What do you use

[JeffG]

Somewhere around here, I have a picture of a horn and gun blown all to hell, from loading from the horn. It wasn't all that long ago that it happened.

I don't think I would be very concerned with a revolver. By the time you get around to doing a reload, all spark should be long dead.

i agree, I definitely don't reload the rifle from the powder flask but into the measure from the flask. You don't know how long it can smolder down the barrel. I was watching an episode with RLee Ermey a few months ago and he had a guy shooting either a flint or cap and the guy was quickly loading and shooting fast as he could as part of a rate of fire thing and had one of the charges flash as he dropped it in the barrel. His face was away and the barrel tilted away so didn't get hurt.

Personally, I swab between shots because I'm target shooting but if I was hunting and trying to get off another shot quickly, the odds are obviously better for that to happen.

Lymans book does say to leave the hammer down on fired cap to deprive anything still smoldering in the barrel of air. Just common sense but some like to tempt fate.

[adrians]

Yeah loading directly from a flask can be unsafe so I don't do it , I " rigged " my old Lyman flask so it will take a 38 case I use for filling the chambers .
The spout also acts as a handy dandy case keeper when not in use .

[Omnivore]

The risk is certainly low, but greater than zero. No one who's been killed by this practice has ever come back on here and reported his death, so obviously it is very rare.

Seriously though, I did see with my own eyes, one time, a guy trying to see how many shots he could get off from his cap lock rifle in one minute. He was pouring powder from a horn into a measure, and from the measure into the barrel. One of those charges did ignite as soon as it was poured in. Since he knew what he was doing, keeping the muzzle pointed away from the face, pouring from a measure and not a horn with a pound of powder in it, the only result was him saying, "See? That's why you don't stick your face over the muzzle and why you don't pour directly from the horn."

I think just being aware of the danger, the very unlikely but potentially catastrophic danger, is enough, and so I don't get in a hurry to reload.

There is another general rule, with no source (or is it in the Ten Commandments? I'm not sure), which says;

"Is gun. Is not safe."

I have little tolerance for the "range Nazi" attitude. Some sectors in our society have become so risk-averse as to be dysfunctional and pathological. It is a communicable disease. A lot of it has been driven by litigation, and the fear of litigation, and by insurance companies worried about liability but not having any real understanding of now things work in the real world, rather than any genuine caring or concern for one's fellow man. It is the Authoritarian System rearing it's ugly, stinking, filthy head. Some of the rules at ranges are utterly irrational (such as the "load five" rule applied to a percussion six shooter - leave the damned thing on half cock until your ready to fire, so you're not fiddle farting with a loaded gun trying to lower the hammer in the right place - the load five rule only came about as a result of needing to carry the gun holstered anyway) and I will not participate where such attitudes prevail. I have no use for irrational people, especially frightened irrational people, and I will not associate with them except so far as to try correcting them, BUT this one about loading directly from a flask at least has some grounding in reason and in fact.

It's probably a bad idea to stuff your paper cartridges in the gun immediately after firing too, as in trying to prove how fast you can reload. I've done it, and I still have all my body parts, but upon reflection I think it's a bad idea. I've run a stop sign or two before, also without incident, but that doesn't mean it's a good policy.

All that said; I have the repro Colt and Remington flasks, and the tubular, threaded top brass jobbies with the push-button valve. They're all pretty good, the Colt having more capacity if that matters. If you want maximum capacity, don't use a flask at all-- Get one of those valved caps they make for going directly on the powder can. They make them for the steel Goex cans and for the plastic Pyrodex jars, and probably others. If you're using more than one kind of powder, label them as to what's inside (which is another reason to use the container the powder came in, and just stick a dispenser cap on it). The repro flasks are good for that period correct display case.

I haven't used a flask for some time though, preferring to use a mechanical powder measure on a stand, of the type used in metal cartridge reloading, to make paper cartridges. It easier and faster to use and it throws more consistent charges than any flask and spout setup using your finger as a stopper.

I still use an old-fashioned powder horn for rifle though, occasionally, but when hunting I only carry two reloads in plastic "quick shot" type loading tubes. That way I'm not carrying a horn or even a possibles bag. Ram rod tips and such are carried in the patch box built into the rifle, and quick shot reloads are carried in a pocket. The bag and horn, I figure, only make sense in what might be called "expedition carry" wherein you're out for days or weeks at a time. In my day hunts I'm going home after dark, so there's no need to carry every darned thing with me. If I do everything correctly I'm only firing one shot, right? so the reloads are for when I screw up. I've used a reload on three occasions over about ten years, none of those follow-up shots being strictly necessary, but only so as to hasten the inevitable.

[Omnivore]

The risk is certainly low, but greater than zero. No one who's been killed by this practice has ever come back on here and reported his death, so obviously it is very rare.

Seriously though, I did see with my own eyes, one time, a guy trying to see how many shots he could get off from his cap lock rifle in one minute. He was pouring powder from a horn into a measure, and from the measure into the barrel. One of those charges did ignite as soon as it was poured in. Since he knew what he was doing, keeping the muzzle pointed away from the face, pouring from a measure and not a horn with a pound of powder in it, the only result was him saying, "See? That's why you don't stick your face over the muzzle and why you don't pour directly from the horn."

I think just being aware of the danger, the very unlikely but potentially catastrophic danger, is enough, and so I don't get in a hurry to reload.

There is another general rule, with no source (or is it in the Ten Commandments? I'm not sure), which says;

"Is gun. Is not safe."

I have little tolerance for the "range Nazi" attitude. Some sectors in our society have become so risk-averse as to be dysfunctional and pathological. It is a communicable disease. A lot of it has been driven by litigation, and the fear of litigation, and by insurance companies worried about liability but not having any real understanding of now things work in the real world, rather than any genuine caring or concern for one's fellow man. It is the Authoritarian System rearing it's ugly, stinking, filthy head. Some of the rules at ranges are utterly irrational (such as the "load five" rule applied to a percussion six shooter - leave the damned thing on half cock until you're ready to fire, so you're not fiddle farting with a loaded gun trying to lower the hammer in the right place - the load five rule only came about as a result of needing to carry the gun holstered anyway) and I will not participate where such attitudes prevail. I have no use for irrational people, especially frightened irrational people, and I will not associate with them except so far as to try correcting them, BUT this one about loading directly from a flask at least has some grounding in reason and in fact.

It's probably a bad idea to stuff your paper cartridges in the gun immediately after firing too, as in trying to prove how fast you can reload. I've done it, and I still have all my body parts, but upon reflection I think it's a bad idea. I've run a stop sign or two before, also without incident, but that doesn't mean it's a good policy.

All that said; I have the repro Colt and Remington flasks, and the tubular, threaded top brass jobbies with the push-button valve. They're all pretty good, the Colt having more capacity if that matters. If you want maximum capacity, don't use a flask at all-- Get one of those valved caps they make for going directly on the powder can. They make them for the steel Goex cans and for the plastic Pyrodex jars, and probably others. If you're using more than one kind of powder, label them as to what's inside (which is another reason to use the container the powder came in, and just stick a dispenser cap on it). The repro flasks are good for that period correct display case.

I haven't used a flask for some time though, preferring to use a mechanical powder measure on a stand, of the type used in metal cartridge reloading, to make paper cartridges. It easier and faster to use and it throws more consistent charges than any flask and spout setup using your finger as a stopper.

I still use an old-fashioned powder horn for rifle though, occasionally, but when hunting I only carry two reloads in plastic "quick shot" type loading tubes. That way I'm not carrying a horn or even a possibles bag. Ram rod tips and such are carried in the patch box built into the rifle, and quick shot reloads are carried in a pocket. The bag and horn, I figure, only make sense in what might be called "expedition carry" wherein you're out for days or weeks at a time. In my day hunts I'm going home after dark, so there's no need to carry every darned thing with me. If I do everything correctly I'm only firing one shot, right? so the reloads are for when I screw up. I've used a reload on three occasions over about ten years, none of those follow-up shots being strictly necessary, but only so as to hasten the inevitable.

[swathdiver]

I don't put a full power flask over a cylinder. One spark big boom.

That'll NEVER happen. Just pure baloney that gets barfed up again and again as truth.

Track had a sale on flasks, I think it ends this weekend. Pedersoli is the only company if memory serves still making original type flasks. I prefer the Remington flask for its smaller size. All are just fine and we have most of them. Get 30 and 35 grain flask spouts for it and get the Pedersoli funnel that screws in to make refilling the flask easy peasy.

You don't need a separate measure unless your range or event requires it, if so, the ones from Ted Cash are great. Get a TDC snail capper too.

Enjoy!

[Squeeze]

I like a measure, its really because thats what I am used to. I use a small pistol one for pistols and .32/.36 rifles, and a full size for everything else. Ted Cash stuff is top shelf in my opinion also. I like the style measure with the funnel top. http://www.tdcmfgstore.com/agora.cgi...&ppinc=search2

[doc1876]

I also have been running revolvers since 1970. I often have to load three and four at a time under pressure from opposing forces while on on horse back. I have never seen a flask blow. Reloading them with the short chamber, and the time between shots as waksupi said, is plenty safe.
NOW a long gun that is different, there is a chamber area long ways away from any wind, and an ember can stay lit, so yes, I always load from a powder measure. If you re really afraid of it, make the paper cartridges and enjoy them

[ChrisPer]

At our club we have had a flask blow in loading a long gun. It was against the rules, it used to be everyone was taught to fill a measure from the flask, then pour from the measure down the barrel. Now its mandatory pre-measured charges, and if you need to measure from a flask or a can, you do it off the line and into vials.

Believe it or not, without the rules there are people who put open containers of powder at the bench ready to catch a spark. Believe it or not, there was a fatality in Germany fairly recently from setting off accumulated spilled grains in a piece of carpet on the bench.

And as to the revolver, I helped a guy who made paper cartridges for his and hot charred paper was still there after the shot. It was blocking the vent and giving misfires, and pouring in powder for the next shot would have been very chancy.

So its all very well saying you have never SEEN a flask or charge go up, but that is the advantage of being human - you can learn from others losing fingers, eyes or dying without insisting on doing the same.