clinton 10 ga shell

[charlie cleveland]

bought some old clinton shells off of gunbroker id had them a while decided to see if one of them 100 year old shells would still fire...they were black powder loads of 3 i/2 drams and 1 1/8 ounce shot.. i stuied a few moments on witch gun to use after a little while i decided to use a parker to try them in..i set me up a good target at 40 yards ..i loaded the old clinton in the right barrel raised the old gun up took good aim and squezed the trigger..whew what a scare... i was really expecting that thing to go off with a bang...i really flinched good when that things primer went off with very little noise...next thing i knew this old boys hearing a fizzlleing sound the type you hear in them old westerns when they light a dynimite fuse or the trail of black powder theyve lit...seriosly this old boy got scared almost threw the old gun down...go ahead and laugh i did later...out of the barrel starts coming smoke of a vivid green then i swear there was about 4 or 5 differant colors coming forth...ive never in my life seen such smoke or spewing sound this old gun was smoking boys...this went on for a good 30 secounds i still had this thing to my shoulder too..i for sure thought that thing was going to blow up any secound...then i got to thinking this thing may burn a hole in the gun barrel..i quickly lowered the gun at this point not wanting to un breach the gun but i knew i must ...i did not relly know what was going to happen when i unbreached the old parker...suprizingly nothing happened i pulled the hull out and that powder was still burning a bit about half way up the barrel...i had a rod i use for knocking out stuck hulls and such close by so out went the last of the old black powder load....so my curoisity about them old shell s are over....will not be tring this again soon.... charlie

[Keith Parrish]

Charlie,
You sound like I did when I found them old UMC shells. One of them had a bit of unraveling at the mouth going on and I decieded to have a lil "Let's see how they made em back then" unraveled the hull poured out the shot and then the fiber wad and over powder wad then out rolled the Largest cylinder of gun powder I ever seen in one shell. (even more than when I doubled charged a Rem shell last week) This was my first time I had ever layed eyes on blackpowder. I eyed the small primer and that nice block of powder which was stuck in the shape probally due to the weather this shell had endured over the years. then got to thinking wonder if I could get this stuff to light. I WASN'T ABOUT TO RELOAD IT AND PUT IT IN ONE OF MY GUNS. BUT I HAD TO TRY TO SEE IF IT WOULD LIGHT. So I started a nice fire in the fire pit and took a stick and started the tip on fire and set it over the top of this powder. and low and behold Shoot hit the fan it took the light had a flash like I never seen with any powder I ever seen. Awsome I bet if I would have tried it in my gun It would have shot just like 100 years ago...