Your Most Serious Danger Situation?

[Alden]

Read a few items here recently which planted the seed of starting a thread for folks to post their own most personal, serious, situation where there was some dangerous condition or actual accident within the context of this forum...

For example, I was at a Brigade/Line event somewhere. A CW reenactor trying Rev War for the first time was placed in the first rank to my left. Shoulders touching, we followed orders.

After a few rounds of firing blanks he asked me if I could tell if his flintlock was firing. I said "no" but told him to make sure he was dumping his powder after each load of powder he dropped down the tube to be safe. A few rounds later I reminded him when I saw his gun did not fire. After a final feu-de-joie this a-hole dumped 10 cartridges of powder out of his musket! Up to 1,000 grains of blackpowder!! If his pipe-bomb, which was about a foot away from my head, had gone off it would have maimed if not killed me outright!!!

I couldn't care less what Darwin had in mind for the CW reenactor, to be honest, except agreeing he should be removed from the gene pool...

The officers seemed a little less concerned and a whole lot less vocal than I soon became. After all, nothing happened, right? But not because the moron wasn't trying to touch off his musket.

 

[Keb]

I camped next to the Asylum once. That's about as dangerous as it can get.

 

[daniel collums]

i was at a deer camp about 20 years ago with some friends and one of the guys son was doing some practice shooting at a box in the road ditch across from the camp house.When i came walking up the road this young guy was holding his gun and another kid was pulling on the ramrod. As i got closer the one kid said just shoot it out. I hollered out and told them to wait a second don't shoot. When i got there i was told that they had got a ball stuck about half way down and it wouldn't go any further so they tried to screw a ball puller into the ball and then got it stuck and they were fixing to shoot it out, the ball was only in about a foot. When i told them the gun would have exploded and might have killed them if they tired to shoot it the only thing they said was please don't tell my dad. I got the wood ramrod out with the ball puller and took my range rod and seated the ball and then he shot it out. Then i loaded my stuff and got the heck out of that camp.

 

[Semisane]

Question from fellow customer in Cabala's: "My father in law has some powder, but it's gray not black. Is it OK to shoot in this?" (He was holding a CVA Wolf.)

 

[Billnpatti]

I was in a hunting camp where everyone was hunting with muzzleloaders. There was a truck load of "Bubbas" camped next to us. I went over and asked how their hunting went that day. One of the yellow tooth, mouth breathing, slack jawed, tobacco chewing, goat lovers went off into a story about how they had gone deer hunting the week before with another friend who happened not to be with them this trip. The person with whom I was talking said that "The other feller started givin' me a hard time about not gettin' a damned deer that mornin'. Well, I jest went out that evenin' and waited in my blind and ever damn deer that came out, I shot the bastard. I kept loadin' and shootin' until they quit a-commin' out. Must have left 4 or 5 on the ground but a couple was gut shot and got away. He damn well hadn't ought ta a-been funnin' me." I slowly walked away and told the rest of the guys who were hunting with me "Whatever you do, do go "a-funnin' him." I felt like I had just escaped from a scene from Deliverance.

 

[William O.]

That kind of wasteful attitude makes me both sick to my stomach and mad as hell at the same time.

Mine came when in line at the gun counter at Bass Pro Shop to buy a can of Goex. One of the floor managers came and asked if she could help, and I relied that I needed to buy a pound of black powder, Goex for my muzzle loader. "Oh we have that on the shelf, it's right over here." she said while leading me over to the reloading section. She then pointed to the smokeless powder and said it should be in there. I politely informed here of her mistake and got back in line, but what if I would have been a beginner and not known any better? What if someone had taken here advice and loaded 60 grains of Bullseye into their muzzle loader?

Then there was the time years ago when I was still doing the CAS thing. One of the shooters was so excited to have gone all BP, bought everything he needed, C&B pistols, PC outfit and two loading stands. Problem was that his persona smoked and old timey pipe, which he had in his mouth as he poured powder into the cylinders of his 58 Remingtons, right next to me at the loading table. When told to get rid of the lit pipe immediately he retorted that it was perfectly safe because he was being so cautious and had done so many times before. I've seen the same attitude with folks handling BP and smoking cigars at the same time.

 

[jamesthomas]

About the only one story I have was when I stepped on a 5 foot timber rattler while squirrel hunting in the National Forest near Auburn, Ala. I did bring him home but I found two fang marks on my boot afterwards. :shocked2: .

 

[Alden]

Well, the rattler did his job. You just got lucky! LOL And I'm glad u r here to share that scary story with the others.

Some kids saved, clueless store managers and suicidal "shooters," souless hillbillys...

Keep 'em coming! We all learn from these.

 

[mooman76]

A friend that went with us shooting and new to BP couldn't get his PB all the way down and was just going to shoot it out. We stopped him of coarse but it could have been ugly if we hadn't been there.

 

[Claude Mathis]

None. Sorry.

 

[suzkat]

Pitched a tent one drunk night on a U S Army field artillery range in 1983. Several other dumb things involving cars and motorcycles

 

[Vaino]

When I lived in northern Minnesota, my "road" was often the Mesabi iron ore train tracks and one day at 11 yrs old, I was walking these tracks and heard something fly overhead and then heard the sound of a .22. After the 2nd bullet went over my head, I ducked below the embankment and went to Anderson's creek and caught some brook trout. On the return trip, I again walked below the tracks.

Upon returning to the farm, I didn't even attempt to tell my grandparents...they couldn't understand English and I couldn't speak Finnish.

In a couple of weeks my Dad came up to help w/ the haying and I told him and he "relayed" the info to his parents.

The mentally deficient boy of 15 who had shot at me was committed...I wasn't the only person he shot at.

Will never forget the "fluttering" sound of an over head bullet.....Fred

 

[tom deinek]

Ran my brass tumbler all night. Looked at the shiny brass as I left for work. Pleased, I did not put the lid back on the vibrator.

Came home 10 hours later the squirrels had found it. Walnut media & brass all over my wife's newly carpeted porch.

Dumb & dangerous!

 

[Rifleman1776]

had done so many times before

Just another version of the "It ain't blowed up yet." crowd. :youcrazy:

 

[Eric Krewson]

I was deer hunting out in the middle of nowhere, down in a deep hollow putting up a hang on tree stand. Got careless and fell out backward from about 12ft up. Broke my back and wrist, no one knew where I was so I had to get myself out of the woods.

I passed put from the pain several times but did make it back to my truck, drove the 45 miles home and made it to the hospital.

A very harrowing afternoon adventure.

 

[mulefour]

One of many was load a double barrel shotgun while onlooker were asking questions and I loaded the second load on top of the first. The load was 80 grs 2f with 9 OO buckshot. When I fired it the shotgun landed in the dirt behind me. This was about 30 yrs ago and I still will not load a double while talking to anyone.

 

This isn't muzzleloader related and it isn't even my story.
I first read it on a woodworking board several years ago and it was such a good story, I saved it.
Enjoy. And shiver a little.

Grandpa was born 1870 and he worked for the Granite Mill in SLC, UT. He started at age 14 and worked there untill age 70. For years, us grand kids would play in his work shop in the basement. Building boats Trains and what ever else we could think up. As young kids will do, cleanup consisted of THROWING hammers, chisels, large C-clamps and what ever else we had dragged out of Grandpa's tool chestback in back in.

After Grandpa passed away in 1961. My father was cleaning out the Workshop and the tool chest. One day he came up out of the basement, white as a sheet, and made every one there leave the property. He then called the police, Who then called the Local Army Base. The army came out and removed Five boxes (100 count) of BLASTING CAPS and 9 sticks of DYNAMITE that was dripping LIQUID NITROGLYCERN. The Caps and Dynamite were manufactuered in 1916. They had been in the bottom of the tool chest all these years.

God truely looks out for fools and little kids!

 

[bpd303]

As long as we are telling stories about doing stupid things as kids, this one is true, the statute of limitations has run out and my brother has passed away, so I’ll tell it.

My brother got a chemistry set when he was 8-10 years old. He made up a fuse with cotton string and we tested it for burn rate. Seemed to work well so we got the idea to make up a “bomb”.

Took a quart mason jar from mom’s pantry, filled it with all sorts of powder gleaned from cut open cartridges along with some black powder from granddad’s shooting supplies. Stuck the fuse in through a hole punched in the lid, wrapped the whole thing with all sorts of stuff - tape, paper soaked with a wet flour mixture, wrapped with twine. The thing was about a foot in diameter.

We lived in a rural area and across the street was a large field with a small Florida Cherry tree/bush growing there. Well, we took it over to the cherry tree and set it at the base, lit the fuse and ran back to the house, hiding behind the car in the carport.

We waited”¦and waited”¦nothing. My brother said the fuse must have gone out and wanted to go back to re-light it.

About that time mom called us in for dinner and as we were sitting down”¦BOOM”¦an explosion that shook the house. Everyone ran outside to see this large cloud of dust & smoke with pieces of debris falling from the sky.

The cherry tree was gone and there was a crater about the size of a Volkswagen in the ground. Of course the police & fire department arrived but no one knew anything about it. To this day I figured we were saved only because of dinner and thankful that there was no such thing as Homeland Security.

 

[suzkat]

Once thought clorox and ammonia would do a great job cleaning. Chemistry was my worst class. Don't ever try that

 

[suzkat]

Once my schiophrenic friend invited me into his basement....at gunpoint. That one still makes me shudder. I was sure it was the end of the road. I talked him down and took him to the hospital. He was paranoid delusional. Still a friend til this day.