14 year old killed in muzzle loading accident

[4v50 Gary]

Link

Update: Sheriff releases name of teen killed in Carter County muzzleloader accident
By Staff Reports
JohnsonCityPress.com
[email protected]

ELIZABETHTON — A 14-year-old boy died soon after a muzzle-loading rifle he was using exploded around 4:30 Wednesday afternoon at his family’s residence on U.S. Highway 19E near the Carter County-Sullivan County line, Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes said.

Daniel Eric Adams, 1988 Highway 19E, Elizabethton, died in what investigators were treating as an accident.

“It wasn’t a handgun,” said Mathes. “A lot of juveniles, especially here in East Tennessee, have muzzleloaders and can use them to hunt. You probably need supervision, but I don’t think there’s anything that says you have to.”

The Sheriff's Department report indicated that the boy had been using a rifle loaded with the wrong ammunition — a .50-caliber ball in a .35-caliber muzzleloader.

The boy’s grandmother, who lives next door, heard the explosion and called 911.

A rescue helicopter flew the boy to Johnson City Medical Center, but Mathes said he had already died at the residence.

The sheriff had withheld the boy's name Wednesday pending notification of some family members.

Keep visiting JohnsonCityPress.com for information as it develops.

I bet he used a hammer to force the bigger ball down the muzzle. It would swage it and there'd probably be some left over that didn't get down the bore. Second, I suspect he didn't seat the ball over the powder. Third, I suspect he didn't use blackpowder but a modern propellant.

RIP

 

[9teenEleven]

Heard about this on the news here in Knoxville. Hard pressed to get a .50 in a .35 hole.

 

[husker]

SAD SAD STORY!
BUT A 50 IN A 35. How is that possible? Even if you bring a sledgehammer to pound it down the tube. & Who The-Hell!! lets a 14 year old run around with a muzzle loader Un supervised? = Bad combination.

 

[valorius]

A poorly trained 14yo, at that.

 

[dogrunner]

How 'bout he most likely failed to seat whatever projectile he was usin' on the powder charge.......after all, even that .50 would swedge to bore size and shoot ok if PROPERLY loaded.

 

[wittzo]

Who the Hell lets a 14 year old run around with a muzzleloader unsupervised?

Every family before the 1900's that wanted a rabbit in the pot for supper. But they were properly shown how to load them.

 

[DeepSouth]

Black powder shooting would be more dangerous for a unexperienced shooter than a cartage feed gun. I learned it first hand. Sad story indeed.

 

[BluegrassDan]

I live in Elizabethton, and this is the first I've heard of it!

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I hear ya Dan...I'm not far away either and this is the first I've heard of it.

And a blown up muzzle loader? I've fired them loaded twice (thats what it says...loaded twice) and nothing blew up.

Sorry to hear of his death, but would like to know exactly how he had it loaded.

ETA: my son was hunting with an old .50 Hawken at 12 years old, but he also knew how to load it and what to load it with.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Sad Story, prayers for the family.

 

[husker]

yup i knew how to load it & what to load it with at the age of 8
But the keys to the gun cabinet were on my dads car key ring. & the key went to work with him every day. Board kids with nothing to do,in the middle of summer, running around with any gun unattended by an adult. JUST AINT SMART!!

 

[Chawbaccer]

.35 caliber in a muzzleloader seems like an odd cookie. I think mostly the reporter didn't know a whole lot of what he was trying to write about.

 

[rcmodel]

It being so close to the 4th. of July, I got to wonder if some left-over firecracker flash-powder was involved??

I just don't buy black powder blowing up a modern muzzle-loader.
And I sure don't buy the .50 ball in a .35 cal rifle BS.

rc

 

[BADUNAME37]

People may try smokeless powder in a black powder rifle and it might work, this time.

Then, who knows when it WON'T WORK?

When in DOUBT, DON'T!

I agree, there are too many wierd things here to just happen to have happened!
If the kid had a black powder rifle, he should have been taught in the operation of and safe handling of said rifle!

My prayers go to his family and friends.

 

[Foto Joe]

1st off, my prayers go out to the family and I am saddened that ANY accident kills a child.

Having said that, the media will undoubtedly put this death on the shoulders of the defense-less gun rather than the teenager who just proved Darwins theory. Parents can and do change evolution every day by teaching their children the proper way to live past their teen years in most cases.

Sorry if I sound cold and callous but for cryin' out loud people need to start using their heads for something other than hat racks!!

 

[Oyeboten]

Indeed, the story as told makes no sense whatever.


I know when I was 14, I would have been fine to go Hunt or Target Shoot unsupervised, whether Muzzle Loader or Metallic Cartridge.


For Pete's sake, I was CCW-ing at 14 ( with discretion of course, and, never once any incident of embarassment. )


We need a lot more info on this thing to understand what had happened.


A .50 Cal Ball, swaged down to fit a .35 Cal Muzzle Loading Rifle, if that even IS what was done, would merely weigh some ways more than a .35 Cal Ball would have, or about the same as a longer .35 Cal Bullet would, and, once seated properly onto the Black Powder, would shoot fine without incident, if maybe with a little more recoil and report than a .35 Caliber Ball would have


Not seating the Projectile well onto the Black Powder...and or using 'Bullseye' or some other Smokeless Powder, whether the projectile is then seated onto the Powder or not, could of course cause the Rifle to 'blow'.


So...what the heck actually did happen?


Poor kid...eeeeeeeeesh...

Poor parents and others.


Terrible...

 

[mykeal]

I worked some aircraft accident investigations for a commercial company several years ago. Something that ALWAYS happened was the 'rush to judgment' phenomenon: people had to immediately find someone/something to blame it on and grasped at any 'fact', verified or otherwise to use in concocting a story that fit their particular preconceived notions. Key in this process was the report from the media; it generally contained at least 50% error, 25% pure speculation and less than 25% actual truth, the more sensational the better, and it was published within hours, sometimes minutes, of the event.

The only thing that's changed in this process over the years is that the media report has become even less reliable and factual.

Yes, one must take a huge dose of skepticism tonic when reading ANY media story on a tragic incident (I almost used the word accident, but that would be pejorative), but just as important I think is that we need to resist the human urge to immediately find a scapegoat and let the story percolate a while. Give the poor kid's family a chance to bury him and let the real facts come to the surface (as they inevitably will) before we conjure the cause of it all.

 

[robhof]

I built a single shot kit B/p gun when I was around 14 and shot it without supervision for years. I did read and heed all the included instructions, like USE ONLY BLACKpowder, seat ball firmly on powder, ect... That was some 40+ years ago.

 

[DrLaw]

Having some experience with both the press and police in terms of public statements and reporting, my immediate guess is that somewhere along the line, the story was not reported correctly, or the facts were not given out correctly.

Perhaps somebody closer to the area can get the real info from the coroner or somebody else with actual knowledge of what happened.

In any event, it is a sad thing for the family and we should not throw stones here without the full story.

The Doc is out now.

 

[Bluehawk]

Mark Twain once said:
If you don't read the newspapers, you are uninformed...if you do read them, you are mis-informed!!!!!!

 

[Al LaVodka]

Poor child and family -- sad.
:'(
Al

 

[sonier]

sounds like a kid who wanted to hunt badly, bought a pound of some smokeless powder. Maybe he didnt know that he couldnt use a 50 cal ball in a 35 caliber? regardless it sounds like he triple charged the powder or used smokeless.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I don't think even a triple charge of black powder would explode a modern muzzle loader...the powder don't burn fast enough, it would just blow it out the muzzle.

With that said...a heavy dose of FFFg might be trouble, I don't know.

 

[mp510]

I don't think even a triple charge of black powder would explode a modern muzzle loader...the powder don't burn fast enough, it would just blow it out the muzzle.

With that said...a heavy dose of FFFg might be trouble, I don't know.

Maybe it was loaded with smokeless powder.

 

[44-henry]

If it actually was a .35 caliber it was probably an antique and perhaps one in not too great condition. I would also guess that it was a smokeless powder accident. Perhaps a severly short started ball and a charge of smokeless combination. Pure speculation, but it is a tragedy in any event.