When I picked up my guns, I had my best friend for 20+ years was with me. I pointed out an tc hawken setting on the rack for $125. he decided to get. The guns I bought and that one all came from the same collection. the own before him painted the brass on it. no problem there, some type of paint thinner and brasso, good shiny brass again. he went to pay for it. something I missed on the back of the tag, "Gun loaded, Free". my jaw dropped, thought to my self, if I knew that I would of never pointed out to him. the guys at the gun shop said to just shoot it out. shocker to me. he buys some musket caps.

We leave, when we get to the truck I tell him "If I knew the gun was loaded I would have never showed it to him". then he asked me way I don't use musket caps. I don't have any problems igniting powders with #11 mag caps.

We head to his sisters farm, I go over the best case (it does not go off and we will have to try something else) and the worst case, I have to tell his family what happen.

we get out, he checks to how much of the ramrod is sticking out, almost 2in. I started doing the math in my head. 100grs of powder and PRB, nope too tall, conical with 80grs to 100grs of powder.

he puts an cap on the nipple, I tell him I will stay in the truck, well I was out of the truck but standing on opposite side near the front of the truck, he was at the tail gate about 3 feet away from the truck. holds the gun like he was holding an pistol, boom, about 20yards away there was an 12in x 6in x 3in hole in the ground.


finally got the gun back to his house, I showed him how to break it down and clean it. open up the patch box, an BALL PULLER.

after we had it cleaned and oiled, I started massing with the adjustment screw to get the set trigger back in the set up. I am uses to CVA adjustment, 3 screws. I was shocked when it was only one. started turning to figure out which way to get it set up right. by the time I was done. set trigger I say about 3 to 4lbs, front trigger. 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. i was scared to bring it out anymore, I did not know how much was left of the screw.

Corey, how is the condition of the bore? Look good and shiny or rusted and pitted?

I did not have my bore light with me at the time, but if it is anything like the two I bought. it should be perfect.

I did not see any rust patches when we cleaned it.

next time I am over at his house I will bring my light and take an good look.

the guy that owned them was an major muzzleloader guy when it came to the bores. there are 3 maybe 4 of the guns he owned stilled there. they told me they had I think 10 or more out of the collection. they sold 3 before I put my two on layaway.

see if I can remember what they had left. an jukar pistol, an euro arms 58cal, some type of Italian made gun (all that saw on the barrel), what to me looked like an smoothbore guess something in the 30cal range they where selling as an wall hanger.

Yeah, since your friend's rifle came from the same collection i'd say he's got a good one- judging by the condition of the two you bought. And no rust on the patches is a very good sign!

Sounds like he got a good deal on it, too!!!

Good deal there Corey. As for the loaded rifle, I knew a guy that had his ML loaded all year. Took it out, put a cap on the nipple, and bang. No problem. Keeping a BP gun loaded that long though is something I would never advise however.

There was a case where a man too his grandfather's old family musket off the wall, capped it and it fired. They had no idea the rifle was loaded or how long it was loaded for. The claim was it had hung on that wall for over 50 years as well as they knew. If the rifle was never fired, and loaded clean... they say it will not damage the bore to leave the rifle loaded. Not something I would do, but they do claim that. By the way that was a heck of a deal on that Hawkins.

Corey sounds like you got a couple good buys.

Not getting off the subject. Talk about leaving BP guns loaded for long periods of time.
I have a Ruger S/S Old Army that I loaded in Nov of 1992 for a special hunt. I know the date because I was going through a divorce at the time. That Ruger is still loaded from that special hunt in my safe. I can assure you if I put new caps on it ,it will go off like I just loaded it. I have my Knight Disc S/S loaded from last season. I cleaned it good and loaded it. It probably won't get fired until this coming season which is a ways off. Depends how they were loaded and then how they are stored.

The real danger is in not knowing, or not remembering the gun is loaded. It happened to me once. I hadn't remembered I had left my Hawkins loaded from the previous season. The morning of the first day of the following seaon I popped the first of what was going to be several caps to make sure the bore was dry and BOOM! It was loaded. Naturally, safe gun handling had the gun pointed towards the ground in a safe direction, but it scared the poop out of me. Not to mention what could have happened if I had been careless. From now on I slip a piece of paper taped into a tube with LOADED or CLEAN written on it, onto the barrel of my sidelocks. That way I will always know when I pick up the gun, without a doubt, if it's loaded or not.

That is a good idea to remind yourself and others it's a loaded gun. I treat all my guns as they are loaded but I should identify that it's loaded for others incase. The cemetery is full of people that thought they had unloaded guns. That Ruger Old Army has been loaded for so many years I wouldn't know how to treat it if it was unloaded.I guess one day I should shoot it out and clean it.