flintlock kit

[enfield2band]

Snide comment aside, I can only speak from personal experience, and from the experiences of other with whom I have been shooting for over fifty years.

I HAVE seen a 'ramrod launch', but I've never seen a flashpan ka-boom.

When I'm shooting with my fellows in the USA, I practice what THEY do.

The kind of trail-shooting I do over there is all from standing or kneeling, no benches to put stuff on so that it might get spark-sprayed and blow up. Powder is decanted into a powder measure, and the horn containing the powder is pushed around your back - out of the way of any sparks. Priming is done with a tiny priming flask.

With N-SSA-style shooting, it is practiced as it was during the WoNA, exactly - using paper cartridges. Again, it's standing or kneeling only, as carried out by the troops of the day.

When I'm shooting a BP pistol or revolver on a real range, it's the same as here - powder in phials is recommended, but not overly enforced unless you are taking part in a MLAIC-style shoot, in which case it's phials all the way. The club I shoot at, Tri-Counties Gun club in Tualatin, has a number of ranges, including one of fifty places for pistol up to 50 yards, and a couple of smaller 20-position for 25 yards There is a separate qualifying range for the CCW courses run there.

Hi tac,
I'm an MLAGB RO. The one thing I have to constantly watch for when overseeing a shoot is that people move flasks, containers with phials in them, and tins of caps to one side, and, cover them with a cloth to avoid premature ignition by a stray spark.

90% of the shooting at my club is done from a table so one has to be vigilant. Some members load off the firing point as they feel this is safer and only cap the gun or prime the pan when they are ready to shoot.

[tacfoley]

Hi tac, I'm an MLAGB RO. The one thing I have to constantly watch for when overseeing a shoot is that people move flasks, containers with phials in them, and tins of caps to one side, and, cover them with a cloth to avoid premature ignition by a stray spark.

90% of the shooting at my club is done from a table so one has to be vigilant. Some members load off the firing point as they feel this is safer and only cap the gun or prime the pan when they are ready to shoot.

My point was simply to note that if you don't have anywhere to put things down on, then they are unlikely to attract unwanted sparks from other shooters adjacent. In the club here in UK which I shoot BP - either pistol or rifle - I fetch my phials for the handgun from the otherwise closed shooting box, and load them into the chambers. Then cap up and shoot.

With my rifle I use replicas of WoNA-era cartridges kept in a brass cartridge box behind the line, load up on the line, and cap up when I'm ready to shoot.

When I used to shoot with the VAA I'd load my rifle off the line, carry it vertically TO the line, and cap up after lying down to shoot it. Just as everybody else did.