I believe I had my first encounter with the phenomenon known as "DRYBALL". At least its the first one that I remember. And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, I was giving a muzzleloader demonstration to a group of interested young men at a friend's ranch. My buddy asked me at the last minute to run out to his place to give said demonstration. My shop is a national disaster at the moment and I couldn't find half my gear, but a grabbed what I could and rode on out there. Fired the pirate pistol (just powder) a few times then I brought out my Kentucky flinter pistol. At the same time I was helping load the shotgun, and watching them load a couple of my buddy's rifles while narrating the entire process. I guess you could say I was distracted. Went back to the pistol and rammed that ball all the way to the bottom of the barrel. That's when I started using a lot of words that are not appropriate for mixed company. I had nothing on me that would work to to get that thing out so we went into his shop and going through bins of misc parts I wound up making an ugly looking screw extractor and after using a vise and some well placed hammer taps finally got it out. But then the black powder gods decided they weren't quite done with me and the first try cracked my flint to a point it was inoperable. To save face, I cut a short fuse and put the frisson down and lit the fuse. It did go boom and they were impressed with my MacGyvering so the day was not lost.
Did I mention I also had my Philadelphia Derringer that wouldn't fire off a cap? I had loaned it out and the nipple was so flattened out I couldn't get it to fire. Yes I am the one you want to give a demonstration of how much fun muzzleloaders are, apparently not.
However when I got home, new flint, new nipple and both now consistently make fire and smoke.
Next time.
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