More information on the muzzleloader blowup

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Pulp

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I was talking to some friends of the feller in my other thread today.

1. The gun was a CVA Optima, bought new two years ago.
2. He said the last time he shot it last year it made a strange noise, but he didn't notice anything unusual when he cleaned it.
3. He had cleaned the gun, so it was empty.
4. He poured some loose powder down the barrel. Why I don't know. Maybe he just wanted to hear the boom and see the flame. I've done it for that same reason.
5. He capped the rifle with a shotgun primer, closed the action, and holding the rifle at a somewhat port arms position, pulled the trigger.
6. The photo I posted shows the pieces after they'd been gathered up. One piece of the barrel went completely through his camper. The breech plug went into his camper but did not completely penetrate. All of the splits in the barrel were in the fluting.

I don't expect anyone to believe this, but that is what happened. They have nothing to gain by lying about it. It doesn't make sense to me that it could have happened, but stranger things have happened in this world.

I will not call a person a liar based on hearsay evidence. I'm sure we have some armchair experts that will do so, but it won't be me.
 
Guess what?

Methinks the gun wasn't empty. Something was lodged (perhaps the other boo-lit from a year ago) in the barrel.
 
gun didnt sound right the last time it went off could have been a misfire as well and then reloaded it. Had he cleaned it properly as it sounds like he did not, hell, who knows what people do when you're not there to watch them.
 
They have nothing to gain by lying about it.
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Except a potentially lucrative civil settlement. Loose powder with no projectile is routinely used in MLr's by reenactors. Millions of such charges have been fired in everything from Civil War rifle muskets to Japanese storm-brought guns. I have heard of a potential danger arising from soot buildup which can then be a hazard if you load live ammo which lodges on the soot instead of on top of the charge. Otherwise loose black powder itself simply does not KB anything. If the barrel is open the pressure vents out the hole. Basic physics.

Even with smokeless, the theory of very light charges in large cases going KB is disputed and also relies on the presence of a bullet to keep the pressure from venting.

I will not call a person a liar based on hearsay evidence
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We're reacting to your account of his account because it doesn't comport with the laws of physics. So assuming your summary is correctly reporting his account, something isn't kosher. Either he didn't really know the condition of his weapon before shooting it, or he's covering up for a grave error in loading. I suppose he could have cleaned it with some high explosive compound, but that's pretty unlikely and would still be his fault.
 
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sorry but when you see something like that, THE SHOOTER did something majorly wrong and will not fess up to it.


Ive shot probably a good 40,000 shots since i got into muzzleloading when i was 14 years old and never once have i ever experienced something like this. The closest problem i had was when a piece of crap 1851 confederate navy 44 BP Revolver came apart in my hand due to a arbor? pin that broke. I went through 4 of those before cabelas let me pick out some other gear, they were so bad that cabelas even stopped stocking them for a couple years until quality was improved. Never picked up a BP 6 Shooter after that.

This gun was in a shooting competition, reload and shoot as many targets as you can. Shooter thought he fired the gun, reloaded, patched ball loaded on top of the other ball caused the second ball to "diesel" off the air compression and when the shooter fired, this was the end result.
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Watch some you tube videos, you will see many misguided idiots " and its not all their fault" reloading guns on horribly fouled bores where they take out a hammer and tap the bullet down. Never see a ramrod witness mark, just tap that rod down with a hammer and then throw the rod and see if it bounces...yyyuuuup, its good hoss!

You have those that take the time to learn and then you got those backwoods rednecks that think they are being cute doing something stupid to get their sister to giggle at them.
 
"We're reacting to your account of his account because it doesn't comport with the laws of physics. "

Totally agree with you. It doesn't make sense. I'm just not the type of person that can say, "Your lying."
 
Fair enough. I just get miffed because this sort of thing can hurt all of us. And I'm not going to attack the guy for being dumb and screwing up his load if he fesses up. We've all done dumb things and it's important to remember the safety lessons. But telling tales like this fellow is doing just adds confusion to critical safety issues.
 
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