About a year ago at work

a guy came out of a bay and said his rifle wouldn't work.  So I went out to take a look, with the information that he'd inherited it and didn't know a thing about it.

It was a Thompson Center muzzleloader, and the first thing I noticed next to the rifle was a small box that he'd poured  most of a pound of black powder into to load from...

No, that's not confidence inspiring.

First, 'Don't do this' and make sure it's back in and the bottle closed.  Then try another cap, no good.  He had no nipple wrench, so finally had to go out to the truck, get a crescent wrench, and get it out.  Well, whoever had last used it, when they finished, and cleaned and oiled it well before putting it away, and the flash passage was full of oil.  Do the best can cleaning the passage, and since could tell there was still stuff in there, use an old trick of getting as much powder as could into the passage, then putting the nipple back in, and then capping and trying.  That worked.  And he had no further trouble the rest of the day.  

Yes, he also got a bit of "How to clean after firing black powder" lesson.

I think I was the only guy working that day who knew anything about black powder arms.  Part of me thought "And I'm your expert, you poor bastard."  But he was happy and had a good day from then on.

No, no brilliant insights tonight,

just some clearing

                                    Yes, I've known some belly dancers, twerking is nothing

                                                                    REAL bad idea, guys

            Considering what son has told me about some of the equipment he uses, I can see this

I was using something I bought a year ago, and thought I probably should mention it

One bad thing about loading black powder cartridges is that almost no powder measure made is considered safe to use with it.  And yes, there are arguments about it, that's the general rule.  That means either getting real good at using a dipper of the right size, or weighing every charge, which can really slow things down.

Enter this measure made by Montana Vintage Arms, specifically intended for black powder to eliminate the plastic parts and possible pinch points that might cause problems.  I'll let their description of how it works cover things.  It comes with all you need, the measure itself, your choice of a hopper to hold 1/4 pound, half pound or one pound of powder, and the adjustable scale.

The big thing is consistency, using the same motions every time, and it will be without plus/minus one tenth of a grain, which in black powder is nothing.  I've read tests people tried where, out of a whole string, they might sometimes be off by 0.2 grain, which, again, is just find with black.  National match shooters might disagree.

I finally managed to talk myself into this thing, and so far it's been great.  It'll run tiny to heavy charges with any granulation; I have read of people using 1f, the coarsest grade, having some problems on occasion, but it's mostly still the 'consistent motions every time' factor.  One thing a bunch of people agreed with was to run the lever twice; it can't double-charge, and it does seem to give a very consistent throw.

Now I just need more time to go out and shoot this stuff, so I can use it more.  Well made, solid equipment.

Go look at the Village Hemmorhoid's 'Political Social Media Posts',

 it includes stuff from the Chicago PD that ought to be evidence in the trial of the people who gave the orders.  Jeez, did they not think about this stuff being available, or were the politicians- in and out of uniform- too stupid to consider it?

Why are so many Democrats such hateful, "I hope people die" bastards?

Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general of Virginia, faced condemnation from Republicans and Democrats on Friday after text messages from 2022 resurfaced in which he said he would "piss on graves" of GOP opponents and mused about hypothetically shooting then-Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert.

In a text message exchange with Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones used violent and inflammatory language, writing that if he were presented with a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of shooting Gilbert, former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or former Cambodia dictator Pol Pot, he'd shoot Gilbert "every time," prompting pushback from his former colleague.
CBS doesn't mention it for some reason, he also told someone he'd like for the man's wife to have to watch their children die, because 'it might make them change their policies'.

They clown running as Democrat for Governor has had some problems, let us say, and this makes it worse.

Turns out Jones doesn't like cops, either.

And the blood-dancers of Everytown gave him a bunch of money, and don't want to talk about it.

Wonderful peple all, aren't they?

For some reason the spam filter

marked a bunch of comments as spam.  I think got them all cleared