Muzzleloader Safety

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sundance44s

New member
Those co2 gizmoes work great for cap lock and flint locks to boot ...After all there are those who dry ball and admit it and those that dry ball and say its never happened to them . My wife forgets the powder about once a month ..So she picked up the co2 thing for us ( her ) and it sure has made my life easyer . when she first started shooting a flintlock she was bad for pounding the ball down the tube ..many times I had to use my vent pick to get her rifle to go off she had packed the powder so tight the primmer powder would just flash and it wouldn`t fire ..or if it did fire it would have a bad delay ...I finally got her just seating the ball on top of the charge , and problem solved . Of course the more you shoot your flintlock the larger the vent hole becomes , that uasually solves the vent problem too.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"Well Mike, maybe you are a very consistant ball bouncer."

JHenry,

Read my description of how, and why, I "ball bounce" (sounds vaguely painful).

I SINCERELY doubt that my single "bounce," which is done to ensure that the ball is well seated, does any more damage than pushing the ball down the bore in the first place.

I'm not bouncing the rod on the ball in some weird effort to push it THROUGH the ball, THROUGH the breech plug, THROUGH the stock, THROUGH the earth, and THROUGH some rascally Chinaman on the other side...


I'm pretty positive that the attention I pay to evenly trimming the sprue and placing the sprue mark the same place for every load has a LOT more to do with my gun's accuracy potential than a single bounce on the projectile during the loading cycle.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"After all there are those who dry ball and admit it and those that dry ball and say its never happened to them."

I can HONESTLY say that I have never dry balled my rifle.

I've come very close, and in fact would have one day had not the guy I was shooting with asked me when I was intending to charge my gun...


The muzzleloader shotgun I used to shoot for fun?

Yeah, I dry shotted that one a couple of times.


Oh, and by far the MOST embarassing thing? Dry balling isn't it.

It's loading the rifle, charging the pan, bringing it to your shoulder, pulling the cock to full, taking careful aim, setting the trigger, pulling the trigger, and having your friends collapse in hysterics because they were thinking "No, no way in HELL is Mike going to try to fire his rifle without realizing that his flint is still on the table..."

Sigh...
 
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sundance44s

New member
Seen a guy forget to remove his ram rod once ..he took careful aim and fired that ramrod into the 25 yard board ...don`t know if he ever got it dug from the berm behind the board .
I did dry ball once myself ...I was so busy watching the wife trying to make sure she didn`t ....I DID ..lol
 
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Pahoo

New member
My initial post, listed three questions or requests for your opinions and must say that Y'all exceeded my expectations. I know what I have to teach and support. As stated before, the state is showing a video that I feel, shows unsafe loading procedures. Not a big deal but as your replies indicate, can bite you in the ass. I thank you and know that your replies make for a great forum and safe instructions. I thank you again !!!:)
 
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