Beware the flash

[lilguy43uk]

At the range the other day and I noticed that "chicken feed" was leaking from my bench rest bag, from a point at the top of the bag.

"Bugger," thinks I, "the rats have chewed a hole in it." Then I realised that rats couldn't get into the steel locker that it's kept in.

Carefully examining the hole I realised that there was a black patch around it and suddenly knew where the hole had come from.

The previous week I had rested the .44 Remmy on the bag to try a few long distance shots. The black powder flash from the cylinder was the culprit and had burned the hole in the bag.

I felt a bit of a tit going into a haberdashers and asking for some iron-on hem material so that I could patch it, but it did a good job.

[robinghewitt]

Having a bad day with the clays I made the mistake of shooting at one from the hip. Unfortunately it was the left barrel of a flinter, the blast went through my shirt and embedded little bits of fouling in my arm.

Fortunately it all healed up and didn't leave a mark, but it was a bit sore for a few days after

[keith66]

My first ml shotgun was a pedersoli double. It was very light and shot well, however it had an annoying fault. The nipples were angled outwards by about 3 degrees which meant the hammers did not strike them evenly. Every time that gun went off a blast of red hot percussion residue would escape down the side of the lock, if your hand had slid back on the forend it would give you a lovely tattoo on the inside of your wrist. I heard it had changed hands several times and all its owners had the same experience!