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JTarrou  1yr ago (text post)   3221 thread views

I'm a "gun guy", AMA

A couple people had expressed interest in this topic, and I have a bit of extra time for a couple days, so here goes:

Bona fides: I am a former infantry NCO and sniper, hunter, competitive shooter, reloader, hobby gunsmith, sometimes firearms trainer and currently work in a gun shop, mostly on the paperwork/compliance side. Back in the day, was a qualified expert with every standard small arm in the US inventory circa 2003 (M2, 4, 9, 16, 19, 249, 240B, 21, 24, 82 etc.), and today hang around the 75th percentile of USPSA classifications. I've shot Cap-and-Ball, Trap and Sporting Clays badly; Bullseye and PRS somewhat better and IDPA/USPSA/UML/Two-gun with some local success. Been active in the 2A community since the mid-90s, got my first instructor cert in high school, and have held a CPL for almost twenty years now.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert in every aspect of firearms, there's huge areas that escape my knowledge base, but if you've got questions I'll do my best to answer.

Technical questions

Gun control proposals for feasibility

Industry

Training

Wacky opinions

General geekery

Some competition links (not my own) just for the interested.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5IhsWamaLY&t=173

https://youtube.com/watch?v=93nEEINflXE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=utcky0zq10E

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVh4CjbgK7s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0IK2RUxVq3A

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How safe are muzzle loaders? I think they seem like they might be lots of fun but am wondering if they result in more accidents from having to handle gunpowder directly.

Also do they aways use black powder or are smokeless powders typically substituted ?

Quite safe so long as you follow the protocols. The most potentially dangerous are the cap-and-ball revolvers, which can chain fire the whole cylinder if loaded improperly.

Single shot muzzies are some of the safest guns out there, it's basically impossible to blow them up. The one exception is when trying to remove a loaded ball over a squib load.

Modern blackpowder equivalents are mostly not "true" blackpowder, but give similar performance without being as corrosive, foul smelling and smoky. You can buy the real stuff from specialty manufacturers if you're going for historical accuracy, but that's really the only reason.

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