The perils of brain farts

[CoyoteJack]

I had a moderate brain fart the day before Christmas. I was at the gun club's range trying to sight in my new but previously owned muzzleloader when it happened. I had managed to get a couple shots in and then the gun refused to fire. I had failed to remember my full cleaning kit and didn't have a bullet puller with me. I tried replacing the flint after refreshing the flashpan powder but it wouldn't spark for me. That is when the brainfart hit me. I asked my friend to hold the rifle as if shooting it and I used a cigarette to light the flashpan. It certainly worked. The small amount of 4F powder blew the cigarette to pieces and tattooed the back of a couple fingers and my palm with burnt powder residue. Thankfully it was cold with some fresh snow to stuff my hand in for a couple minutes. Most of the powder that was under my skin has worked its way out already.

Right after Christmas I was in Gander Mountain to get some new flints and supplies and mentioned my lack of safe thinking to the guy at the counter and he told me a friend of his did a similar stunt with a lighter and had it melt to his hand.

I guess the morale of the story is gunpowder is designed to burn rapidly, and flintlocks are designed to be ignited by striking their own flint against their frizzen. Cigarettes and Bics are meant for something else.

[knight0334]

Yeah.. blackpowder is one quick burning explosive. At least you didn't lose a finger or two.

I had a brain fart incident in my early teenage years making rockets with it and gun powders. I lost my eyelashes, eyebrows and moved my hairline back about 1/4 inch from a brainfart while loading a caked blackpowder charge into an engine. Dad and one of his friends had a similar event doing the same thing(making rockets as well). I dont care what those tests shown online and mythbuster things say about static electricity, it WILL ignite powders under the right conditions.

[dman]

There is a moral to this story,kinda gives the surgeon general's warning a whole new meaning,cigarettes are hazardous to one's health !!
Glad it was only minor friend.

[reichebrown]

That reminds me of the time that i started a fire in boyscouts with Coleman fuel. At the time i worked in a Coleman outlet store and had told people dozens of times that Coleman fuel was 10 times more refined that gas. In the past, Every time i had started a fire with a liquid i had thrown the match into the fire. This time for some stupid reason i leaned in with the match. The ensuing ball of fire made the first year campers cry almost instantaneously. I spent about an hour sitting on the floor of the shower with the water as cold as possible (at summer camp). I then spent the majority of that night awake on the verge of going into shock from the pain. I ended up with several nice blisters on my face and very thin eyebrows. When i returned to work i shared the story with my co-workers and they spent several days following me around with a fire extinguisher. Nowadays i start fires the old fashion way. The best part was a few months later when i got my hair cut the hair dresser asked me if i was in a fire. I answered "yeah you could say that." Its a good thing the scouts taught me safe firearm practices.

[CoyoteJack]

That reminds me of the time that i started a fire in boyscouts with Coleman fuel. At the time i worked in a Coleman outlet store and had told people dozens of times that Coleman fuel was 10 times more refined that gas. In the past, Every time i had started a fire with a liquid i had thrown the match into the fire. This time for some stupid reason i leaned in with the match. The ensuing ball of fire made the first year campers cry almost instantaneously. I spent about an hour sitting on the floor of the shower with the water as cold as possible (at summer camp). I then spent the majority of that night awake on the verge of going into shock from the pain. I ended up with several nice blisters on my face and very thin eyebrows. When i returned to work i shared the story with my co-workers and they spent several days following me around with a fire extinguisher. Nowadays i start fires the old fashion way. The best part was a few months later when i got my hair cut the hair dresser asked me if i was in a fire. I answered "yeah you could say that." Its a good thing the scouts taught me safe firearm practices.

Yep getting flashed in the face sucks. This was actually my second gunpowder related incident. The first was when I was in my early teens. I found a couple boxes of swollen old paper hull shotshells and realizing they wouldn't fit in the gun anymore I decided to dissect them for lead and the powder. Around that decade Arbys had little disposable foiled cardboard ashtrays on the tables and I placed one outside filled one with the powder and was tossing lit matches at it from a few feet away. When it didn't light easily I tried holding a match to it. That worked. It flash burned my fingers and most of my face. I lost only a little hair but unless I kept my skin wet it stung something fierce for hours. My mom came home later and found me with a bendable straw in my mouth and my face in a sink full of water. Being a scared kid I lied and told her I must be having a reaction to the Clearasil she had just bought me.

That is why the last incident was truly a brainfart, I should have known better from the earlier experience.

[knight0334]

Yep getting flashed in the face sucks. This was actually my second gunpowder related incident. The first was when I was in my early teens. I found a couple boxes of swollen old paper hull shotshells and realizing they wouldn't fit in the gun anymore I decided to dissect them for lead and the powder. Around that decade Arbys had little disposable foiled cardboard ashtrays on the tables and I placed one outside filled one with the powder and was tossing lit matches at it from a few feet away. When it didn't light easily I tried holding a match to it. That worked. It flash burned my fingers and most of my face. I lost only a little hair but unless I kept my skin wet it stung something fierce for hours. My mom came home later and found me with a bendable straw in my mouth and my face in a sink full of water. Being a scared kid I lied and told her I must be having a reaction to the Clearasil she had just bought me.

That is why the last incident was truly a brainfart, I should have known better from the earlier experience.

I wish I thought of that when I had my accident.. but dad knew better being a witness. lol

[bpvet]

Hahaha, you guys scare me.

What in the hell would you do if your 8" howitzer missed fire????? Pour gasolene on it.....I'm laughing my ass off right now and I know this isn't funny, but holy shit............

[RaisedByWolves]

I lit off an estes rocket motor accidentally while drilling out the powder to use in my home made cannon.



Im not sure what happened at first as I was stunned, but it spun around violently, ricocheting off of every conceivable object including me before lodging itself 20' up in the soffet where it burned for about 3 seconds.



I didnt know what to do so I stood there stairing at the smoking house wondering if it was going to go up, it didnt. I was about 8-9yrs old and it took my dad a while to see the burn marks, but I got my ass whoop later.

I dont know how he knew it was me.....


.

[ar15jules]

I have some high speed video of a flint lock igniting. After the initial flash in the pan so to speak, which wells up like a fireball, a massive "blow torch" like stream of fire erupts from the flash hole. All of your main charge's energy doesn't go strait out the bbl. It finds other places to escape, ie. the flash hole. You are lucky!
Jules

[ar15jules]

Here is a flash pan photo I took of my buddy testing a freshly "polished" Siler lock.