You can chuckle at it all you want but it happened on a firing line witnessed by several people and was the cause of a new range rule. As I recall it is now not considered proper to blow down a bore at Friendshp or any major matches. It does not sound like a full charge hit him in the face. If you do not want to believe it that is your right I guess, but it did happen.
DP
They were carefully observing every move he made? Never glanced away etc etc. This would not stand cross examination since people at matches just don't look that close. If they were distracted for 5 seconds he could have poured powder in the barrel.
Had he been blowing in the barrel when if fired he would not have singed his eyebrows.
He screwed up in some way. The incidents of this type that are really examined show that the breech is heavily fouled and trapped a hot spot. Powder was then dumped in and ignited at some point in the loading cycle. Of the 2 I knew of previous to this post one was on the trap range and the other on the pistol range when I was in my teens IIRC. This guy got the loading rod and ball through his wrist.
Powder does not fire twice. It just not going to happen. Then we have enough powder present to singe eyebrows etc. This would mean the load he just shot was a squib since a sigificant portion of the powder did not burn. Did the witnesses/victim report a abnormal shot??
Dan