Who Done This?

[musketman]

Once, many moons ago (326 moons ago actually) I was just starting my muzzleloader experience, I went to cock the hammer to full cock and my thumb slipped off before it reached the full-cock notch...

Well, the hammer fell and shot by the half notch and fired the gun before it was aimed, luckily it was pointing towards the target area...

Just wondering, who else had an accidental firing and what was the conditions that caused it?

 

So that's why you're in da corn :blah:

 

[BLAHMAN]

Yup, I've done it....kinda embarresed to admit to such a thing.


What the hell do you do???? Stay up all night thinking about some embarressing question that I feel obligated to answer? Geees!

(Good question, by the way)

 

[bob1961]

this past flintlock season as i was posted and got settled in after bout 5 min since left to wait fer the drivers i went and primed and set my hammer back and it went off as i was getting ready....don't know what happened if i touched the trigger or what....it was crazy....good thing it hit the ground ten feet in front of me.................bob

 

[IronMan]

When this happens you look around to see if anyone noticed. Then grin and say "I meant to do that. That was my Fouling shot :thumbsup:

IronMan

 

[Huntinfool]

Been there done that! :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: :hmm: :curse: :curse:
Chuck

 

[musketman]

What the hell do you do???? Stay up all night thinking about some embarressing question that I feel obligated to answer? Geees!

It's a gift... :winking: :crackup:

 

[horkeye]

Just wondering, who else had an accidental firing and what was the conditions that caused it?

Musketman,
Several times, & with several firearms; in all cases something was was wrong with sear/tumble or other funny little parts in the lock/s.

This is just ONE reason why firearms should ALWAYS be pointed in a SAFE direction.

The first time it happened (I was very new to shooting) and boy, did I S**T myself! :redface:

Jim.

 

[rabjr]

Never happened to me (knock on wood) but I know two guys who done it with a deer in front of them. Both times the deer ended up trotting off, they ended up crying and I ended up laughing my ass off. :haha:

 

[musketman]

I went to cock the hammer to full cock and my thumb slipped off before it reached the full-cock notch...

Well, the hammer fell and shot by the half notch and fired the gun before it was aimed,

This could be a very dangerous situation, how many people have their gun pointing down range when they cap the nipple?

I know some that cradle their gun to cap, so the barrel is pointing to the side, if their thumb slips then, they'll send a projectile sideways to them... (the hood on some hammer faces require the hammer to be drawn past half-cock to install a percussion cap)

Not everyone has their barrel pointing down range when out hunting...

 

[flm_shooter]

I did it once with those fancy black plastic guns in the Army. I field-cleaned the rifle, slapped a magazine in, and did a function check (which included pulling the trigger to hear the 'click')

Fortunately, the magazine was only loaded with blanks.

Unfortunately, the muzzle was right next to my sergeant's ear (pointed away).

To this day, many years later, I am ALWAYS conscious of muzzle direction. And I really, really do treat each gun as loaded. And that Sergeant greatly improved my vocabulary. Some of the words I learned that day I used myself once I became a Sergeant...

 

[Dave Poss]

No hammer slip, but I did have an accidental firing once. Rainy day, out tree rat hunting.After an hour or so, I saw one and sighted in on it, touched the trigger, and "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssss" was all I heard-the primeing must have gotten wet. I held the rifle at waist level and gave, what I thought was long enough for a hang fire, and started to wipe the pan out when I heard another short "ssss" and BOOM-there she went! :: Like others have said, it scars the manure out of you! I guess I had just enough dry powder in the pan to act as a fuse and it took that long for it to burn down to the charge.

I learned to always give flintlocks with a hangfire a couple of minutes longer than you think necessary for it to decide if it's going to go off or not before you start making "adjustments"

 

[shmrck1]

MM,
if nobody else saw it then it did not happenIMO
snake-eyes :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[BLAHMAN]

MM,
if nobody else saw it then it did not happenIMO
snake-eyes :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Waite a minute! I get it! If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there does it make any noise? Is that where you are going with this Snake?

Well then....that is different...if nobody saw me doing it...it didn't happen!

Ok MM, I never did such a foolish thing...feel better already! :haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[musketman]

Ok MM, I never did such a foolish thing...feel better already! :haha: :haha: :haha:

Don't make me ask about the time you shot your wife's red bikini top off the clothes line because you thought it was two squirrels trying to steal the clothes pins... :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[2172]

My first summer in black powder..had a CVA Mtn rifle, and took it too our range to sight in. I was using the roof of my Datsun B210 for a rest. I'd messed with the adjustable trigger too much, and it wouldn't stay cocked. I took off the cap, and fixed the trigger...rested the rifle on the roof as I pulled the trigger to see if it worked OK, and fired off the round...no cap on the nipple. I had a later cap fail to go off, and when I pulled it off, saw the primer material still on the nipple..the damp summer weather probably caused a similar separation on the first cap....left a scorch mark across the roof of the car...have never had an unintended discharge since...still scared though...Hank

 

[bshultz]

i had a pistol go off from the half cock position right after i put the cap on, found out that gun won't stay on half cock when it gets to dirty, thank god i cap at the firing line. ::

 

[jaybeach]

I had a similar thing happen just this week, but didn't realize what caused it. I took my Hawken out of the gun cabinet just to look it over (waaaaay too cold to go outside with it) IMO - and just touched the trigger. It dropped from what half cock to the nipple. Apparently when I had put it away, I had lowered it from full to half cock and it had not fully engaged the whatever keeps it from falling all the way.
Fortunately it wasn't loaded or primed, so it just went "click". :results:

 

[Tahquamenon]

I've had it happen a couple of times during de-cocking. With freezing cold hands.
Both times were hunting situations after I had full cocked to aim and shoot and then elected not to fire due to lack of shot placement. I'll often go through this scenario several times during huntings seasons.

I always de-cock with the muzzle pointed downward & downrange towards the ground in front of me.

For capping and re-setting the lock, I do the same thing downward & down range in front of me.

I've seen fella's cap and de-cock all the time with the rifle in cradle with the barrel nice and high and pointed at an uncertain target. I always say something and show the downward, downrange method.

:imo:

 

[vradin]

Accidental- Never. The folks who introduced me to muzzleloading taught me that there's no such animal as "accidental discharge".

Unindended discharge- yup. Twice. Putting the cap on before handing off the rifle to a shooter, rifle pointed downrange and down at about 45degrees. Hammer was in half-cock position. I placed the cap, touched the hammer face with the back of the capper and the hammer fell. Blew the nipple off the gun, drove the hammer spur into my right thumb, and left a nice powder tatoo on my inside left wrist. Since I was explaining how to load and prepare to shoot, I was not wearing hearing protection, so had ringing ears for an hour or two.

Later examination showed a number of faulty parts in the lock- loose sear, cracked mainspring, and a partly plugged drum. The loose sear caused the hammer to fall unintentionally without a trigger pull. The partly plugged drum caused an over-pressure (back pressure?) situation causing the nippple to break off at the threads and drive the hammer spur into my thumb.

So basically, was this an accident? Nope, not at all. Had I inspected the firearm more carefully it would not have occurred. It was unintentionally negligent, nothing less.

vic