[Vibe]

Don't know if he posts here or not...but this NEEDS to be spread around.
:mad:

Saw my first armed Moron.....
Many of us have rifles that shoot pistol ammo...as the cowboys did and it makes a fine combo. Saw a guy at the range last week that took it a bit too far! He is recovering...but will be scarred for life. He blew up a rifle in the lane next to me. He was lucky that on either side he had help. I being a paramedic and the guy to his left, a sherrif/emt and his wife a paramedic. He shoots a 454 and thought how nice it would be to have a rifle the same caliber. So he brought his old sidelock CVA blackpowder .45 cal rifle to the range and decided to load it like a hot 454 with smokeless powder. We did not see him do this and had no knowledge until the massive explosion! 40 grains of 296 powder and a .45 conical were loaded. He could not seat the bullet as he had a buddy cast it from wheel weights and it was too hard.

Rushing to his aide we noted there was no cloud of smoke like all other front loaders.

hmmm. An 8" strip of the barrel was buried in his left arm as well as numerous pea sized pieces of metal. One chunk went into his chest on the left side(just above his heart) collapsing that lung. We stabilized the bleeding and treated his sucking chest wound as the ambulance arrived. His wife, who was next to him when it went off, said her leg hurt. Looking down we saw the blood. The trigger guard had blown off and was impaled in her lower leg. Both went to surgery within the hour as they were only 20 mins from the hospital. After their departure we investigated the scene. Picking up the pieces and seeing no blackpowder fouling on any of it made us wonder. Inside his shooting box we found the can of 296 and 3 premeasured tubes taped at both ends with 40 grains 296 written on them. While visiting the fellow club member at the hospital, he told us what he did. His wounds will heal, but he will never see from his left eye again. His wife will limp for life and use a cane from the nerve severed in her leg.

Bottom line....blackpowder only means..blackpowder only. You new folks to realoading listen to the folks here and be safe. His mistake was in that...he looked at data and pressures...then calculated it out (thinking the pressue and burn rate would be linear)
We used to have a guy here like him...named Clark..you long time folks know him well..Mr. Kaboom!....lmao. He is no longer here..and I can't help but think...his "experiments" have cost him more than all the guns he blew up and laughed about.

Leave the tests to the powder companies...and play it safe.
Happy and safe shooting.
Glenn

[MaidMarian]

A lesson learned the hard way. When DH and I first started reloading I had one MAJOR condition, and that was to always follow the recipe in the loading manual.

He had talked to a few old timer's that would test different loads and come home with a horror story or two about their experiments.:down:

Thankfully DH agreed completely and we enjoy reloading by the book.;)

[bob winfield]

When people start fooling around with things they shouldn't, they usually get hurt or worse.

[7.62mmFMJ]

:duh:

[Mike Weber]

blackpowder only means..blackpowder only

I saw what was left of one of the cheap brass framed copies of a Colt 1851 Navy, a few years back. Fortunately in this case there were no injuries to the shooter. It seems that the fellow in question had bought a box of old reloading supplies at an auction sale, Included in the box was the revolver a box of roundball and a tin of percussion caps. Also included were several unmarked cans of smokeless powder, the powder had been removed from its original containers and poured into 1 lb coffee cans. At one time these may have been labeled but the labels had deteriorated to the point that they came off the cans. Anyway this guy not having any knowledge of reloading or firearms for that matter decided to take the pistol out into the woods and try it out. He loaded the cylinder up with a charge of unknown smokeless powder seated the bullets, capped it and fired. The gun chain fired touching off three chambers which threw chunks of schrapnel in all directions. as all three chambers burst. The barrel wedge shattered sending the barrel and cylinder downrange. Amazingly the guy walked away from this without a scratch. He later recovered what was left of the cylinder and barrel. I saw the remains of the gun when he brought his box of auction sale stuff into one of the local gunshops and was trying to sell them.

This topic of people trying smokless in blackpowder firearms does concern me as many of the new inline muzzle loaders claim to be safe to shoot with moderate smokless loads, with several of these guns a typical charge is three of the newfangled pyrodex pellets equal to a 150gr charge of FFg black powder, I've often wondered how long it will take before someone tries dumping 150gr of smokeless into one of these. As many of the buyers of these guns are brand new to black powder firearms.

[youmightbearedneck]

Holy cow! Scary stories.
I don't know much about black powder, but in my experience with C&R firearms, people are always trying to get around shooting obsolete ammo. Asking questions like "can I shoot .380 out of my Makorav?", or worse. Fooling around with that kind of stuff will get ya killt eventually.:cluebat: