Witnessed Unsafe Behaviors

[TFoley]

At least you have poutine. Down hear, for some inexplicable reason, Americans have not taken to the ambrosial dish!

You have possum-belly, and we have poutine. In our house, both are routinely banned.

 

[French Colonial]

What gets me are comments from people who...

Have never tried blowing down the barrel.
Do not know anyone who routinely blows down the barrel.
Have never a taken the time to discuss the subject with an open mind with someone who has knowledge of it.
(Kind of the same with those who don't trust Britsmoothy and his muzzle filing)

And yet they come up with scenarios in their imagination about how it can not work (its not about embers!!!) and it must be dangerous because...... well because they think it looks dangerous.

Their minds are made up and no amount of first hand knowledge is going to sway them from their belief.

They have taken Muzzleloading from loading from the pouch in the middle of nowhere like our ancestors did it and turned it into a five minute, swab the bore with every modern concoction known to man and dry it to make sure the bore is pristine exercise that makes me shake my head in wonder.

I do not condemn those who do but wish they would educate themselves before condemning the rest of us.

 

[Josephg]

What gets me are comments from people who...

Have never tried blowing down the barrel.
Do not know anyone who routinely blows down the barrel.
Have never a taken the time to discuss the subject with an open mind with someone who has knowledge of it.
(Kind of the same with those who don't trust Britsmoothy and his muzzle filing)

And yet they come up with scenarios in their imagination about how it can not work (its not about embers!!!) and it must be dangerous because...... well because they think it looks dangerous.

Their minds are made up and no amount of first hand knowledge is going to sway them from their belief.

They have taken Muzzleloading from loading from the pouch in the middle of nowhere like our ancestors did it and turned it into a five minute, swab the bore with every modern concoction known to man and dry it to make sure the bore is pristine exercise that makes me shake my head in wonder.

I do not condemn those who do but wish they would educate themselves before condemning the rest of us.

Who for instance? Name some names.

 

[Josephg]

Hey, come back here! What are ya, chicken?

 

[French Colonial]

Some people can not read this thread and figure out which ones are against blowing down the barrel…

If that describes you….

Here’s your sign

 

[Josephg]

Chicken!

 

[Rató:rats]

Does anyone have any primary documentation of someone from any century shooting themselves blowing down the barrel of a single shot muzzleloader? Not anecdotal but documented? I’ve got no dog in this fight just curious

 

[springfield art]

A friend was with a small N-NSA group years ago; they had a member that continually pushed the rules, and was suspended. They finally kicked him out when it was found he mixed modern powder in with the black, to get more "umph"! BTW, he had been a 're-enactor' prior. Re-enactors seem to be more loosey goosey with safety and authenticity than the hard-core N-NSA shooters.

 

[S.Kenton]

Whenever there is one of these threads that seems to always degenerate into the two opposing sides of the blowing down the barrel argument; I always reflect that humanity as a species would never have evolved to our current state if every muzzleloading shooter during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries had stopped what they were doing to wipe the bore, rifled or smooth, after every shot.

When I got started in muzzleloading in 1971, blowing down the barrel was an accepted practice, and was mentioned in every piece of how-to literature written about muzzleloading. To include, The Gun Digest, The Lyman Black Powder Handbook, Muzzle Blasts magazine, Muzzleloader magazine, Outdoor Life magazine, Field and Stream magazine, the Herter's catalog, The Whole Earth Catalog, and others.

The reason it was mentioned virtually anytime a muzzleloading rifle was being talked about, was because shooters had come to the realization several hundred years previously that the hot, moist breath of a human, when introduced to the bore of a just fired muzzleloading rifle, or smoothbore, would serve to both keep the fired black powder fouling soft, but would also, because of the abundant moisture contained in expelled human breath, serve to extinguish any lingering sparks down at the breech plug's face/touch hole.

I blew down the barrel of three different flintlock longrifles over a span of 25 years, and not once during the thousands, upon thousands of times that I did so, was I ever in danger of harming myself. Not once.

That's because I knew with absolute certainty, that the rifle was empty each & every time that I blew down the barrel. Because, I had just finished firing that flintlock rifle. And, there was no way to be injured, other than possibly chipping a tooth on the barrel, which would be carelessness on my part. I certainly could not be shot, because the rifle's bore would be empty.

Of all the high risk activities that I have engaged in during my lifetime, I would have to put riding a motorcycle in traffic on an interstate highway to be at the top of my list as the most dangerous thing that I have ever done.

Far more dangerous than riding a bicycle in city traffic, which would be #2 on my list..

Ice climbing, rock climbing, mountain climbing, white water rafting, canoeing on rivers, mountain bicycle racing, road bicycle racing, logging, working as a machinist for 2.5 years, welding, forging, working on a farm, picking fruit off of tall ladders; all of the above things are inherently more dangerous than blowing down the barrel of an empty rifle that has just been fired.

I totally resent having other people take away my right to do as my muzzleloading predecessors have done for hundreds of years, in order to try, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to keep the idiots, the clumsy, the inattentive, the stupid, and the careless, who are constantly amongst us, safe from themselves.

You can't legislate competence, intelligence, or attentiveness.

Excellent write up! I agree wholeheartedly!

 

[Woody Morgan]

Chicken!

wm

 

[Eutycus]

Other than blowing down the barrel is this thread limited to or just about rifles? Twirling or fanning a handgun don't strike me as a very safe act.

 

[Brazos John]

Twirling or fanning a handgun don't strike me as a very safe act.

SASS agrees.
Oops. Back to Muzzleloading.
Sorry.

 

[waksupi]

I have never seen the use of
blowing down the barrel. It is like some of the boys tamping the butt of their rifles on the ground after loading thinking that this will compact the charge and make it louder.
Hope this finds all reading this well.

Shooting blanks, blowing down the barrel would not serve the same purpose as firing a projectile. No need to keep fouling soft with blanks.
The purpose of bumping a stock on the ground is to help move powder into the area closest to ignition. Otherwise it can bridge, causing misfires.

 

[waksupi]

I think the most common safety violation I have seen is newbies priming behind the firing line. That is a sure fire way to get an ass chewing on our ranges.

 

[Roundball 54]

I have been involved in the shooting sports most of my life .So rather than give an example of gun safety rules l have witnessed being broken , l will list the rules that l have not seen broken .
So here they are listed below .





Well there's my list .

 

[Stony Broke]

When it comes to blowing down a barrel, I just think of blowing on an ember to get it hotter. I would worry that an ember sitting down there could become hotter and then you pour powder on top of it.

 

[French Colonial]

When it comes to blowing down a barrel, I just think of blowing on an ember to get it hotter. I would worry that an ember sitting down there could become hotter and then you pour powder on top of it.

WRONG!

HOW MANY TIMES DO I AND OTHERS HAVE TO SAY IT!

IT IS NOT ABOUT EMBERS!!!!!!!

IT IS MOISTURE FOR FOULING CONTROL!!!!

MOISTURE!!!! WOULD DO WHAT TO AN EMBER!!!!

SOME OF THE HARDEST HEADED PEOPLE EVER!

 

[Stony Broke]

Sorry if my ideas are different than yours !!! Shooting black unmentionables, I made up a tube to blow down those barrels to get moisture in them and I'm sure it did some good, but no way they could have had embers in them. I guess my hard headedness must work against my shooting and I would just have to alter my ways to do it properly !!

 

[deerstalkert]

 

[Woody Morgan]

WRONG!

HOW MANY TIMES DO I AND OTHERS HAVE TO SAY IT!

IT IS NOT ABOUT EMBERS!!!!!!!

IT IS MOISTURE FOR FOULING CONTROL!!!!

MOISTURE!!!! WOULD DO WHAT TO AN EMBER!!!!

SOME OF THE HARDEST HEADED PEOPLE EVER!

Yelling won't convince anyone. My guts tell me there are safer ways to deal with fouling. Good enough.

wm