Indian torador for comment

[Berkley]

Newly acquired, an interesting carbine length Indian torador with an atypical Western-style trigger assembly which works well and appears to have some age. Bore almost 1" at the flared muzzle. Old mother of pearl inlays, bone butt plate, the various parts possibly collected from several donors at some time in the past.
The previous owner just emailed me as follows:

I had had the gun for several years and one day I decided to see how far back the breech was from the muzzle. When I ran a rod down the bore, it stopped well short of the breech and it didn't have the sound you would expect when it hit bottom. I got out a worm and started digging and found that the darned thing was still loaded. I dug out some very dry bits of paper that was serving as an over shot wad. Then I dug out a bunch of corroded shot. It was so corroded that it was just a mass of granular white gunk but could be recognized as having been lead shot at one time a long time ago. Following the corroded shot, there was more dry crumbled paper and then I dug out the original powder charge. I dug it out and emptied it onto a piece of newspaper. I took it outside and struck a match to it to see if it would still burn.....it did, in a big poof. I was amazed to find that it had been loaded all those years.

[laEspadaAncha]

Very cool piece.

And I'm guessing old loads are more common than most people imagine - and as your exmaple demonstrated to its previous owner, old powder can still be dangerous!

It recalls one of the cardinal rules of handling any firearm: ALWAYS TREAT IT AS IF IT IS LOADED!!! (even after a couple hundred years!)

[trenchwarfare]

Very cool piece, indeed. I have to make a correction: Every firearm is always loaded, always.

In my experience, over 25% of older muzzle loaders are loaded. The last one I had, was an English SXS 10 gauge. Both barrels contained a wad of Spanish moss, homemade birdshot, another wad of moss, and lastly, homemade gunpowder. The powder was very weak, and had what looked like cornmeal as an extender.

The one before that, was a Japanese matchlock. The powder had been removed via the breechplug, but it still had some silk wadding, and a 6.5MM Arisaka shell casing as a projectile.

[laEspadaAncha]

Originally Posted by trenchwarfare

Very cool piece, indeed. I have to make a correction: Every firearm is always loaded, always.

But this is where my saftey check doesn't always calibrate with my reality check... You see, for me to field strip a firearm, it must first be unloaded.

[kahnjar1]

Hi Berkley,
Very nice piece you have there. I agree with others who have expressed caution with old muzzle loaders.......a good friend of mine blew his TV apart by accident, by snapping a cap without checking the contents of the barrel.
Stu

[laEspadaAncha]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Hi Berkley,
...a good friend of mine blew his TV apart... by snapping a cap without checking the contents of the barrel.
Stu

Australian for "saftey check?"