Load from Flask?

[Legionnaire]

Okay, I read here and there that one should not load a BP firearm directly from a flask. Rather, one should measure into another receptacle and load from there. I've seen plenty of videos of people loading directly from a flask into chambers/muzzle. How do you do it?

 

[Smokin_Gun]

It depends on the BP Firearm and what I am trying to accomplish ... figuring a charge for accuracy, plinking, Hunting , with a Revolver,, in the field or at a bench, a rifle , a Shotgun... ?

Revolvers in the field or at the bench I load from a measured spout on a flask... calculating a load for a particular I'd use a incremented volumetric measurer. Rifles a powder horn and a predetermined measurer ... a Zouave .58 Cal Rifled Musket I use a Zouave Flask with a 60gr spout...or Paper/linen Cartridges.
That's how I do it, I'm not tellin' a single other soul how they should do it... but it's been workin' well for me for 30 years with no hand grenade Flasks...
Hope that's what you were lookin' for.

 

[[email protected]]

If you load from a flask on a range at a Organized shoot, you will be asked
to please stop this or asked to leave. Very very bad.

 

[frontiergander]

If theres a spark at the bottom of the barrel and you pour directly from your horn or flask, You basically are holding a grenade.

Soooooo, yeah... Use a separate powder measure to pour your powder in LOL.

That or go buy some Lanes Powder tubes and carry pre-measured charges.

 

[arcticap]

I put measured charges into vials for loading a revolver off the frame, and trickle from a flask into a measure when loading a rifle.
And I place a funnel in chambers & muzzles to not spill any powder.

 

[Legionnaire]

Thus far, I've been loading from a flask into a variable measure, then into chambers/muzzle. Works fine and is no doubt safest. I've heard about the flask "grenade," but have never heard of it actually happening. How did the folks of the period do it? I'm NOT looking to cut corners, but would like to be efficient.

How about if you're pulling the cylinder and loading it on a cylinder loader? Again, just wondering what others do.

 

[Jim K]

A spark or a bit of burning patch in the barrel when the powder is poured can ignite the powder. With a separate measure, you get a whoof. With a flask, the powder in the flask could ignite and you could lose a hand and spray pieces of the flask around.

It is not a matter of opinion or convenience, it is a matter of safety.

Jim

 

[Fingers McGee]

What SG said

Revolvers - Directly from the flask with measured spout. I charge my C&B cylinders on the pistol. Don't have any desire to lug around another piece of equipment (cylinder loader) or take the extra time todisassemble the pistol. There aren't going to be any embers that would cause a flask to grenade. In all the years I've shot C&B revolvers (30+), I've never seen, read, or heard of a "documented case" of a flask grenading from an ember while loading a revolver. Plenty of someone said he heard his third cousins bosses nephew had a flask blow up on him, or something else (lit cigarette) caused it; but, no documented case of an ember in the cylinder causing a flashback.

Single shot pistols and rifles - from flask/powder horn to powder measure to barrel. Much higher possibility of a spark so better safe than sorry. Have seen a preloaded paper cartridge "flash back" on a fowler once.

 

[YumaKid]

Should have a line for "it depends". First, only have Remington pistols in BP; no rifles, and that would likely be different for the reasons previously stated.

That said, yes "it depends". The 7-1/2" 1858 gets fed by my flask, with a pre-cut 30g tube; because that's the Pyrodex load it "likes". The 5-1/2" 1858 is filled from the measure right now; because I don't yet know what it likes - I'm still working that out.

 

[Skinny 1950]

The Flask is like a hand grenade and should never be exposed to sources of ignition. A secondary measuring device will be better at delivering the charge and be safer than charging from a flask.

 

[Curator]

One size does not fit all! Muzzle loading rifles and shotguns I always load from a graduated measure not a flask. Cap & Ball revolvers are loaded from a flask with a measure spout. With the C&B revolver I can be certain that the chambers do not harbor a latent spark while with the longer barreled rifles and shotguns I cannot.

 

[Legionnaire]

Very enlightening, all; thanks. Yes, I should have distinguished between revolvers and long guns. Thanks for the replies thus far.

 

[Mr Woody]

I load my revolvers from the flask. I learned that way back in the early 70s and have had no problems. I don't shoot a lot of rifle but I still use the calibrated spout on the flask. Don't get in a hurry and you won't have problems
w

 

[SleazyRider]

Long guns: I save my used oil-burner nozzle containers---you know, the tiny plastic vials with snap-on lids that an oil burner nozzle comes in? Some have red caps and some have blue caps. I pre-measure 60-grain loads in the blue ones and 90-grain loads in the red ones, and identify them using a Sharpie marker on the lid.

Revolvers: I pre-load 2 cylinders before shooting, then reload directly from the flask. But I never load my flask with more than I plan to use in a session.

 

[steelbird]

I prepare charges ahead of time- roughly 20 grains of FFFg fits in a .357 brass casing, and I plug the opening with a 1/2 inch pompom (haven't tried a .44 casing yet). It's a light charge, yes, but power shooting is what I got my Blackhawk for. The pompoms that cover the charges are then used as the wadding b/t the powder and the ball. This also helps with promoting economy of shooting - not shooting the whole wad on BP, and keeeping some cash on hand for the power loads in my Blackhawk, or speed shooting with my 84F.

 

[Mike 56]

I load from a flask only when i am alone or with somebody. I load revolvers off frame and swab before loading. I use a blow tube after each shot when shooting ML.
Mike

 

[col.lemat]

combustable paper cartridges.

 

[hongrn]

They didn't have measuring spouts in the old days, so were there stories of "hand grenades" exploding during reloads?

 

[longrifle346]

In my revolver I'm taking 5 shots before reloading as a rule. IF there's an ember it'll be dead long before I even prepare to reload. In my long guns at the range shooting strings of shots there's a healthy chance that an ember could still be smoldering in that long barrel. I use a separate measure and my horn. Never seen it happen but I know logically that it could and I won't be the first one YOU folks hear about...

 

[Hellgate]

Revolvers: directly from the flask with a measuring spout.
Long guns: from a flask to a measuring device then to the gun.

By the time you finish shooting the revolver and get ready to reload any embers are going to be burnt out in the short, well aerated chambers of the cylinder. A long gun could have an ember stay lit for a longer time down in the bottom of a smoking low oxygen area caked with fouling and cause a cook off.

 

[Hanshi]

I voted "other" because I use a horn more than the flask. I have antler powder measures I made and fill these from a horn/flask. The powder is poured into the muzzle directly from these home made measures.

 

[BHP FAN]

I load ''cold'' cylinders from a flask with a measuring spout. since I usually have spare cylinders to load, and usually it's been a month since the last time I had a load in any of the cylinders, I figure I'm pretty safe.I once had a safety officer give me a bunch of guff over it, and I picked up a empty .45 Colt case, and dumped my flask's measured loads in to it, before dumping that into my cylinders chambers just to make him happy. Five minutes later the idiot blew up his range box shooting a flintlock over an open can of 2F Goex.

 

[bonza]

I throw my powder from a Lyman #55 powder thrower directly into plastic vials before going to the range. If I need to load more vials at the range I will use my brass BP volumetric measure to do so. I usually load fifty vials for each gun I'll be shooting that day, so I usually have enough for a good range session. The only flask I use directly on the firearm is my priming flask for the flintlock, & it has a friction fit base so should there be an ignition the pressure will be released relatively harmlessly

 

[Hocka Louis]

I make paper cartridges usually. The minority of time I load from measuring flask into something else and then to muzzle, or, from flask to measuring device and that into muzzle. NEVER full flask to muzzle.

I saw a guy pour a paper cartridge of 60 grains into a .577 P-53 Enfield muzzle today and it ignited and darkened his hand which was not completely in the best position, but close enough not to do any real harm or permanent damage.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've heard about the flask "grenade," but have never heard of it actually happening.

I have seen a Zouve flask with a pre measured spout and valve loaded into the muzzle of a .58 caliber musket..., luckily the fellow would dump the charge by putting the entire spout into the muzzle and release it so it wasn't held by his hand for a second..., as it then cooked-off and launched the flask about a foot from the musket, then blew apart into three pieces and nobody was hurt. Thanks to a cheap repro poorly soldered, the halves came apart and the nozzle assembly came away too, ..., AND ..., it was his last charge in the flask so maybe he had 10 grains of 2Fg left in the thing. This was 1979.

I have seen several times a musket cartridge cook off. In the above case that I witnessed, and with the cartridges, these were done during rapid firing situations. I have seen the cartridges cook-off both with blanks and with live rounds, though always when pouring the powder, never on the ramming stage. This was either at a reenactment or speed firing competitions, which are not all that common. As for me I like to adopt practices that keep me from away from possible high risk situations when it comes to loading BP. Having a powder charge cook-off burns one's fingers..., a flask or horn, ..., that'd be lots worse.

LD