A smokin' blast. Second BP shoot.

[PT7]

Do NOT dry fire your gun! The hammer smacking on the nipple without a percussion cap will start to flatten it out and the impact transferred to the drum can cause additional damage. The actual Firing of a percussion gun actually provides a slight amount of 'cushioning' to the hammer as there is a small amount of back pressure exerted on ignition as well as the percussion cap itself between the hammer and nipple.

Thanks for the confirm, Ed. Never have once dry-fired the pistol...don't plan to. Did check the Instruction Manual and found zip on dry-firing. However, a number of muzzleloading forums align with your warning. One thing I did learn from the FOML RO is that a good protection against nipple damage is to place a coned rubber washer on the nipple and gentle release the hammer on to that. I've not tried it, but he said it could be used to do a dry-fire test with that washer in place. Anyway, I don't think dry-firing is at all needed with the double set trigger system. That overly-sensitive hair trigger does make it way too easy to fire the pistol! I'm good on this issue now.

Sorry, you got me there. I forgot your BP pistol had the set trigger. That would certainly eliminate the need for practice to gain better trigger control. I had a set trigger on my mauser rifle years ago, and it was sweet.
I tip my hat.

Yeah, Marine, this double-set trigger system is definitely "sweet." When I first bought the pistol, I didn't think I would use it since you can shoot only with the firing trigger. But the trigger pull on that is heavy-duty. The pistol really gets moved around, even more so than happened with the demanding D/A trigger on my Ruger .357 magnum revolver. And most everyone knows that Ruger is famous for a heavy-duty D/A trigger!

Not at all needed, but can't remember having a "tip of the hat" come my way. Thanks for that. Actually, your comment helped me think this through more clearly. It's been fun looking at this dry-firing issue and coming to a positive result. Take care.

PT7