I took the Trade Rifle to my gunsmith this afternoon to have him check it out and see if he could make sense out of what happened. He only hunts with flint-locks and is quite knowledgeable about them. As close as he could figure is that the gun was on full **** and somehow the sear let loose with unburned powder still in the pan. He called someone he knows at Lyman and talked about it with him. He then put me on the phone and I explained what I knew about what had happened. This gentleman seemed quite concerned and told me that if I would send them the gun to have their people check it out they would replace it with a new one. I mentioned that I much preferred cap-locks and he was told that after they receive my gun they would send me one with a peep-sight already installed. He scheduled a UPS pickup for tomorrow and I won't even have to pay for shipping.

My gunsmith gave me six plastic syringes with long needles and told me that the next time anyone had a misfire to insert the needle into the flash channel and squirt water directly into the breach before doing anything else. Sounds like a good idea to me.