I encountered, in a doctor's office, a copy of a magazine put out by a hunting club, which had an article on hunting with a muzzle loader. Now let me say that I have had little experience with modern muzzle loaders, such as in-line models, and have never hunted with one, which is why I am posting here with my question/concern.
In that article, there is a picture of a hunter loading what appears to be an in-line muzzle loading rifle. He is ramming the charge with a rod that appears to have some kind of palm handle and is leaning over the muzzle while doing so.
As I say, my knowledge of modern muzzle loaders is slim to none. But I have stuffed a whole lot of bullets into rifle-muskets and was always told that there was a possibility (remote though it might be) that the charge could go off while loading. Because of that, I have always 1) used the minimum number of fingers to hold the ramrod and never used the palm and 2) never put my head over the muzzle. If the charge did go off, I didn't want to lose a hand (fingers are bad enough), and I surely didn't like the idea of having a ramrod sticking out of my head. (Gets in the way of my hat, y'know.)
So what say the folks here? Am I an old guy who doesn't know that such a thing could never happen with powder pellets and sabots and all the other gadgets of modern muzzle loading? Or is the hunting club magazine showing an unsafe practice?
Jim
In that article, there is a picture of a hunter loading what appears to be an in-line muzzle loading rifle. He is ramming the charge with a rod that appears to have some kind of palm handle and is leaning over the muzzle while doing so.
As I say, my knowledge of modern muzzle loaders is slim to none. But I have stuffed a whole lot of bullets into rifle-muskets and was always told that there was a possibility (remote though it might be) that the charge could go off while loading. Because of that, I have always 1) used the minimum number of fingers to hold the ramrod and never used the palm and 2) never put my head over the muzzle. If the charge did go off, I didn't want to lose a hand (fingers are bad enough), and I surely didn't like the idea of having a ramrod sticking out of my head. (Gets in the way of my hat, y'know.)
So what say the folks here? Am I an old guy who doesn't know that such a thing could never happen with powder pellets and sabots and all the other gadgets of modern muzzle loading? Or is the hunting club magazine showing an unsafe practice?
Jim