12-09-2004, 12:52 AM
i've done o bit of the ball and cap before . i usually pull the ball and save it in the lead bucket for sinker supplys . the powder is blown out with just the same amount of "bang" as if the shot was still in the firearm .
then it's cleaned , and three caps are fired off to dry out the barrel . i once forgot to dry out the barrel after the cleaning , loaded it and went hunting . when i took a shot only the cap went off and i had to sit for about 20 minutes waiting for it to possibly go off . after that was the really scary part , removing the ball . what if it was still smoldering ? kept going thru my head .
i was lucky , the powder had soaked up the cleaning soap residue and rendered the powder into a black muck .
i've heard of guys who wern't as lucky and had the ramrod blown thru different parts of there anatomy when preforming this task .
carpet sparks setting charges off , a careless smoker's ashes setting charges off , those brass powder horns blowing up from a static charge , gunpowder on the threads of powder horns ignighting while being screwed on .
yep , ya' can't take any shortcuts with any firearm , reguardless of it's design .
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then it's cleaned , and three caps are fired off to dry out the barrel . i once forgot to dry out the barrel after the cleaning , loaded it and went hunting . when i took a shot only the cap went off and i had to sit for about 20 minutes waiting for it to possibly go off . after that was the really scary part , removing the ball . what if it was still smoldering ? kept going thru my head .
i was lucky , the powder had soaked up the cleaning soap residue and rendered the powder into a black muck .
i've heard of guys who wern't as lucky and had the ramrod blown thru different parts of there anatomy when preforming this task .
carpet sparks setting charges off , a careless smoker's ashes setting charges off , those brass powder horns blowing up from a static charge , gunpowder on the threads of powder horns ignighting while being screwed on .
yep , ya' can't take any shortcuts with any firearm , reguardless of it's design .
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