I was at the local range with a couple of buddies a few months back. They were sighting in their smokepoles for deer season, they don't regularly shoot their bp rifles...just in the fall before the season opens. I had shot about 5 or 6 shots from my rifle, (still right on target at 50 yards), and had moved on to shooting a few shots from the 58 at 15 yards. I had fired out a cylinder and all of us were standing and talking while one guy was reloading his rifle for his next shot.
None of us noticed at first that he dumped in a charge, seated his sabot in the barrel and then stopped to join in the conversation for a minute, then he dumped in another charge and seated a second sabot in the barrel. When he rammed the sabot down as far as he could get it, he got this funny look on his face...his ramrod was marked with a line that should sit even with the muzzle when the rifle is loaded...it was sitting a lot higher above the muzzle than it should have! He just dropped his head and I heard him mumble "Oh Sh**!!" Of course, all conversation stopped at that very moment and we had a good laugh at his expense!
What? You have never double loaded a BP rifle? Would you admit to it if you had? Most of us won't admit to lapses like that,
, unless there are witnesses!
It was a good thing my buddy had a bullet puller with him that day. He pulled the bullet and sabot out of the barrell and we poked as much of the charge loose as we could and dumped it back out of the barrel. He didn't want to have to soak the remaining charge and pull the breechplug out and get into all of that mess so he decided to shoot out the load that was left, against our advice! I've never accused him of having all his marbles.
So he capped up and took aim downrange and the rest of us went under the shooting bench...just in case. I was envisioning a BIG blast of fire out the end of the barrel and maybe a good bulge in it after the shot, but it went off just like a normal shot and no barrel bulge from overpressure. The gas seal from the first charge prevented the remaining powder from the second charge from igniting and just blew it out the end of the barrel. I don't recommend this method of unloading however.
What did I learn? Don't talk and load at the same time, marking your ramrod to show the depth it should sit on a full charge is a good idea, and some people have more balls and less patience than they have good sense.