Tuesday, March 14, 2017

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT IS HARD

There is, effectively, no way to get powder burns out of ones face after shooting a black powder muzzle loader cavalry pistol out the window of a moving car. So. Don't do it. They will leave a mark.

10 comments:

OldAFSarge said...

Good to know. I won't be doing that any time soon.

One hesitates to ask how one came by this knowledge.

John in Philly said...

My mind insists on supplying an image of an 1860 Colt with a muzzle brake. (that'ull fix those dang powder burns!)
A very long time ago on the range my father and I did a rapid fire drill with a Remington 1858 and a pair of Colt 1860s. (reproductions)
As it was a still day on the range, we didn't see the targets for quite some time. It was pretty neat.

The Old Man said...

Behind that warning no doubt lies an interesting cautionary tale. Prithee, sirrah, share it with the groundlings...

John in Philly said...

My wife asked why you didn't just open the sun/moon roof and shoot standing up in the opening. I told her I would mention it.

Ron Snyder said...

Any chance that there is a picture of the event?

HMS Defiant said...

Painfully.

You might be familiar with the expression common among many 16 year old males? Here, hold my beer while I lean out the window of the car and shoot this annoying sign? In my defense, she was way older than me and should have known better.

HMS Defiant said...

As I recall, it was a cavalry side arm back during our Civil War. It was made from cutting down a really long pistol or from shortening a rifle. It was unique. One could load the pistol with black powder and then jam the bullet in using an extension off the barrel. I liked it but I think it was uncomonly rare back in 1977 and I've never seen another like it.
I would just like to say that the sign definitely got hammered. It wasn't until later that I had an instructor discussing the 'strengtht of materials', metalurgy and what a black powder ball could do to a sign.

HMS Defiant said...

My parents left me with a poor family in Alabama when they moved the rest of the family to New Jersey and I had a girl friend who was absolutley crazy, introduced me to fast cars, hot women and black powder fire arms. It was every 16 year old boys dream come true.

HMS Defiant said...

I had a '77VW bus. It had the full moon roof. I think in the 3rd world they're called 'technicals.' I got rid of it when I ditched the other 2 wannabe convertibles and bought an actual BMW 325i. I really liked that car.

HMS Defiant said...

There exists a narrow nexus between thank God and Holy Shit! This one fell in between camera ages. It was long before digital and long after people carried brownies to document everything on film. Al Pacino had nothing on me.