Where's "Mythbusters" when you need them? A five minute ember and a wet fire piston explosion need investigated. Safety first but some risk is involved in about any activity that includes firearms, motorcycles. cars, airplanes, steps, ladders, and a million other things. One dangerous activity is believing everything you read on the internet.
Are you calling the guy who posted the story on thehighroad a liar? You could write him.
No, that's wrong: Embers are real. I have been present at two flashes, But both were with rifled muskets, firing fast: One live fire at a skirmish and one with blanks at a reenactment. And neither produced worse than a burned hand, because there was no projectile in the bore yet and the charge was not compressed, and had no ramrod on top of it. The drill prescribes where to have your fingers, for good reason.
Nothing worse than a singed hand should happen if you are pouring a charge of black powder down with the proper procedure, though I do still think cleaning between shots with your patched round ball rifle is a good idea.
But I can see that with Pyrodex pellets there is an added risk IF you actually have to ram that pellet down. I don't use pellets myself, so can't personally say whether that is necessary.
I do think that a ramrod with a T handle or a ball on top encourages you to put your hand at risk, while a plain old straight hickory range rod grasped by the side appears to me to be safer.
But I admit I have a T handle on the big brass ramrod I got for my matchlock, because that's the only configuration in which i could find a rod that long and heavy. I do clean between shots with the matchlock, and the rate of fire is extra slow so any ember should burn out or be put out before I pour the next charge down..
Also don't use pellets. Also will never use ball rods again.
That's all my OP was about, really.
A member of our club in NYS had a custom TC Hawken. Most of us wiped between shoots during our winter indoor (shooting thru opening in door) shoots. He didn’t. Poured powder in, as he pushed patched ball down, gun went off. Messed his fingers up pretty good. His range rod went thru the ceiling and jammed half way thru the club house metal roof. I’ve been told he came back the next year and it happened again. That was it for him. Never got the final resolution, but we all thought his breech must have held a ember.
He did this TWICE? Now that's unreal! That's incredible stupidity.
There are some good posts is this thread but I'm puzzled by those who seem offended or agitated over even talking about BP accidental discharges. Yes, they're super rare. And yes - I'll admit this - I posted immediately after reading that thread on thehighroad from a guy who did NOT do anything stupid yet got his hand blown apart and was still under too much influence from that single story.
Although, now, I must admit that he DID do something stupid just by having so much of his hand in the line of fire. I had thought that using ball-type rods was common and almost necessary - I was wrong about that and not using them in itself will make this activity a lot safer.
I smiled at the "driving to the range is more dangerous" comment because of this: I'm also a private pilot. Pilots love to parrot the very same line with regard to flying. The fact is, though, it's a lie: General aviation is approximately six times more dangerous, by mile traveled, than driving. (Commercial air travel, OTOH, *is* much safer.)
I fly because statistics are meaningless with a sample size of one (me). I know what I'm doing (and I even fly at night, alone, IFR). If my number comes up, that's God's business; I did everything right.
In contrast, I am sure that shooting ML guns *is* safer than driving, statistically.
For the record, I also think the static and compression musings are BS. I've seen the vids on static - massive high-voltage sparks won't ignite black.
I think embers are the danger. I have experimented with loose BP and have seen just how easily it is to ignite.
So, my takeaways:
- NO rammers that put my whole hand over the barrel
- ALWAYS swab between shots
