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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,064
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Some of you will relate to this. I was just now moving stuff round in my storeroom, and idly picked up a dismounted antique gun barrel I had bought over 30 years before. One of two I bought from Colonel Corrie. Having a ramrod in my hand at the time, I just poked it down the barrel, and it stopped a couple of inches short of the touch hole.
Into the kitchen and a rapid pouring of boiling water down the barrel... Yup, the small remnant of a black-powder charge and wad still down there, and now gone! Bought a long long time ago as a project and nothing done with it since. I had earlier, again more than 30 years ago, bought a couple of percussion pistols from him, which I checked as soon as I got them.... and they were still loaded as well. No ball though. They were Kurdish "Saturday Night Specials" that the Shah's police had confiscated and then sold to dealers out of Iran, I suspect the 2 very nice damascus twist long barrels were from the same source..... Sigh, those were the days my friends. The pistols were very cheaply made, in one case literally a gas pipe barrel, and the other a very nice old one with remains of koftgari. One lock hand made, and the other from a sidelock shotgun. The idea was that they were a shoot and dump item, pull the trigger and throw it over the wall. A bit like a "four winds" gun. If they were there a few days later, then they would be picked up for later use. |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Ireland
Posts: 539
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Totally can relate to this
I have had 3 fully loaded weapons in my collection 2 were easy enough to get ball and charge out of The brown bess was a lot more troublesome I had to weld a wood screw to a steel bar hammer bar and screw into lead ball (carefully with nothing delicate in front of barrel) then twist rod to dig screw into lead ball and remove the rod + ball wish i kept the ball but interestingly the powder under it flashed quiet well when match applied. Keep safe and this is how I rectified my issue. I am not recommending it to anyone as the prefect method. Ken |
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: In the wee woods north of Napanee Ontario
Posts: 391
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Black powder firearms are not considered loaded until a percussion cap is on the nipple, otherwise safe. Of course no one wants powder, ball or wads stuck down a bore. You can put oil down the nipple or bore and let it migrate into the obstruction, if any BP is present it will be neutralized by the oil, at least not ignite by a spark.
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,145
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I always target my wife with some old guns as a joke
I shouldn't, look what I found in a 19th c. pistol http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=barrel+powder ![]() |
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#5 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,064
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You forget matchlocks and flintlocks. Dealing with them is indeed no big deal, if you know they are loaded. I personally know of a couple of cases where an attempt to clear the nipple on a percussion gun put a ball through the back door of the house.
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#6 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: In the wee woods north of Napanee Ontario
Posts: 391
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Hello David I'm sure that has happened since the invention of the Bic lighter.
When you want to make a spark using steel on steel it never happens ![]() I know of someone who was burned by looking at a 76mm gun recoil system in a Cougar. He didn't wait for a flashlight and used a Bic lighter to see where the hydraulic leak/spray was coming from. I believe anyone who's worked enough on firearms has had a mishap regardless of how safe. If you're not 100% sure you can unload a firearm there is no shame in asking someone who can. I almost became too impatient firing off a small cannon, the fuze burned but no bang. As I approached many seconds later the "bang" did happen. Luckily I was not behind it as it recoils a few feet and has good weight to it. |
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#7 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 90
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What do you call that? A "hangfire"? My Dad taught me when I was kid, with his Brno KAR98K [is it still a KAR98K if it's Brno manufactured, with no Waffenamt markings?] and firing south-west European ball ammunition: "Jos se on suutari…(if it's a dud)…"...give it a good thirty seconds, and if nothing happens, eject it into your hand and, quick as lightning, "paiskaa se puskaan" (throw it into the bush).
Blackpowder might be a bit "touchier" than metallic cartridges. My Dad and my younger brother's Godfather [like Grandpa, to me, in a way], sighting in rifles, only ever yelled at me once, as far as firearms were concerned. They were shooting, using the roof of Dad's car as a rest, and I deked around front to get around (between shots, running at a crouch, head down, of course; they do it in war movies all the time. I couldn't have been safer borne on the wings of angels). They served me notice that I was never to pull a stunt like that again. After that day, I took anything they said with respect to firearms as dogma to be obeyed without question. Mein Dank an die Königlich Preußische Armee (indirekt). |
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#8 | |
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Sweden
Posts: 688
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#9 | |
Lead Moderator European Armoury
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Posts: 9,694
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#10 | |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,064
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....." They were shooting, using the roof of Dad's car as a rest, and I deked around front to get around (between shots, running at a crouch, head down, of course; they do it in war movies all the time. I couldn't have been safer borne on the wings of angels). They served me notice that I was never to pull a stunt like that again. After that day, I took anything they said with respect to firearms as dogma to be obeyed without question."...... I used to hang around at a friendly local gun shop and many tales and much wisdom was imparted to me. Including the guy who exited the car door just has his friend on the other side shot across the car roof with a 12 bore! They never found enough of the head to put in the coffin. |
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