Ten year old loaded Hawken?

[Blogman]

Hold my beer

I like this thread. Lots of fun ways to unload an unknown gun. All so far are very utube worthy if video'd.

I'll hold the camera.

Just like me and my Missouri buds messing around.

 

[Stantheman86]

Yeah I wouldn't shoulder it and fire it either. I've heard too much crap about people using "a little smokeless " as a kicker in muzzleloaders or maybe someone setting a trap for a thieving step kid or something with a load of 100gr of Unique.

After I read about sabotaged weapons from WWII ending up unknowingly in the hands of collectors, I'm real careful about what I shoot.

 

[Pete G]

Some of you guys must not have many friends left...

 

[ugly old guy]

To be honest and safe, yes. When I do have a gun given to me loaded I pull the nipple and check the powder. If it's black, I set the nipple and fire it.
*note* No, I do NOT hold it in my hands. Sandbags and string do that job.

Ummm ... smokeless powder is also black in color.
Sofar as I know, there is no way to accurately confirm visyally100% of the time if black powder or smokeless powder.

OP:

DO NOT SHOOT THE LOAD OUT!!!!!


1) Remove The nipple.

2) Remove the barrel from the stock.
Insert breech in a bucket or barrel of water deep enough to cover at least 6 inches of the breech end of the barrel, and let sit a day or three. (this will neutralize the powder; be it black powder or smokeless powder)

3) Pull the load. (3 ways to do so)

(a) You can use grease (very messy, and IS a regal royal pain in the sitter to clean it all out of the bore)
(b) Used CO2 or compressed air.
MAKE SURE THE BARREL IS POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION AND DO NOT DO IT INSIDE.
The projectile will be leaving the barrel right quickly, and can/will do a lot of damage if it hits anything or seriously wound or kill anything alive that it may hit.

(c) Use a screw-type ball puller on your range rod.
(you may need a padded vice to hold the barrel when pulling the projectile.)

4) No matter which method you use, clean the bore really, really good after pulling the load.

 

[Griz44Mag]

(c) Use a screw-type ball puller on your range rod.
(you may need a padded vice to hold the barrel when pulling the projectile.)

Use the vise to hold the range rod, pull the barrel (or whole gun) off the rod. It's a lot easier to hold onto a gun than a rod and the gun or barrel won't have any damage.

 

[TFoley]

Back in 2003 we fired a gun that had been loaded up in June 20th of 1887. The paper wadding over the charge said as much...it fired off like it was newly loaded.

 

[Stantheman86]

I'd honestly trust something like an original military smoothbore Flintlock or a Whitworth that was loaded long, long ago vs something like a CVA Hawken. It just seems far less likely that an old load in an 1816 Springfield is gonna be smokeless but I'm not gonna trust that Joe Sixpack didn't do something weird in 1994 with a $200 hunting muzzleloader.

It's actually somewhat common to find an old muzzleloader with a charge in it. A farmer stuffed one down the pipe of his cut down 1861 Springfield and set it in the corner as a farm gun.....it stays loaded , farmer buys a new gun and stashed the old one away , or guy passes away , it sits for 150 years then gets sold at an auction . New buyer looks down the pipe "my Lord it's loaded!!"

 

[LeonardC]

I haven't had to unload my ML this way...yet. I bought a CO2 discharger from OXYoke in case I ever do.

 

[bendback]

Agree on pulling the ball

 

[renegadehunter]

The OP already pulled it with a ball puller, he is good to go.

 

[ugly old guy]

I'd honestly trust something like an original military smoothbore Flintlock or a Whitworth that was loaded long, long ago vs something like a CVA Hawken. It just seems far less likely that an old load in an 1816 Springfield is gonna be smokeless

Chances are it was loaded with smokeless. It may well be smokeless, but that is not guaranteed. Who knows if it was loaded with smokeless in the 1890's or later?
Also, don't forget that after the war when the Armories were unloading the riles turned in, (and not by firing them) it was not uncommon to find stacked properly loaded charges. I think the most found in any one gun was seven loads on top of each other. There may have been more. It has been a couple decades since I read that report. However, "7" sticks out in what is left of my mind concerning that subject.

It is always safer to pull the charge.

Both for the gun, and any quote/un-quote "people" (or quote/un-quote "humans", if you prefer) in the vicinity.
Firing a long loaded gun that you don't know who loaded it, when it was loaded, or how it was loaded,is as good of way to collect a "Darwin Award" as any, I suppose ...

 

[Rudyard]

Strathman Is right , The keeping a gun handy loaded wasn't unusual, particularly on farms older man gets careless, Grand kids coming, Old Lady wife shoves it in attic and hundred plus years later some electrician finds it . Even museums don't invariable check. Nor imports from India ect that arrive . A girlfriend once fooled with just such a gun firing caps &' Bang'! broken TV screen !!. And the local Museum had two Brown Besses . One that teachers would show children how it made sparks .I was asked to catalogue the guns they held and found this same musket still had a charge of powder .They where horrified but not as horrified as they would have been if a spark had reached during the 'Lesson' .. Moral of story never presume an old gun is empty . .non of these two instances involved a good load but enough of one to shock the owners .
Rudyard

 

[Stantheman86]

Weapons recovered after the Civil War or turned in, stacked up in a State Militia Armory and forgotten . Sold as surplus in the 1900s with a Minie in the pipe. I'm sure it happened.

 

[TFoley]

I'd honestly trust something like an original military smoothbore Flintlock or a Whitworth that was loaded long, long ago vs something like a CVA Hawken.

The chances of finding a Whitworth rifle, let alone a loaded Whitworth rifle, are about the same as winning the National Lottery - maybe even less likely. Unless, of course, you are holding out on us?

 

[Stantheman86]

I was just day dreaming, like "if I go into the attic of this old house maybe I'll find a Scoped Whitworth with a round in the pipe , loaded by a Confederate sniper in 1865 and the war ended before he could fire the round that would have had a Federal General's name on it "

I did, however just take a shot in the dark on a Parker-Hale Birmingham produced Whitworth at my favorite online gun shop but it turned out to be a Parker-Hale Birmingham produced P53 .577 that somehow got restocked in either a British or Italian Whitworth stock. I can't wait to get it and find out exactly what happened with this one.......hopefully it's not loaded

 

[pajeepman]

I bought a CVA Plainsman cheap a few months ago with a load in it. Tried compressed air (from a garage compressor)and a ball puller. No luck yet.
I dream of walking around the local park(Valley Forge National Park) and finding a small cave with long rifles wrapped in oiled cloth perfectly preserved. Also powder and some of the Kings gold with them).
My grandfather was looking in a local abandoned house a a kid a found a old samurai sword in the attic. It has gold banding and you can see where jewels where removed from the handle. Must have been a ceremonial one or something I guess. My uncle has it and hopefully one day I will too. I haven't seen it in 25 years but we just discussed it on Christmas.

 

[TFoley]

I was just day dreaming, like "if I go into the attic of this old house maybe I'll find a Scoped Whitworth with a round in the pipe , loaded by a Confederate sniper in 1865 and the war ended before he could fire the round that would have had a Federal General's name on it "

I did, however just take a shot in the dark on a Parker-Hale Birmingham produced Whitworth at my favorite online gun shop but it turned out to be a Parker-Hale Birmingham produced P53 .577 that somehow got restocked in either a British or Italian Whitworth stock. I can't wait to get it and find out exactly what happened with this one.......hopefully it's not loaded

Re Your para 1 - right. Good luck with that.

Re Your para 2 - The Whitworth stock IS different, as you note, by having extensive and finely-cut checkering on it. We'd all like to see the details of this gun of yours, with a view to putting it on David Minshall's P-H production register. TIA.

 

[Stantheman86]

Preliminary pic, I have it on layaway so won't have it in hand for a month or so.

I don't know if the barrel channel is the same, I assume it is.....maybe someone bought a roached out P-H Whitworth and bought one of the surplus .577 barrels from Parker-Hale. The gun shop claims it to be a British Proofed barrel so I'm kinda trusting them since I've bought from them before.

 

[M. De Land]

A no brainer, pulled the load or push it out with CO2. I have never used grease but sounds real messy to me.

And it takes a lot of fresh grease( that will become contaminated) to fill up a .50 cal barrel.

 

[M. De Land]

I'd just Redneck Remote it.....

Co2 dischargers have failed me, pulling bullets and balls is such a PITA , I'd pull the nipple, put fresh powder into the bolster to "help" the old , probably spoiled charge
....then just strap it safely and securely to an object at your range/backyard etc , tie a long string to the trigger, cap it, take a prone position behind cover and pull it.

Why risk a rifle when a ball can be pulled so easily. Take it from a frequent "dry baller" it ain't that hard to pull one!