Odd Muzzleloader Uses

[musketman]

Other than shooting, what have you used your muzzleloader for? (I don't mean as a car jack handle) :haha: :hmm:

I have used my unloaded flintlocks to start camp fires (char cloth in priming pan instead of FFFFg)

I have an old nipple for my zouave that doubles as a leather punch...

I plugged the bottom of the nipple and screwed it in, positioned the leather where I needed a hole, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger, the hammer punched the nipple through the leather with ease...

Heavier leathers will need a few passes to get through, when done, pick the removed material from the nipple...

(Replace the nipple with the good one when done before shooting)

 

You scare me!

Just :m2c:

 

[musketman]

You scare me!

Just :m2c:

How so? ::

 

[BrownBear]

Talk about scared!

I know a siwash carpenter who uses a smoothbore to drive sections of 1/2" rebar into pilings to use to secure foundation beams. He sharpens the front end of the rebar, then wraps a bit of rag around the back for a tight wad to hold the rebar in place. Then he stands on the end of the upright piling and shoots the rod down between his feet to drive it deep into the piling. Finally he threads the exposed end of the rebar so he can pass it through a hole in the horizontal beam when he sets it, then bolts it down.

I've seen the ingredients and the results (which are darn good), but I don't have the courage to be around when he's doing it. He will admit that it's pretty exciting to have all that smoke and flame billowing between his legs while the recoil is pushing him straight up. "I feel kind of like I'm at Cape Canaverel" he says. Pressure? That's what his wife gives him if he doesn't bring home the bucks.

 

[Wanders]

I've seen old black powder powered wedges for splitting wood. The back is hollow. You tap it into place in the log, pour a charge in and place a fuse. Light & run like crazy. They work very well but seemed impractical. :crackup: If you make an interchangable butt plate with a sharp V point you might be able to use a musket to do the same thing! :youcrazy:
Bill

 

[Gary]

Boy, it's true you learn something everyday at the Muzzleloader forum. :shocking:

 

I've seen old black powder powered wedges for splitting wood. The back is hollow. You tap it into place in the log, pour a charge in and place a fuse. Light & run like crazy. They work very well but seemed impractical. :crackup: If you make an interchangable butt plate with a sharp V point you might be able to use a musket to do the same thing! :youcrazy:
Bill

My very first job working in the logging industry was to peel split and pile chemical wood and we used these very wedges daily. Talk about back breaking work now that was when it was done all by hand.

Woody

 

[kentucky bucky]

I've spent some time in the woods and realized that my rifle might as well be used as a walking stick for all the good it did carrying it all day. Next time I might take a rubber butt pad and some bicycle handlebar wraps for near the muzzle. I recon I'd want to unload first! :bull:

:youcrazy:

 

Never use a muzzleloeader for anything but a muzzleloader . To do so is not koecher.
But I have taken a pistol(22) driled a hole through the end of the barrel, lagged screwed a piece of 2 X 2 channel to the door with a hole also drilled through it and pinned the pistol to the channel for a door knocker. The butt hit the door just right.

Woody

 

[TexasMLer]

From Noah Smithwick's "Evolution of a State" (Thanks, Birdwatcher!):

"Having lost my gun and got my powder all wet, there was nothing with which to strike a fire. We had no matches in those days, the usual method being to take a bit of rag and rub powder into it and ram it into a gun (empty) and fire it out, the flash igniting the powdered rag. Sometimes we took out the flint from the lock of the gun, and with a steel, made for the purpose, or, in the absence of that, a knife, struck sparks into a rag or some other inflammable substance, into which powder had been poured. But my gun being gone, I was left without any of these resources...)

I haven't done this, but thought it was fitting to add the quote from the book.

 

[Wanders]

No kidding? I had no idea they were used so recently. Why were the BP wedges used instead of a solid wedge? It seems it would slow the process up.
Bill

 

So recently?. I ain't no spring chicken and been working since i was 10...LOL
The powder wedge was used on wood that was to hard to split with regular wedges.
When you had 2 or 3 regular wedges stuck in a piece of wood and then had to use a powder wedge for a little extra boost.. you better make sure you got hidden for sure when it went off.

Woody

 

[BLAHMAN]

Muzzleloaders other than shooting? That's a hard one! (Eve said the same thing when Adam dropped his fig leaf)

Let's see..... They are great to hang on your wall and when somebody ask's "Are those real?".... it's the start of a conversation.

Does that count?

 

[shmrck1]

That's a hard one! (Eve said the same thing when Adam dropped his fig leaf)

Let's see..... They are great to hang on your wall and when somebody ask's "Are those real?".... it's the start of a conversation.

BLAHMAN,
:applause: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :applause: :applause: :crackup: :crackup:
snake-eyes :hmm: :hmm: