When you load smokeless in a cap and ball...

G

gyppo

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Not that I think that anyone here would do it - I just found this video to really show the damage well from a smokeless powder load in a cap and ball. The lucky, lucky fellow apparently loaded his cap and ball with powder from a blank (!!!!) and it blew up the gun. I say lucky because no one was hurt.

The vid is very clear and shows exactly how the revolver failed.

B
 
An excellent and timely reminder, with many folks getting 'surprise' Christmas gifts of a nice shiny new BP revolver. Lucky, too, that only one chamber was loaded.

In our local gunstore we have the remains of a Euroarms M1858 that was loaded with what turned out to be a nitro load. The shooter was badly injured. Thankfully, nobody else was.

I'm sending the picture to Mooncoon.

tac
 
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I know I cannot believe somebody would try it either - but then you go through some of the comments on the "YouTube" and some folks start going down that road of "well I can substitute in a .45-70...therefore I should be able to do it in a C&B..." sweet Lord. I'm glad I live in a small town and know who's shootin' beside me most of the time.
 
Doesn't just happen with muzzleloaders, either. Back in 1982 the 1917 Colt .38Spec revolver being shot in the next bay to me and a pal making illustrations for a BP book kaboomed. The shooter was screaming his head off, was shocked but mostly uninjured, but his buddy, standing beside him, collected part of the cylinder through the carotid artery and another, smaller fragment right through the eyeball. With ER only a mile way, we dumped him on the back of a pickup truck while I tried to stop him bleeding - very difficult to put a tourniquet on the neck, tho'. He died right there as we turned onto the ER-only bay.

On subsequent examination, four of the chambers still held cartridges with 158gr RN lead bullets over a compressed load of about 25gr of 2400 - way over the top for a modern .44Magnum, let alone an old revolver.

Bad things don't just happen to bad people.

Take care, please.

tac
 
tacfoley said:
Doesn't just happen with muzzleloaders, either. Back in 1982 the 1917 Colt .38Spec revolver being shot in the next bay to me and a pal making illustrations for a BP book kaboomed. The shooter was screaming his head off, was shocked but mostly uninjured, but his buddy, standing beside him, collected part of the cylinder through the carotid artery and another, smaller fragment right through the eyeball. With ER only a mile way, we dumped him on the back of a pickup truck while I tried to stop him bleeding - very difficult to put a tourniquet on the neck, tho'. He died right there as we turned onto the ER-only bay.

On subsequent examination, four of the chambers still held cartridges with 158gr RN lead bullets over a compressed load of about 25gr of 2400 - way over the top for a modern .44Magnum, let alone an old revolver.

Bad things don't just happen to bad people.

Take care, please.

tac
Click to expand...

I've also had to deliver someone to the ER as a result of a kaboom - not BP related but it was a mess. He had a hole through his leg and a nick in an artery. Thankfully, the fellow in my story survived albeit with scarring and IIRC he still has some numbness in his hand. Sorry to hear about your result ^^

Definitely not things to take lightly
 
mooncoon said:
Here is a photo of a Euroarms revolver reported to be loaded with 25 grains of bullseye
Click to expand...

25 grains of Bullseye!? holy ****!

I thought the gun would be unrecognizable after igniting that much.

Out of curiosity, could someone with Quickload estimate the theoretical maximum pressure from a load like that?
 
Sobering.

I have some old 1970's westerner arms (uberti) cap and ball guns.

When I heard of kirst conversion cylinders I gave a brief thought towards dusting the things off and shooting clean ammo in them. When I did take that dust off they were marked Black Powder Only.

I stopped right there.

While Uberti makes their own conversion revolvers and smokeless revolvers, I believe that it was only relatively more recent that the black powder and smokeless frames shared the same metallurgy. I read that in some promotional material once...

Please just buy a cartridge conversion revolver, or a conversion cylinder for your nitro-proofed modern replicas, and don't play Bubba Redneck with nitro in a front stuffer.

It's bad juju

Uberti even has that Man With No Name gun that looks like a '51 Navy but takes cartridges.
 
Mark-II said:
Sobering.

I have some old 1970's westerner arms (uberti) cap and ball guns.

When I heard of kirst conversion cylinders I gave a brief thought towards dusting the things off and shooting clean ammo in them. When I did take that dust off they were marked Black Powder Only.

I stopped right there.

While Uberti makes their own conversion revolvers and smokeless revolvers, I believe that it was only relatively more recent that the black powder and smokeless frames shared the same metallurgy. I read that in some promotional material once...

Please just buy a cartridge conversion revolver, or a conversion cylinder for your nitro-proofed modern replicas, and don't play Bubba Redneck with nitro in a front stuffer.

It's bad juju

Uberti even has that Man With No Name gun that looks like a '51 Navy but takes cartridges.
Click to expand...


Just like the actual one in the movie.... ;)


http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/The_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Ugly#Colt_1851_Navy_.28cartridge_conversion.29
 
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