Surprise!

[longcruise]

That would have been way to easy! LOL It just was never even part of my thought process that someone would sell a muzzleloader fully loaded and not say something! Live and become more skeptical! LOL

Last year I was looking at a used ml in a local gun shop and determined that it was loaded. Handed it back to the store employee and informed him. He gave me a crappy look and walked into the back room with the gun and didn't come back out.

 

[Bad Karma]

There's plenty of "hunters" in NJ that do just that.

It seems to vary by location around here. Some counties hardly any signs are unscathed. Others are nearly untouched. Maybe the juveniles who delight in such things are better shots in certain venues...

 

[DUNKS]

At a pre auction viewing a couple of years ago in the UK. Talking to the guy who prepares the guns and he said it's amazing the number of vintage muzzle loaders that are brought in for auction and still loaded. It's the first thing they check!

 

[oldwood]

Had built four Bess kits , and the first m/l rifle I could afford in 1973, was a new looking FIE Spanish made .45 cal. percussion , in a huge store full of unmentionables. Took it outa the rack , ran the r/r down the bore and it would only go down 'bout 1/2 way . End looked like powder ash stuck to it. Price tag on it was just the same as the amount of saved up lunch money in my pocket , $35.00. Store mgt. figured it to be a decorative piece. Went home , pulled the barrel from the stock , soaked her in a bucket of hot water , and success...Owner must have fired salutes from it until it dirtied up and wouldn't bang any more. Sooooooooooo , got some .440 balls and went to the range. Fired her at 25 yds w/good success . Next , a stationary running deer target caught my eye out at 100 yds.. Took a solid rest , went up and to see the effect. .45 cal hole right in the heart /lung boiler room. The mental effect of that one shot , has haunted me for the rest of my life. I love shooting m/ler's , total addiction.........oldwood

 

[muzzlecap]

Last year I bought a double barrel muzzleloader circa 1860. Thought I'd clean it. Couldn't get any water to flow through. Both barrels were loaded with about # 6 bird shot. Don't know how long it was left like that, could have been fairly recent. Bottom line is you have to check!!

 

[Bad Karma]

My buddy “Dan” (we’ll call him that because it’s his real name...) I’ve told on him before on this forum. He’s the guy who AD’d a DA only Webley .45 through his grandmother’s antique headboard and then tried to blame the pistol...

Anyway... we were loading up in the predawn dark around zero four hundred. His practice was to snap a cap, then load powder and ball. Hunting here we would hike a couple of miles in and 2500 feet up. Had many wonderful hunts up there for deer, elk, rockchucks and snowshoe hares. I loaded powder and ball at the truck too but rather than snap a cap, the night before I would remove the nipple, dry it with alchohol, run a dry patch or two and run a couple of dry pipe cleaners through the channel. Either way we wouldn’t cap or prime until hunting light, it’s just safer on the trail in.

This particular morning Dan places a cap, points the rifle off to the side of the trail and BOOM, shatters the early morning silence with an ear splitting roar, searing our retina by the muzzle flash from his .54 caliber long rifle. It startled him so badly he dropped the rifle and we were both too shocked to say or do anything for a minute. After our vision returned to normal, along with our heart rates... he loaded the rifle and we headed up and in. Along the way we had a good talk about safety, life, death and how close we are from minute to minute. He was pretty shaken up about it. Now, from that day til this, prior to loading he runs the ramrod downbore to verify the condition of the rifle. I’ve watched him closely and he never fails in this. Ever.

Stay safe fellas...

 

[rp77469]

My first trip to Friendship was in the late 70's. There was a lady at the gate to the primitive camp checking firearms. She had a 4', probably 1/4 inch metal range rod with no jag. She was dropping it down the barrel of every gun that wanted past her checking for loaded ones. I was very new at the time so asked what was going on. She said that if it is empty, the ramrod bounces off the breech plug. If it is loaded, it goes 'thunk' and just sits there. I never forgot that, and it is the first test I run on a gun. If the ramrod doesn't bounce, I then double check by measuring to the breech plug with the ramrod.

Checking at gun shops, I have found one original shotgun, and one recent pistol loaded over the years. They are indeed out there.

 

[TFoley]

That would have been way to easy! LOL It just was never even part of my thought process that someone would sell a muzzleloader fully loaded and not say something! Live and become more skeptical! LOL

From many years reading these pages it seems to be about as common as the arrival of the first day of the month, especially with guns bought sight unseen off GB or similar.

 

[Eddie2002]

I picked up an older CVA mountain rifle cap lock last year at Alifia in Florida. Been looking for one for a while and this one had the four screw patch box but no ram rod or butt plate, still grabbed it, the price was right. Took it home and ran a cleaning rod down the bore and heard a soft clunk. Took a couple days to clean it out, seems the nipple channel was plugged up and the gun didn't fire for the PO so he destroyed the ball trying to pull it then dumped water down the barrel. Boy I pulled a real wet mess of part ball, part patch and part powder out of that old girl. He didn't mention that the gun was loaded with wet powder when I bought it. Got it cleaned up, replaced the parts that were missing and it's a shooter.

 

[nhmoose]

At least 1/2 of the ML's brought into my shop by folks selling were loaded. Laded took $60.00 off the offered price right then and if the bore was crunchy the price was very low ball.

The local auction house I go to has again at least 50% of the ML from antique to modern loaded. I get a call to come and un-load them so they can sell them. [I taught them how to check for a load]

 

[flashpoint]

That's unreal nhmoose. I wonder how safe it was to hunt with those guys who left their guns loaded and didn't give a damn about safety.

 

[tenngun]

Every year we hear of stupid hunting accidents.
ML,archery or suppository guns have plenty of woods wise safe hunters and shooters. I think a party of most folks on this forum could hunt together, or with some other style woods wise with out ever an shooting accident.
Unfortunately more hunt then those that that have the sense God have geese.
I work in a trauma ICU and if’n it weren’t for stupid I’d be out of work.

 

[Treestalker]

That's unreal nhmoose. I wonder how safe it was to hunt with those guys who left their guns loaded and didn't give a damn about safety.

Reminds me of the guy my dad worked with as a union pipefitter in the refineries that carried a revolver in his lunchbox at work; said it was to shoot the antichrist if he met him!

 

[jimhallam]

"He’s the guy who AD’d a DA only Webley .45 through his grandmother’s antique headboard and then tried to blame the pistol... "

In my view AD's are VERY rare --- it is ND's *** which happen.

***NEGLIGENT Discharge.

 

[TFoley]

That would have been way to easy! LOL It just was never even part of my thought process that someone would sell a muzzleloader fully loaded and not say something! Live and become more skeptical! LOL

Seems to be a pretty common event over your part of the world. The only gun we ever found loaded had been that way since 1897 - hanging over a door in a local pub. But guns for sale, pre-loaded to save you the trouble? Naw.

 

[R.J.Bruce]

I can't remember where I read this, I think it might have been the late Louis L'Amour. Who had an incredible collection of pioneer letters, journals, etc.

One of the most common causes of death on the various westward migrations to the opening up of the North American continent was the accidental/negligent discharge of firearms, particularly muzzleloading ones.

Pulling them out of wagons, and other conveyancces, and shooting themselves in the chest/head depending upon whether one was an adult, or child.

If the initial blast did not kill them, then infection/gangrene later on often did. Even those used to being around firearms killed themselves off on a pretty regular basis.

I may be wrong about this, but I think only disease, accidents, and attacks by hostiles ranked above stupidity with firearms as a cause of death.

 

[Bad Karma]

"He’s the guy who AD’d a DA only Webley .45 through his grandmother’s antique headboard and then tried to blame the pistol... "

In my view AD's are VERY rare --- it is ND's *** which happen.

***NEGLIGENT Discharge.

Yeah, he,tried to blame the pistol, saying it “just went off” as he closed the action on a loaded cylinder. (Top break revolver DA only.) we took it too the range and tried everything we could think of to replicate such an event. Nope! Nothing doing. He apparently just closed the action and pulled the trigger. Another friend of mine did a similar thing outside of his cop shop entrance. Dumped the cylinder on his carry pistol, S&W M19. Pointed the gun at a trash can, pulled the trigger and blew a hole in it. Law enforcement often have the worst gun safety record...

apologies for getting off topic but let’s have a safe and happy new year!

 

[Zonie]

And a Happy New Year to you too.

That said, please do not discuss modern cartridge guns on the forum. It's against the rules.

 

[oldwood]

From reading books about frontier times , seems it was common practice at the end of day on the trail to build a fire to cook and warm up. Apparently for those armed w/ a flint gun , common practice was to plug the touch hole , after dumping the priming powder into the material to start the fire , the gun lock sparks were used to start fire. I know you can see what's coming. There are several instances of guns errantly going off while starting fire. One was recorded by an Indian captive when the raiding party was supposedly out of range of a group of white rangers. The fire builder's gun fired , no one was hurt. At daylight the Rangers had the Indian camp surrounded and fired on the camp. We know the story because the white captive lived and was rescued.
Another miscreant flint lock fire starting story came from the ill fated Crawford expedition into Northern Ohio. A fire builder's musket discharged and the ball took effect on another man and narrowly missed another.
There are too many of these incidents mentioned in the early records to not soon recognize , the use of flint and steel and gun lock fire starting were common practice. I imagine a little amount of powder was applied to the kindle and couple strokes of the flint , ......fire started...oldwood.

 

[wb78963]

RULE #1
ALL GUNS ARE LOADED
Col. Cooper said it so alyaus follow that rule and be safe.