Horn Blew up TODAY!!!!!

[John SMOthermon]

Flinter I'm glad you and everyones OK. When I shot with a club in S.Fl. we loaded at tables behind the firing line/benches. No Powder was allowed at the firing line with the exception of your priming flask/horn. I always felt uncomfortable just leaving my charger just lying on the bench next to the line while shooting,so I would cover it with my towel while firing. A towel is a must in S. Fl.  trying to shoot in that humidity. I always said "better safe than sorry".

PS: A nice battery operated fan is a must down there too...lol 

[Dphariss]

Gentelmen I take full respoonceability for this misshap .I hope my goofup will save someone from the same mistake . I'm very lucky to not have burns on my body. I didn't sleep well last night just thinking of this.

Glad you are OK.
Scarey...
Cold weather clothing was a plus here I am sure
BP flash burns are very painful even if superficial, I learned many moons ago
I have ceased to use the little plunger type primers since they are an accident waiting to happen and I make sure my horns are water tight and either air or very nearly air tight. I have one that I made in 1968 I should renew the base plug in or at least check again.
I had one a few years ago that I had epoxied. Antique with a crack. It finally broke to the point of making a priming horn from it.
When a FL  fires the pan there is a lot of stuff flying around and using FF or FFF for prime will increase this since the heavier grains burn slower and fly farther.
I consider horns to be the best container for powder. The horn failed without allowing the powder to produce enough pressure to cause blast damage. I would hope mine would do the same.

But we also tend to get a little too used to having the stuff around and often forget that its pretty hot stuff, easy to light and impossible to put out.

Dan

[Roger Fisher]

Gentelmen I take full respoonceability for this misshap .I hope my goofup will save someone from the same mistake . I'm very lucky to not have burns on my body. I didn't sleep well last night just thinking of this.

Glad you are OK.
Scarey...
Cold weather clothing was a plus here I am sure
BP flash burns are very painful even if superficial, I learned many moons ago
I have ceased to use the little plunger type primers since they are an accident waiting to happen and I make sure my horns are water tight and either air or very nearly air tight. I have one that I made in 1968 I should renew the base plug in or at least check again.
I had one a few years ago that I had epoxied. Antique with a crack. It finally broke to the point of making a priming horn from it.
When a FL  fires the pan there is a lot of stuff flying around and using FF or FFF for prime will increase this since the heavier grains burn slower and fly farther.
I consider horns to be the best container for powder. The horn failed without allowing the powder to produce enough pressure to cause blast damage. I would hope mine would do the same.

But we also tend to get a little too used to having the stuff around and often forget that its pretty hot stuff, easy to light and impossible to put out.

Dan

We went over this at outr annual meeting past Sunday and will be gone over during upcoming w walks at other clubs i.e. Cracked horn discard or hang over the mantle (w.o contents of course)

[heelerau]

Eric,
      good that you are ok.  Downunder to my knowledge we have had a powder flask go up, it was on a  shooting bench during a comp.  We no longer allow flasks to be on the bench or loaded from directly.
      Back to your incident, it would never have occurred to me that a repaired horn could be a problem, or that a glued in base plug would not be a good idea as they need to pop easily in case of explosion.
    Thank you for having the guts to post this incident so we might all learn, same goes for any other stuff ups that might occur to any other of us !!

Kind regards

Gordon

[Roger Fisher]

Eric,
      good that you are ok.  Downunder to my knowledge we have had a powder flask go up, it was on a  shooting bench during a comp.  We no longer allow flasks to be on the bench or loaded from directly.
      Back to your incident, it would never have occurred to me that a repaired horn could be a problem, or that a glued in base plug would not be a good idea as they need to pop easily in case of explosion.
    Thank you for having the guts to post this incident so we might all learn, same goes for any other stuff ups that might occur to any other of us !!

Kind regards

Gordon

I agree,, so last night I'm getting my gear together for coming
Sunday's w walk (smoothbore this time) and I decided to test the original ancient horn that is part of my gear for being airtight.  Needless to say I was surprised to hear and feel the air blown thru it coming out (in fair volume) around the large end plug.  No cracks visible but ... So, I went to another horn  (aftertesting it the same way) This horn is ancient and original also; but the b    is tight!  The leaky horn now decorates my dungeon wall..  Sooo, all of us should take heed and try our own equipment.  My thanks again to the original poster.

[xring2245]

This incident goes to prove that we can never be too careful.  Once we become lazy enough to throw all caution to the wind, bad things will happen.  Although Eric was not negligent in this case, inspite of the precautions we do take, sometimes they are not enough.

Thanks for sharing.

James

[pathfinder]

That's why I stated there was NO BLAME ANYWHERE as to this incedent. It just happens sometimes. Doesn't mean there's no explaination,just thankfull all's well!

[mupperm]

I will give you a thumbs up and a big thank you for sharing your near miss.  Since i am a planning on attending some shoots for the first time this is very helpful. 

[JCKelly]

Guess I'll stop using that old horn with the cloth tape over a crack . . .

[Steve-In]

Very glad you were not hurt.  I am lefthanded too but I wear my horn on my right side.  I did this to prevent the horn from bumping my rifle while hunting.  I also think this moves the horn futher away from the lock.  With the high horn carry that would place the horn almost directly under the lock.  Most righthanded people carry on the right side creating a similar situation. 

[spiderman852]

Eric, glad your OK!

 See you at the chunk shoots.

 Mike

[Dean2]

Very glad no one got hurt from this freak accident. Proves no matter how careful you are things can go wrong.

[Pete G.]

I'm wondering if the epoxy didn't hold because it was brittle and didn't expand and contract with the natural material of horn. Old time cracks were often repaired with metal staples and tar. The staple would hold the crack together while the tar would remain resilient enough to seal.

I've noticed ads for a lot of relatively cheap powder horns lately. These are coming in from south Asia and most need a little work to bring them up to Chinese export standards. Not a doubt in my mind that most of these leak. Check your equipment closely and remember that familiarity builds contemp. Be careful out there....complacency kills.

[Roger Fisher]

Question arose today at a shoot,,,,, is the owner of the horn that blew certain that the crack funneled the flash into the horn or was the plug out>? Just wondering...

[pathfinder]

Yes,the plug stayed in the spout. That was the first thing I thought to. Had the flame entered through the spout,the repair to the horn would have been a moot point.

[Rolf]

For this reason, powderhorns containing powder are not allowed at the shooting ranges in scandinavia and most of europe. All powder charges must measured before hand and each charge stored in a capped plastic vival.

Best regards
Rolf

[pathfinder]

I can understand that..to a point. That seem's to be an extreme answer to a VERY rare occurance. I have no way of giving even close to accurate numbers,but I have shot in the last 30+ years,137lbs of 3f powder,65lbs of 2f,and 5lbs of 4f,I have the cans and I just counted them. Yup,I'm a strange sort of pack rat!

And in all that shooting,this is the first time I was relitivley close to this type of accident. And very little of my shooting is in a "modern"setting.

I have no idea how ya'll shoot in Europe,do youhave rendezvous and such type events there? Wife and I are planning a trip to Poland in the next 2-3 years,I'll start another thread.

[Ron T.]

Man... the Good Lord was surely sitting on your shoulder when this happened.  Like everyone else, I'm glad you didn't stuffer any serious damage since the results of the horn blowing up could have had really disastrous, even fatal, results!


Strength & Honor,

Ron T.