Gun went Boom without cap!!

[Doe]

Just venting little bit...Had my Hawken sighted at 100 yards dead on and ready for my last week of black powder hunt and load her up for the week and I was excited, went for and evening hunt and almost drop the hammer on one but was not sure about the shot, so i lowered the hammer down and said next day your mine right.. when i was done with the hunt i brought the gun in, to let slow dry in a cool room and was eating dinner right..then all of a sudden i heard a BOOM!!  .  No the gun did exploed the cap was off. My wife frickin cats were chaseing each other and knock my gun on the hard wood floor and through my front sight way off  . I was soooo pist off, almost skined some cats!! Had to use the inline dan...it . 

[necchi]

Curiostiy killed the Cat(s),,    

But I was suspect (person of interest) for the first 2 weeks !  

p.s. When I leave my gun loaded for the next day hunt, I leave it out in the locked garage or in the locked trunk. I want to aviod temp swings that may affect the load/charge. 

[coyotejoe]

I have heard that a percussion can fire with the cap removed, seems very unlikely but unlikely things do happen.
When I pull the cap off a loaded gun I lower the hammer onto a piece of leather over the nipple just to keep out moist air but that would also have prevented your accident. What was the damage?

[pastorp]

Seriousely, how could a perfusion gun fire without a cap unless it has just been fired and a ember came to life under a fresh powder charge.... .

Inquireing minds want to know?

Reguards,

[necchi]

He ment it when "boom" when falling over, it didn't discharge it just fell over,,

[pastorp]

Ok, that could happen all right   

Regards,

[Victor3]

 That reminds me of an old Paul Harvey piece where he was describing an incident where a cat knocked a handgun off of a shelf, it went off and killed the gun's owner. He ended the piece with...

 "Guns don't kill people, cats kill people."

 

[Doe]

The only damage is the front sight it came lose and was move out.  Now i've got to shim it.  It can easily be moved buy just pushing on it with your finger  .

[necchi]

When you sight it in again, bring a hammer and small punch with you.
Once dialed in, just "peen" the top edge of the dovetail down on too the sight base.
Another trick is to remove the sight, and use a pointed punch to lift the surface at the base of the slot in the barrel. Several raised "dots" will/can hold the sight base snug again.
( I still like to peen over the top if it's loose. )

[coyotejoe]

Seriousely, how could a perfusion gun fire without a cap unless it has just been fired and a ember came to life under a fresh powder charge.... .

Inquireing minds want to know?

Reguards,

Well obviously I misunderstood the original post. But to answer your question, when a percussion cap has been tightly pressed onto the nipple and then removed it is possible for a bit of the priming compound to remain atop the nipple and fire with a subsequent hammer fall, it has happened.

[yooper77]

I always shoot and clean my muzzleloader for the next day.

yooper77

[pastorp]

Well Joe,

It's obvious to me that Doe carefully worded his original post to be deceptive. Otherwise he would not have included the word "Cap". I don't think your the only one that misunderstood or did we just get taken in.

Regards,

[coyotejoe]

I don't believe he was trying to be deceptive, I think he had just been relieving the pain with a bit of joy juice.
Happy Yule to all!

[Huntsman1]

I have heard that a percussion can fire with the cap removed, seems very unlikely but unlikely things do happen.
When I pull the cap off a loaded gun I lower the hammer onto a piece of leather over the nipple just to keep out moist air but that would also have prevented your accident. What was the damage?

I do the same thing with tthe leather piece...now. I loaded my GPR up and when pulled the trigger only the "cap" went off and the doe ran away, it keeps the moisture out, now I know;)
The front site method of 'lifting' the flat surface on the barrel is an excellent idea, Thanks Necchi, I have a Pre 64 model '94 that has a loose front site.

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

when i was testing American Pioneer powder with a cabelas hawken, i found out the hard way that the nipple threads let moisture in and contaminates the powder charge.  Its a good idea to wrap the nipple threads in a single layer of white teflon tape.