And if you forget to put a powder charge in behind your ball?
There has always been a way to unload a muzzle loader without firing. It's called a worm. It screws onto the end of your ramrod and you use it to pull the ball.
Posted on 12/20/2011 9:38:28 AM PST by TSgt
I wasn't aware that a Sharps Rifle was a Muzzle-loader, I thought it was a breech-loading black powder cartridge rifle. If that's the case, then I'd say we're still dealing with apples and oranges here.
Someone brought me a pistol that had sat for years loaded. I made a grease fitting with the same threads as the nipple and shoved the load out with a grease gun.
this is a black powder firearm. If it is a brown bess firing a 3/4” lead ball, it is probably lethal in freefall. If it is a ten gauge black powder shotgun firing a .775” diameter lead ball, it is probably lethal in freefall.
My friends who play with front stuffers (flint lock Hawkens guns) don’t use plastic sabots (they’re purists).
Some of the worst offenders of gun basics that I have seen are Cops.
Its amazing that some people can be so stupid.
I saw one ahole shooting in the river with a rifle upsream toward a bridge.
I called him on it and he declared he was a Cop and he knew what he was doing “I’m shooting the water, not the bridge!”
I said have you ever skipped a stone numbnuts?
Hydraulics! Smart!
I agree. I don’t think it would be able to travel that far. It seems it would arc and lose a great deal of power before going that far.
I find this unbelievable.
then they use a cloth patch.
same difference.
And if you forget to put a powder charge in behind your ball?
There has always been a way to unload a muzzle loader without firing. It's called a worm. It screws onto the end of your ramrod and you use it to pull the ball.
A patched round ball does not have rifling marks - the marks are on the patch that drops off a short distance in front o the rifle.
A saboted round also does not have rifling marks - marks are on the sabot just like the patched round ball.
A slug round operates on the minnie ball principle and will have the rifling marks.
Uhhh... All bullets drop with the same acceleration (9.8m/s^2). In fact, neglecting air resistance, if you fired a bullet horizontally and dropped another simultaneously, they would hit the ground at the same time. If your rifle is about 4’10” off the ground and horizontal (1.5 meters), ANY bullet you fire will hit the ground about .55s after it is fired (once again neglecting air resistance, sloped ground, etc.). The primary difference in their ballistic performance, aside from air resistance, is the horizontal speed (which determines how far they get in that .55s).
Now, obviously, we can’t ignore air resistance. But when you consider that (just doing the math) a muzzle-loader with a muzzle velocity of about 420 m/s held at 45 degrees from horizontal has a theoretical maximum range of ~57,500 ft (or 10.8 miles), even if we divide that distance by 4 or 5 to account for air resistance, we can still get 1.5 miles pretty easily...
Yes, who could forget that!
(At least I know what the battle of Adobe Walls was, where and who.)
I found myself wondering if a jilted teenage “suitor” had been riding along...got out...shot her...and walked away.
The suspicious mind does wander...
=8-|
Mile and a half? Sorry...do not believe this....manslaughter or negligible homicide or something similar should be what happens.
This is a patch puller not a ball puller.
And as someone who has shot firearms all my life, I am telling you that CSI is BULLSH*T if they portray "bullet-matching" techniques as applicable to muzzle-loading arms. It is hard enough to get a bullet fragment from a rifle to match the barrel; usually the only recourse is neutron activation or other mass spectrographic technique.
Furthermore: I doubt most people on FR even realize that black powder arms ARE NOT FIREARMS, at least by the FedGov's definition.
Only people who shoot black powder firearms.
The gun MUST be fired before the bore can be cleaned...a messy operation.
NRA did a much more exhaustive study during WWII. Bullets fired straight up,, something like 80% tumble and fall presenting very little hazard. The other 20% maintain their spin and return to earth base first,, still spinning,, and are deadly.
And anything fired from around 45 degrees angle,, returns to earth at etreme range, very close to muzzle velocity.
The worm is used for cleaning - and retrieving lost patches - not for bullet pulling.
Here is the screw.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/115714/cva-black-powder-bullet-puller-50-caliber
I once saw an article in a gun magazine on maximum range of bullets. The only one I remember was the .22LR would not quite make a mile despite the warnings on the box, also that most pistol bullets had a very short maximum range.
I am pretty sure tho that some of the big heavy lead bullets had a surprisingly long range. I don’t doubt that the story is correct. A lot of things affect range such as wind direction and speed.
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