Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Ought to change my member name from Semisane to Dumbass.

Shot about 30 rounds withthe .54 GP flintlock today. Man, it was brutal - mid 90's and high humidity. At least there were no bugs.

Well, about midway through the shooting session I had my first ever flash in the pan with this gun. So I picked the flash hole (another first), loaded the pan and tried again. Another flash, no boom. Picked the flash hole again, loaded the pan full, tilted the gun and tapped it a few times to get some powder from the pan to sift into the hole, and tried again - another flash, no boom.

Of course, now I'm suspicious that I dryballed the sucker. So I drop my range rod down the bore and, sure enough, it goes in past my loading witness mark. DANG! Pulled the barrel off so as to take out the touch hole liner and get somepowder in the patent breech to blow the ball out. But,can't find my allen wrench in my range box. Walk back to the truck, dig out to tool box, and find an allen wrench set. Man, it's hot and I'm sweating like a sumo wrestler on a treadmill. Back to the shooting bench - take out the touch hole liner - sift in about ten grains of powder - put the liner back in - prime the pan - put the muzzle about a foot froma cardboard boxand pull the trigger. Nice little hollow sounding poof-boom. But no hole in the box.

Turns out I didn't dryball at all,I hadn't put either powder or a balldown the bore. I'd gone straight from wiping the bore after the last shot, to wiping my face with a sweat rag,to priming the pan andtrying to shootwithout loading. Total loss of concentration.Now how the heckI didn't realize the gunwas totally empty when I dropped the range rod down the bore I'll never know. Yep, dumbass for sure.:D

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

semi - boy I think you hit the nail on the head there - Here's your sign. Now I won't say I never 'dryballed' a bullet or ball, but damn - I never omitted both. If it was me, I would not have advertised this over this site. You know you are going to take some abuse.
BTW - I was hoping for a range report on the 50 cal conicals this week. What happened? I was waiting with baited breath. (Now I guess I have to brush my teeth).

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

:D:D Man my stomach hurts after laughing so hard.

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

I must admit, I have done a lot of things but never just forgot to load and kept trying to get it to fire.

Although!!! you did the right thing.. you realized that something was wrong, you attempted to check for the problem, unfortunately misread the information the ramrod was giving you, but actually did the right thing necessary had you dry balled the rifle.

So stop beating yourself up. You operated in a safe manner, you did what you felt necessary to solve the problem and then when you found out you were really off the mark on what was going on, gave me a heck of a good laugh. Life is good...

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Heck we have all done something similar or worse at one time or another shooting these thiings. The way I get around that now is to not do things as single shot, but to put out 5 loads at once (I have 50 speed loaders)

5 loads of powder
5 bullets
5 sabot
5 primers

I then, pour the powder in the gun and if someone interrupts me and I don't know where I am in the loading sequence, I look at my lined up bullets, powder sabots and primers and I see that my power has the cap off, so I know it has been put in the gun and I have 5 bullets left, 5 sabot and 5 primers, so I know I have only put the powder in. If I had 4 powders, 4 bullets, 4 sabots but 5 primers thenthe gun isall loaded, but have not put the primer in yet---I never do that until I walk up to the shooting bench. Keeps things simple. If you shoot groups of 3, then lay out

3 speed loads
3 bullets
3 sabots
3 primers.

If you only lay out 1 load of
1 powder
1 bulet
1 sabot
1 primer
and someone interrupts you, how will you absolutely know if you were putting your powder/bullet/sabot/primertogether or placing the things in the gun? You won't,'cause we are all fallable humans, we must work toward safety in design of our procedures, protect ourself from ourself--we are our worst enemy, not someone else.

Now lets say semi, follows this system and he shoots and it goes puff, no bang. He looks at his stuff he has left and he sees:
5 charges
5 bullets
Oh, I must has shot with nothing in the rilfe.

Or lets say he puts the bullet down and don't place the powder. He shoot and it does puff. He looks at his left overs and finds
5 charges
4 bullets
so he loaded the bullet without the charge.


So lets say he places the charge in and doesn't place he bullet in and sees no hole or it don't kick much. He counts his left over loads and he has
4 loads
5 bullets, so now he knows the reason that the gun shot so light.

Hope this helps someone be safe.

Chap Gleason

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

At least you were having fun...:D

Heck, I would have tried to pull the ball and then had my range rod tip pull off and also get stuck in the barrel...
Had that happen one time and my buddies sure teased me...

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

I have to admit, I have fired blank charges by accident, dryballed, and completely forgot to load the whole gun, so its completely understandable. Though i could just say its your age.........

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Well, at least Cayugad is a compassionate man, and is willing to give a guy a break.

Actually Chap, the procedure you described is exactly what I usually do - five bullets, charges, wads/patches/caps/etc. laid out on the bench. It really is a good control method. I just didn't do it today for some reason - probably the first time in ten range sessions that I didn't.

And hawkeye, I'm not so sure I was having fun. Actually, I don't think I'll be doing any more shooting until mid September. I quit the range session today thinking "I'm not enjoying this any more, too dang HOT and my shooting stinks".It's sure not going to get any better in August. I can assure you that if I had dryballed that load it would have been the only dry balls around the bench.

Sorry about the stomach achegander, but anyone who laughs at a fellow shooter's misery deserves whathe gets. :D

I had to tell the story bronko, even though its embarrassing, cause I knew you guys would get a kick out of it. Idid shoot thecast Lees on Saturday (another unpleasant session) and will post a report on Monday. I need to scan some targets for the post and don't feel like fooling with that right now.

Hey corey, ya don't have to be old to do something dumb! So, be very very careful in your future posts. I'd hate to have to comment on the various foibles of youth. :D

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand what you did wrong other than shooting when it's so derned hot. The rest all seems perfectly "normal" to me. :D :D ;)

I've never fired a ramrod though.

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Well if I was perfectI might throw rocks or powder or something but since I am not. Lee

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

lemoyne, in addition to all that... I think you are lost. ;)

hey, who collects these things? http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=3862509&cat=377&l pid=2 Looks like a good one to me (except for the insane scope mounting).

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

my wife was doing the typing, but she was reading my mind on most of it.:D

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Hey lee, you won't hear any criticism from me. I certainly wouldn't say anything like "it looks like lee dryballed a reply" or "would someone direct lee to the correct post". :D

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

OH, THE PAIN - being called old by a sweet young thing. Teardrops on the keyboard. :D

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

I was just checking to see if he stayed confused. Lee

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

note to self, any mistakes, post them on fg's forum.

from Jess *old you may be, but i am sure you can hang with some of these young guns...and you know which end of a pistol to shoot from."

RE: Yeah! I can do dumb - and do it well.
 

Having suffered from heat stress in the past, I know the heat can cause you to do some strange things. I am blaming it on the heat!!