Black Powder Safety: Don't Leave it Charged!

Never leave a Blackpowder rifle loaded or charged!
© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™
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Don't Leave That Powder In Your Rifle

With hunting season in full swing in many parts of the United States, it is a good time to remind everyone about Black Powder safety.

Many years ago I was at my neighborhood gun shop. Knowing my interest in all things firearms related, the proprietor showed me a percussion rifle that was brought in to him.

I gasped when he laid it on the counter. The breechplug's tang was bent, the threaded part of the breech plug aiming straight up. The barrel, what was left of it, was banana peeled forward, with large chunks missing. I asked where the lock was as it was missing, and was told that it had been blown completely off. The trigger guard was still attached, albeit loosely, but the trigger was gone. The wood around the breech was splintered and the top edges scorched.

I immediately surmised that smokless powder was the culprit. Smokless powder develops upwards of 50000 pound per square inch, whereas black powder and its modern equivalents like Goex, Pyrodex, and 777 rarely exceed 20000 PSI.

My gunsmith friend quickly corrected me. The problem was black powder that had been left in the chamber for an extended period of time!

Closer examination of the charge area of the breech revealed extensive pitting, so much so that it actually looked like it would have been an egg shaped cavity before it let loose.

The owner of the percussion rifle said that it had been left loaded throughout the muzzleloader season, and when hunting season was over, he attempted to discharge it. The first two caps did not fire the weapon, but upon touching off the third one, the rifle blew up between his hands! He was fortunate, said the gunsmith, to only suffer some powder burns, and a shallow gash across the top of his hand.

The long and the short of it is,

Do Not Leave
Your Muzzleloader Charged!

Pull the ball at the end of the day, and dispose of the powder safely.

If you buy a used blackpowder firearm, make sure you carefully inspect the chamber area for pitting and possible enlargement. You never know how the owner may have conducted his loading affairs!

Related Posts:
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: Fall Protection Harness Safety


Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Shindand Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Though he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained Capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.

Fall Protection Harness Safety

© 2010 Albert A Rasch™ and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Fall Protection Harness Safety

Real quick post.

I have been meaning to mention this, and try to get pictures, but I don't have the items I need for a demonstration. With the fall hunting season in full throttle, I should have posted this much earlier!

As you should know, falls are the number one killer of outdoorsmen. Falls from tree stands account for the largest percentage of injuries and deaths in hunters. As it so happens, falls also account for the largest percent of injuries in all industries!

A fall protection harness will protect you from the associated injuries from stopping abruptly against the ground. But you can also die from having the circulation cut off to your lower extremities, and serious injuries can occur from the pressure of the leg straps.

There is a simple solution that will at least keep you from perishing from the aforementioned.

Get some 550 cord. (Parachute cord.)
Don your harness.
Double up your 550 cord and thread it through the belt portion of your harness.
What you want to create, is a loop that is long enough for you to put your foot in and lift yourself off the seat of the harness.
Cut your 550, melt the ends, and tie a square knot to secure the loop. I would strongly recommend that you also half hitch the ends and pull the knots tight.
Create another loop for the other side.

Carefully fold your loops into a nice neat package, and secure them to the harness with some tape, making sure they don't interfere with your hunting.

Should you fall from a stand, and find your self dangleing by the nape of your neck, take a moment to compose yourself. You will more than likely have had the wind knocked out of you, and possible have suffered getting banged up. Check yourself carefully, so as to prevent further injury.

Next undo your loops, and carefully slip your foot in one. Do the same with the other. Now step up into your loops carefully, and adjust your leg straps. Undoubtedly they were dug into your crotch, and if you were truly unlucky, your voice may have changed substantially. Alternate taking the weight off of your legs every few minutes, contemplating how exactly you got into this perdicament. It is a worthwhile mental excercise.

DO NOT attempt to get out of your harness! You should have assistance to get down. It would be just great if the harness saves your life, and then you just either fall out of it, or get your neck all twisted up in it, and end up hanging your self.

I don't know if I will be able to get pictures until I get back home in order to explain this better. But I would greatly appreciate it if someone who has a harness would put some loops together and write a post with pictures explaining what I am trying to get across.

Please feel free to copy this post in its entirety and share it with all our friends on your blogs! If you are going to use safety equipment, let's be SAFE useing it!


Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch™
Member: Shindand Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Scott Croner Albert A Rasch Albert “Afghanus” Rasch Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Nebraska Hunting Scott Croner, Merriam's Turkey Hunting Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Albert A Rasch Albert “Afghanus” Rasch Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Nebraska Hunting Scott Croner Merriam's Turkey Hunting Albert A RaschAlbert A Rasch So, you want to be a contractor. Handfeeding a Baby Mockingbird Clean and Repair your Ruger 10 22 Magazine

0.5% Civilized - 99.5% Instinctual or: I Would Rather Hunt, than be Hunted

© 2009-2010 Albert A Rasch™ and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

(I was going through the archives and I found this one from last year. We had lots of comments, and I thought it would be nice if some of our newest members and readers had an opportunity to read and comment on the subject. Your friend, AAR)

"In a very real sense our intellect, interests, emotions and basic social life - all are evolutionary products of the success of the hunting adaptation."

SL Washburn and CS Lancaster

All the PeTA drama of the last couple of weeks, plus the great intellectual stimulation that I have been fortunate to have when discussing animal issues with Brendan of Screaming Chicken Activism, got me to think more deeply as to why I hunt. I think it was Brendan that mentioned to me that I really didn't need to hunt, and that he thought there was a dichotomy in the desire I have to hunt and kill, and my love of animals.
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I believe that when I made the comment that it just sort of came to me. I know it was late and I was tired, so it was more subconscious than deduced and thought out. The answer that I gave him was that I have always been a hunter, even as a child. Not in the sense that I was formally inducted into the hunting fraternity by cousins, uncles, or my dad, no one in my family hunts. But ever since I was very young I stalked animals, bugs, people, birds, even fish. My mother got plenty of phone calls, and not more than a few visits from concerned parents and the occasional police officer with young Albert in tow! (I think it was suggested in hushed tones that perhaps a professional should have a look at me, but luckily my parents figured I would outgrow it... What did they know...) I don't remember how many bows I made from anything remotely flexible, and the scar on my thumb is from a Gillete single edge razor blade that sliced me down to the tendon while I was sharpening arrows made from bamboo.

As I have been contemplating this, it occurred to me to question how much of that was some deep instinctual behavior, versus an observed or learned one. Well, it seemed to me to be more an instinct than anything else. First, I had no role models to instill the desire to hunt in me. Television in the sixties did not have Sportsman Channel or Outdoor Channel. As a matter of fact it was black and white for those of you that aren't familiar with non cable TV! Another factor would be that I was raised in New York City. I only recall two times that I saw a hunter with a deer strapped to the hood of the car. It wasn't like my neighbors encouraged hunting as a leisure activity.

So where did my instinct to hunt come from then?

Why it has to be from the Paleolithic Era of course!

We have been "civilized" for a little over 10,000 years. But for 2.6 million years before that, we were little more than roving bands of hungry humans looking for our next meal, and avoiding becoming one.

2.6 million years as Homo Sapiens, but about 5 million years if you include Homo Habilis, followed by 10,000 years of so called civilization, that has also been punctuated by famines, diseases, and pestilence. 5 million years of evolution and not much has really changed as far as I can tell in the 0.5% of time we have been "civilized."

I'm thinking that my instinct theory is getting some traction here. If all humans are animals, then it stands to reason that we have some instincts left. Just because we are the only reasoning animal on the planet, doesn't mean that we have no instincts left. I and many others must still feel the pull of the outdoors and the need to pit our abilities, as considerable as they are, against nature.

That we don't need to hunt may not be an accurate statement. I am now, more than ever convinced that we not only need to hunt, but it is unnatural to subvert or suppress that need or instinct. As I told Brendan, I could no more be a non-hunter, than he could be a carnivore. Though I think that it might be easier for Brendan to eat a hunk of steak if he was hungry enough and not suffer much emotional discomfort, than it would be to keep me from the outdoors. I think that is very indicative of the importance of the instinct, the natural desire to be the top predator in nature's tapestry.

The more I think about this, the more I conclude that to deny the nature of being human, that is to deny the parts of us tat are still driven by instinct, is just asking to be sick both emotionally and physically. If any of us was forced to forego our basic human nature, physical and emotional harm would soon follow.

For me it all boils down to this: I am a hunter. I am driven by a passion greater than that of those around me because I acknowledge and accept that which nature bestowed upon me. As long as I treat nature and her gift to me with respect, I will continue to be whole... and human.

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Scott Croner Albert A Rasch Albert “Afghanus” Rasch Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Nebraska Hunting Scott Croner, Merriam's Turkey Hunting Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Albert A Rasch Albert “Afghanus” Rasch Albert A Rasch Scott Croner Nebraska Hunting Scott Croner Merriam's Turkey Hunting Albert A RaschAlbert A Rasch So, you want to be a contractor. Handfeeding a Baby Mockingbird Clean and Repair your Ruger 10 22 Magazine

Florida Matters: FWC Offers Bowhunter Education Courses

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FWC Offers Bowhunter Education Courses

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Hunter Safety and Ranges section is offering two Bowhunter Education courses in September and 5 more courses between October and December at various locations around the state.

The best thing about it is that all courses are conducted in the distance learning format, where you complete much of the content online, then receive your National Bowhunter Education Foundation (NBEF) certification at a 4 hour field day.

The schedule is as follows:
The September course will be offered in Duval and Citrus Counties.
The October courses are scheduled for Columbia and Jefferson Counties (Tallahassee area).
Palm Beach County will held in November, and 2 courses in Marion County during December.

Information and registration can be found on the web at: http://www.myfwc.com/SAFETY/Safety_hunt_safety_bowhunting_course.htm, or by calling the Hunter Safety office nearest you.

Northwest Region-Panama City (850) 413-0085
North Central Region, Lake City (386) 758-0525
Southwest Region - Lakeland (863) 648-3200
Northeast Region, Ocala (352) 625-2804
South Region, West Palm Beach (561) 625-5126

Even though I am not required to attend having held a Hunter Safety Certificate since the mid seventies, Bubby and his buddy Ethan don't have theirs so I am taking it upon myself to see to it that they get theirs.

It is very important to bring new members into our hunting family, and the sooner they join, the more likely they will stay with us for the long haul. So any Florida readers, think about taking a local boy to the course. It will only do us all good!

Best regards,
Albert

On Line Hunter Safety Course - Bay County Florida

© 2009 Albert A Rasch

For the FYI file:

Hunter safety Internet completion course offered in Bay County

"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering a free hunter safety Internet completion course in Bay County.

The course will be at the Bay County Fairgrounds, at the corner of U.S. 98 and Sherman Avenue in Panama City, Florida. Instruction will take place 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Feb. 21, with the firing range section of the course being held the same day at a different location.

Individuals must complete the Internet course before to coming to class and are required to bring a copy of the final report from the computer portion of the course to be admitted.

Children under 16 years of age must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Students are encouraged to bring a pencil and paper with them to take notes.

The hunter safety course is required for anyone born on or after June 1, 1975, to purchase a Florida hunting license. The FWC course satisfies hunter safety training requirements for all other states and Canadian provinces.

People interested in attending this course can register online and obtain information about future hunter safety classes at MyFWC.com/huntered or by calling the FWC's regional office in Panama City at 850-265-3676."


This is obviously for Florida Residents, but isn't great that there are more and different options becoming available?

I didn't know that there was a program to become an Instructor in the Hunter Safety Program. I'm signing up!

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Education Continues...