shootin next to flinters (no flash guards then) and I was programed to pay attention to the guy on my left. Well the guy on my Right said "left handed flinter" and it did not sink in till I got my arm singed by hot powder flash. Dumb and learn :redface:
Flintlocklar

 

[Rifleman1776]

I've been shooting so long and so much I have seen many strange occurances.
But two that come to mind involve pistols.
On an off day at our local range a fellow showed up with a C&B revolver. I watched him load and step up to the line to shoot. I reminded him he had not greased over the cylinders and could have a chain fire. He did not like my interference and shot anyway. First (and last) shot he had a chain fire and all cylinders went off. He gathered up his equipment and we never saw him again. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Another time at a scheduled shoot at our local range a member, "Scotty", went to shoot his single shot pistol. Hammer went "click". Wisely, and properly, he kept his muzzle pointing downrange and recapped. Again, "click". Frustrated, he said "I know I loaded". Keeping muzzle up he went back for another cap. Another try, no bang. With muzzle up he picked the nipple, recapped and tried several times, always saying, "I know I loaded". Then, after what was easily more than five minutes, with him holding the muzzle up :applause: it went "bang". :shocked2: Good lesson that tiny embers can linger and cause problems. Classic lesson on why we are so fixated on safety rules, especially 'keep yer muzzle up or downrange'.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Loyalist Dave, I didn't know you knew me. I missed a deer with three shots about 35 years ago with my TC Hawken. The worse part is my young daughter witnessed it and kept asking. "Did you get it Dad? The deer finally walked off after the third shot as I broke the ram rod trying to frantically reload for a 4th shot. That deer at 60-70 yards was much harder to hit than the 12" gong at the club range at a 100+. And we shot at the gong off hand.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

A funny annual one ... we host various local Scout troops for overnight camping and to work on their wilderness related badges. We also introduce them to our multiple firing ranges.

At the muzzleloading area, we have the axe head set onto a stump, where there is a recess routed to each side of the axe head, that holds a typical orange clay bird. One at a time we load a fowler and let the boy or girls shoot at the axe head.

We watch the group carefully to look for ... uhhhh, well you know ... the scrawniest kid or smallest kid or one being teased - you know ... the one “most likely to be picked last” for any pick-up basketball team or other school/team sport or event.

When they shoot ... we load the fowler up w/ birdshot! Makes that kid into an INSTANT hero!

I swear by doing so that we have changed kid’s lives forever!

 

[Rick Boylan]

Many years ago, after getting some practice with my CVA Hawken model rifle. I went shooting with a friend.
He was interested in my CVA but really not in muzzle loaders. He brought a AR-15 and I had my ML.

He put up a clay bird and it was a contest to see who could hit it at 50 yards. He took a few shots and hit close to the bird. I took my first shot and busted it. He just stood there looking at me.

I showed him that MLs are very accurate. To this day he still doesn't want to have that brought up in conversations. :haha:

 

[Wes/Tex]

We watch the group carefully to look for ... uhhhh, well you know ... the scrawniest kid or smallest kid or one being teased - you know ... the one “most likely to be picked last” for any pick-up basketball team or other school/team sport or event.

When they shoot ... we load the fowler up w/ birdshot! Makes that kid into an INSTANT hero!

I swear by doing so that we have changed kid’s lives forever!

At our state sponsored shoots all the kids get to fire, twice at least. But, you are right in what you say. It's the little ones, girls especially...those that look like they don't weigh 80 pounds with the pockets full of buckshot and fishing sinkers that do the best, enjoy it most and leave looking like they've doubled in size. You're doing great work there. Like you, I'm praying some take up thd sport.

 

[hanshi]

I'll just relate a sort of embarrassing experience; not as scary or as profound as most of the others but a huge letdown for me nonetheless.

I was hunting in my usual spot one morning when I spotted movement. A buck was headed my way but brush prevented a shot. Finally he walked up to about 25 yards from me, full broadside with nothing in front of him; we were in full view of each other. I was already bragging to myself as this was the biggest buck I'd seen in many years. He stared at me as I brought up the rifle, sighted just behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger. I was rewarded with a "clack". The prime had somehow leaked out during the walk to my (ground) stand. Nerves were shot but he watched me fumble, spill powder for a while trying to reprime. finally he gave me a bored look and walked off. Thankfully, no witnesses.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Hey Flint,
Your sneakiness has made many a kid happy. Your story reminded me of a feller who pulled a big haw haw over the Pilgrims for fun. Dick, good old Dick was a professional well installer and had a license to use dynamite. We were at a shoot where the public (Pilgrims) were spectating. There was a lull in the competition and good old Dick said, let's have some fun. He sliced off a chunk of dynamite and placed it in the 25 yard blackjack by a target when no one was present. When the Pilgrims gathered good old Dick fired at the target hitting the chunk of dynamite. Wow!! Oh Wow!! those muzzloaders are powerful!! I will never forget that day or good old Dick.
Flintlocklar:rotf:

 

[Dr5x]

Larry,
I was born and raised in Omaha, Central High etc.
I have sold my Sysytem to about 6000 good folks and only a very few from Nebraska and finally this week a gentleman from Omaha.

I'v decided that the Nebraska sharpshooters must be the very best because few of them feel they might need any help.

It's good to hear good words from the old home town.

Dutch Schoultz

 

[fleener]

"I'v decided that the Nebraska sharpshooters must be the very best because few of them feel they might need any help."

Dutch, maybe they just know you in NE? :wink:

Fleener

 

[Idaho Ron]

My most memorable shooting experience left a mark. My son and I went shooting and he was a big kid. He could load his own and he knew the drill. When the gun is in storage it is quite full of oil. SO the first thing we do is push a patch down and fire a couple caps on the patch. We look for the burnt spot on the end of the patch to tell us the nipple is clear.
The gun was on the bags and my son put a cap on the fired it.
Well the gun was loaded from the last hunting season. We left it loaded to shoot coyotes and forgot. The solid brass range rod was shot out of the barrel. The gun came back and hit me right in the groin. I collapsed on the ground. The stock was cracked at the lock screw. This was just a few weeks before his antelope hunt. I was able to get it to glue for his antelope hunt but it cost him a deer. the crack reopened and threw the shot off. That gun has a new stock now.

 

[Larry Akers]

back in the late 70s or early 80s Dupont had blown up again and BP was in short supply. Someone came out with Golden Powder which, if I remember right, was made from carrot juice. I had a friend who thought we should try it and bought a couple of pounds. At a club shoot he wanted me to try a shot from my flintlock. I loaded up and when I fired there was no bang but a spurting jet of flame fusing out the touchhole. I didn't know whether to throw the gun down and run or hang on to it. I decided to hang on and after about 10 sec the gun made a farting sound and blew the ball about 20 ft. Needless to say, Golden Powder Co. failed.