A real close call
 

On Sunday afternoon a gentleman was here trying out a flintlock Lyman Trade Rifle for the first time. He had fired off two shots when the third failed to ignite. He then recharged the pan three times with no success and decided that he must of failed to put in the powder in his excitement. After the third try he picked up his goods and headed back to his car with the rifle in one hand when it discharged. The ball hit the tailgate of a pickup that had just pulled up to the barn with three people in the cab and if the muzzle of the gun had been an inch higher one of the passengers of the truck could have been killed. I have witnessed several hang-fires, it has never happened to me, but never one of about five minutes. I didn't know it could happen nor do any of the guys who shoot here.

The indecent shook the man up so much that he gave me the gun, powder, balls, patches, powder measure along with a beautiful powder horn and said from now on he is going to stick to in-lines. I offered to pay him for the gun but he said that he hopes that he never sees it again.

WOW! Lucky guy (both of you).

I've never had a hangfire that was more than two seconds or so myself. But you can bet that gun with a load in it would have been pointed at the sky or the ground so long as it was in my hands.

It could have been a hangfire. Or it could be the he had the lock c0cked and pulled the trigger to unc0ck it. A flintlock will fire on occasion with no powder in the pan.

that was quite the delay. I have seen hang fires go a few seconds.. but never heard of one that long. It would be curious to know what he did wrong to make that happen. BUT also thanks for telling this, because it never hurts to be reminded to be careful.

That is why you pour water down the barrel before you pull a load as well...

WOW!!!

Muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times. Very fortunate indeed.

HA

I would have to agree with Semisane on this. None of my rifles would ever even leave the bench with a projectile in it. If it were a hang fire and pan didn't ignite I would wipe, adjust, or replace the flint. If the pan ignited but not the main charge I would clean out the flash hole. If a suspected dryball I would remove the lock and flashhole liner, put in some FFFFg, replace the parts and try to expel the charge into the ground where I could see the bullet hit. If none of that worked I would get out the bullet puller and get that projectile out.
The only time I ever put a charged sidelock in my vehicle is during hunting season. (In PA a ML is not considered loaded unless it is capped or charge in the pan.) Even then I put a tire valve cap on the nipple or, in the case of a flinter, a paper towel or patch between the flint and frizzen.

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.

Not a bad idea. But if you want to have something handy for doing that - and something very compact in your shooting gear - those little tubes of eye wash with the twist off top made by "Refresh" would work quite nicely. The tapered spout would fit in either a flash channel or nipple. I have a dry eye problem and usually have one around.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refresh-Plus...-/220825748610

In my younger days in the Air Force, I was an F-4E crew chief stationed At Soesteberg AB, NL. I was working on the Alert Pad and we had a scramble. Well The pilot had hit the starter on teh #2 engine and it fired up nicely. As the #2 was running up he hit the #1 engine starter and all we got was a short flash and then nothing. I ran over and removed the start cartridge and loaded up an new one and the engine started and the two aircraft taxi to take off. Well all of a sudden the first hang fire cart ignited and took off out of the alert hanger, and then down the taxiway.

Let me explain the time line. We had our alert birds ****ed and standing on a five minute alert. That means the aircraft must get airborne within five minutes. They normally got off in 3 and one half minutes. From teh time I removed the starter cart till the time it reignited was about four minutes. Normally we would take the cart and put it in an ammo can that was on the side of the Tab V Shelter with water in it and that would stop any problems.

Those starter cartridges had black power for it's propellent. Hope this was interesting. When I found out that the huge battle ships used BP in their big guns, I was surprised.

Sorry for the long windedness!!! :wave: