A most interesting possibility enters the scene.
I was talking to a friend of mine this morning, who tried all kinds of things to get a barrel to ring. Using firecracker fuse, of course, he said he short started balls, but could NOT get the barrel to ring. He said the best way he found to get a bulge in the barrel was this method:
Load powder, ram the patched ball down the bore, seat firmly on the powder.
THEN...short start a ball in the muzzle. This makes a nice bulge in the barrel.
Now, it dawned on me as I had no recollection of short starting, it is also entirely possible I had already pushed a ball down onto the powder, and THEN short started another ball.
Either way, the main ingredient is distraction, balanced by a great big portion of luck. I am glad to be here to tell you about it, and even happier that I am not paying hospital visits to a hurt son or neighbor. Amen.
First time I ever had this happen, and hopefully the last. You might think 'this couldn't happen to me', and I must admit, I never entertained this happening to ME, with MY gun. However, this weekend changed all that.
I was shooting alongside my son Jesse, and one of our neighbors, Bill, was coaching Jesse. I had one ear on what Bill was saying, and less than half my focus on what I was doing. I loaded powder and started the ball, and completely forgot to push the ball all the way down with the loading rod. In hindsight, I had no doubts, no niggling thought to check my gun if I wasn't sure of the load. Nothing. Nothing, that is, until the gun went off with the strangest sound. It didn't dawn on me that something was wrong until the smoke cleared, and the muzzle didn't look right.
I have been shooting Muzzle loaders for about forty years, so experience has nothing to do with this. It's focus on the job at hand that matters for the safety of yourself and others. When someone says safety, I feel like I'm right on that bandwagon, touting safe handling, safe procedure, etc. But this event made me take a step back and re-assess my thinking. This kind of thing can happen to ANYONE, no matter how, young old, or experienced if you don't pay attention to what you're doing.
Most of all, it's FOCUS. If you are distracted, ANYTHING can happen. I have forgotten powder about five or six times in my shooting life. OK, so you pull the ball and start over. Or the vent is full of sludge.
But something like this is not only damaging to the gun, someone could have been hurt or killed if things had gone differently. I count myself as the luckiest man in the world.
The short starter I use puts the ball just at the front sight dovetail. The dovetail makes the barrel weak at this spot. In one way, this gave the barrel a definite place to relieve the pressure. Had I a longer starter, the barrel may have only bulged, but not split? Or could it have blown sideways, and shrapnel hit my neighboring shooter? I shudder to think of what COULD have happened.
.54 swamped, with about .05 wall thickness at the dovetail. Shooting 70 gr FFG. .535 ball The shsort starter placed the ball RIGHT at the dovetail. You can see the bulge right at the dovetail. I think the split probably started at the thinnest point, and tore fore and aft from there.
The strip of metal peeled forward, but nothing tore off, thank God.
Front sight stuck into the rafters above the firing line.
It gives me the chills to think what MIGHT have happened. If reading this helps someone else pay a little more attention on the line, then this lesson has not been wasted. Don't talk to others while loading or shooting. If you feel distracted or unable to concentrate, take a break. Your safety and that of others is at stake.
I feel like the luckiest man in the world. I learned a terrible lesson at a very low price. I don't give a @!*% about the gun, I can get a new barrel. But I can't replace someone's eye.
Tom
