It freakin happened again!

[moleeyes36]

This topic revived a lingering question for me. Though I have been hunting with patched ball for thirty years I just switched to a flinter in the last two seasons. How difficult/easy is it for a flintlock to ignite the charge with no primer powder in the pan?

Sweeney,

As part of safety training, I've frequently demonstrated to new flintlock shooters that a flintlock can often fire without powder in the pan.  If you have a good liner like a White Lightning or something of that sort, the powder of the main charge is just inside the vent opening a frog hair away from the shower of sparks.  If you have a nice sparking lock, it isn't that difficult to get a spark in the vent opening. 

Mole Eyes

[oakridge]

I have an antique pistol that I've owned for 33 years. I bought it as a collector's item and never intend to shoot it. Well, out of curiosity, I recently ran a rod down the barrel just to check, and there's about an inch of "something" down in there. I think it's loaded, but I don't know how to get it out, so I may just leave it alone.

But it's your gun, and now you know that it's loaded.

Well, no, he doesn't know it's loaded, he knows there's something down the barrel.

I've unloaded more than a few antique guns, and all but one were loaded with mud, dirt, wasp nests, wadded up paper, and a marble. Certainly treat the pistol as loaded, and if you get an actual load of powder and ball out of it, post a picture so we all can see what an old load looks like!

John

I've always treated my guns as if they were loaded. This pistol, a percussion, resides in my safe, or occasionally in a display case. There are no percussion caps around, or sources of heat, and I'm the only one who handles it, so I'm not overly concerned. It has occasionally been soaked with penetrating oil down the barrel and through the nipple. I have an attachment that threads on to a cleaning rod, with a tip that looks like a wood screw. I think the idea is to run it down the barrel and try to screw it into the ball, and then pull it out. WELL, that doesn't work. Whatever I'm screwing it into, it won't hold. It just pulls loose and I get a few "crumbs" of something. Doesn't look like lead. After numerous attempts, I wasn't making any headway, so I gave it a rest. Any suggestions?

[Bob Roller]

I have an antique pistol that I've owned for 33 years. I bought it as a collector's item and never intend to shoot it. Well, out of curiosity, I recently ran a rod down the barrel just to check, and there's about an inch of "something" down in there. I think it's loaded, but I don't know how to get it out, so I may just leave it alone.

But it's your gun, and now you know that it's loaded.

Well, no, he doesn't know it's loaded, he knows there's something down the barrel.

I've unloaded more than a few antique guns, and all but one were loaded with mud, dirt, wasp nests, wadded up paper, and a marble. Certainly treat the pistol as loaded, and if you get an actual load of powder and ball out of it, post a picture so we all can see what an old load looks like!

John

I've always treated my guns as if they were loaded. This pistol, a percussion, resides in my safe, or occasionally in a display case. There are no percussion caps around, or sources of heat, and I'm the only one who handles it, so I'm not overly concerned. It has occasionally been soaked with penetrating oil down the barrel and through the nipple. I have an attachment that threads on to a cleaning rod, with a tip that looks like a wood screw. I think the idea is to run it down the barrel and try to screw it into the ball, and then pull it out. WELL, that doesn't work. Whatever I'm screwing it into, it won't hold. It just pulls loose and I get a few "crumbs" of something. Doesn't look like lead. After numerous attempts, I wasn't making any headway, so I gave it a rest. Any suggestions?

There are bullet/ball removing devices that look like a cork screw.A wood screw isn't much
good for what you want to do unless you're trying to pull a hollow point bullet.

Bob Roller

[Hungry Horse]

 Our local museum, has a rag tag collections of early firearms. Years ago a friend contacted the curator, and asked if a youth looking for a Boy Scout eagle project could clean up the rusty old guns in their display case, with his knowledgeable assistance of course. The curator agreed, and I was asked to assist in this project as well. Upon removing the guns from the case, we found three of the muzzleloaders loaded, and one cartridge civil war carbine loaded as well. The curator said that the muzzleloaders had all come without ramrods, so they were not checked at the time of acquisition, and not later either obviously. The carbine  (a quite rare Warner) had a shell stuck in the chamber that took a lot of careful work to remove. To be honest I am not sure it was the proper cartridge for the gun. All the muzzleloaders had their nipples hammered flat from dry firing, and the cartridge case in the carbine had been snapped a zillion times. It is a wonder someone didn't get killed.

                     Hungry Horse

[docone]

I use sheetrock screws to pull balls.
Cut off the head, and thread it into the ramrod. I prefer to make my own ramrods for this. I get one almost bore diameter.

[B.Habermehl]

Luckily I pulled the lock first thing, it was never on the gun while I was working on it. While I was admonishing the owner about checking for a load in the barrel after my discovery, I told him that he had a one in five chance of firing the gun powder or not in the pan. Lord knows how many times he snapped the lock at home. God looks after us fools thankfully. BJH

[Daryl]

I use sheetrock screws to pull balls.
Cut off the head, and thread it into the ramrod. I prefer to make my own ramrods for this. I get one almost bore diameter.

This is good advice: I would suggest a brass collar, silver brazed or silver soldered to the screw shank that is to be threaded. The collar should be just under bore size. That will ensure the screw enters the middle of the 'obstruction, be it a ball, mud or dead wasps.
You can make another, with collar, on a drill slightly smaller than the inner shank of the drill. The drill will bore a hole into a 'dry' loaded ball, or other obstruction, making threading the screw into it, a mite easier. As well, the pre-drilled hole will reduce the amount of enlargement that happens when running a screw directly in to a 'lodged' ball. This enlargement tightens the ball in the bore. Pre-drilling makes pulling the ball much easier for a fellow to do this by himself.

[shifty]

Several yrs ago i went into a old pawn shop the was selling out,the guy had about 18 mls i started checking them and 11 where loaded,i bought some of them for around $40.00 each, made a few good ones out of the bunch.

[Ric27]

Thanks for sharing this experience with us. It is easy to do

[Old Bob]

Picked up an old SxS ML at the local flea market a few years ago. Took it home and dismantled it. Before I did I ran the rod down the bores and found that one had something in it. Pulled out almost an ounce of mixed shot almost half a page from a 1944 magazine and about 20 grains of BP. Put the BP on my anvil and touched it off. Just as good as brand new powder. The locks and stock were unrepairable but the barrels were good as was the hardware. The guy I got it from said he was told the gun had laid under a bed in an old house for decades. You never know what's in there.

[4ster]

I use sheetrock screws to pull balls.
Cut off the head, and thread it into the ramrod. I prefer to make my own ramrods for this. I get one almost bore diameter.

This is good advice: I would suggest a brass collar, silver brazed or silver soldered to the screw shank that is to be threaded. The collar should be just under bore size. That will ensure the screw enters the middle of the 'obstruction, be it a ball, mud or dead wasps.
You can make another, with collar, on a drill slightly smaller than the inner shank of the drill. The drill will bore a hole into a 'dry' loaded ball, or other obstruction, making threading the screw into it, a mite easier. As well, the pre-drilled hole will reduce the amount of enlargement that happens when running a screw directly in to a 'lodged' ball. This enlargement tightens the ball in the bore. Pre-drilling makes pulling the ball much easier for a fellow to do this by himself.

One thing to note here is that you don't want to use a power drill to drill the pilot hole. Its a low probability occurrence, but a drill going through a ball and into the powder behind it could ignite the powder if you were very unlucky.  As long as drill depth is less than the ball diameter you should be OK, but you really don't know whats down there.

[J Henry]

  Basic gun safety  ::: IF you have not checked the gun YOURSELF and proven it safe   it isn't safe to handle by anyone..I don't care if I stand and watch you check it infront of me ,,,I will check it for myself,,
    I know all of my guns are unloaded before I put them in the gunlocker and lock it,,and when I take one out I recheck it ,,, everytime,,I have the only key on my keyring ,,I still reconfirm they are  unloaded and safe to handle and when I unlock it, nobody takes or puts a gun in my gunlocker but me.
 I taught my children to never take a gun from anyone till they show them it is safe  then recheck it for themselves ,,
Check/ recheck !!!!

[WadePatton]

Of course, 30 bucks buys a cheap borescope that one might put down the bbl for a looksee. 

It won't tell you how much powder is in there, but it might provide some information to help make decisions about extrication of the "load". 

[coutios]

   Same topic, different type of muzzleloader...  Look up the Gettysburg Gun.. A 12lb. bronze cannon that sat with a charge/ball in the muzzle until 1962 or 3... Right in the center of the Rhode Island Senate building.

[shortbarrel]

Have taken loads out of a number of old ML rifles, The modern high power rifles are bombs when they have a stuck load. I remove the barrel, with safety in mind on these