musket shells 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
As an avid Civil War enthusiast, I have quite of collection of muzzle loading rifles. My 58 caliber Springfield is among my favorites. It can shoot either round musket balls or the more advanced, bullet-shaped Minie' balls. Now I had heard of the exploding Minie' balls used in the Civil War and was fascinated. Being a machinist made things even more likely that I might remove myself from the gene pool.
I took four of the pointed projectiles and chucked them up in a vise. Then I milled a shallow hole in the tip of each 58 caliber slug, making them look like hollow points for an elephant gun. Next,I carefully pressed a 22 caliber blank flat end up into the hollow tips.
And there I had it. A pocket full of genuine Musket Shells!
Out at the desert shooting spot, my girlfriend was not so sure about all of this as I poured in the powder, dropped in the Minie' ball (with the upturned blank facing up) and rammed the whole thing home. The kick was satisfying as usual.
I stepped out of the cloud to see the fence post I was aiming at was sheared completely off! Oh Boy! Musket Shells!
Again , the same reloading process brought similar results. Wooping with delight I again poured in the black gunpowder and dropped in my next round. But it only went about half way down. These old rifles foul teribly with black powder. No matter. I drew out my trusty steel ramrod and proceeded to ram the bullet home with a series of quick jabs. Then I heard it. A muffled pop emerged from the barrel and I instinctively held the muzzle away from my face.
Ker-BOOM! The main charge ignited by the 22 going off hurled the 3-foot steel ramrod half a mile into the sky, followed by a ball of fire the size of a basketball.
y girlfriend screamed, jumped into the cab of the truck and LOCKED THE DOORS in panic! I ran around the truck yelling "OH NO! OH NO!" as the ramrod arrowed into the earth not four paces from my boot.
The last musket shell still sits on my shelf as a reminder. The girl left years ago. My musket still hangs over the fireplace. I haven't shot it since. Submitted on 10/22/2002
Submitted by:
Don Shively
Reference:
Not reported ... 1988
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