Originally Posted by
Milice
The firerarm "experts" that they call in are often full of $#^T. Anyone with half a brain checks to see if a muzzleloader has a charge in the barrel (checking with ramrod wont go into detail). I do a number of shows a year that I often end up handleing some reall cool old guns, and about 1 out of 5 has a charge in the barrel. Then you dont go out and shoot the thing. not at least you have taken the barrel out of the wood unscrewed the brreach checked the threads ect.
Very, very true. Many muzzleloading guns are pawned because the owner wants some money and is having issues with that gun. That often means a charge in the barrel the owner couldn't get to go off. The interesting thing is that technically such a condition is "not loaded" under many state laws because the state law requires powder in the pan or a cap on the nipple. But it is still dangerous, especially if you go to test the lock and the thing finally does go off, or you sell it and the guy who buys it double charges it and then fires the whole lot off (aka pipe bomb).
A responsible dealer will always check for a charge in the barrel, usually using a rod of known measure to check for the presence of a charge. Sadly this doesn't often happen because pawn shop dealers often know a few cents about everything, but a dollar of nothing. It's always good to mark the ram rod you use with the gun with stripes for "unloaded" and "charged", making a couple different marks for charges of various grains you usually use.