Neal, I respect your opinions a lot. You're one of the people that usually posts plain common sense. Seems you're making fun a little bit. I hope you know pretty well that my buttocks aren't involved with loading; getting a pistol permit in my city wasn't easy and my Dad taught me gun safety
way before the current dummy-butt parked his ugly tail into the mayor's office chair, or before he gerrymandered his first pork barrel
You're not seeing what I'm seeing, and its your
perception of the relative positions of the objects involved. To see what I see, imagine your body next to a loading stand ready to load
Now by definition, to be close enough to load the pistol on that stand, you must be at
least as close as arm's reach to touch the loading stand, correct? I hope I'm right on that; I've never used a loading stand but I assume you must touch it to use it
That means your
head is also
about that close unless I forget where the head on a human being goes. In fact, imagining that picture in
my head means that the head in question is about 2.5-3.5 feet or so from the
business end of a weapon that is either loaded or being loaded, and about 45* from having it point at that head- in other words, rotate the weapon 45* and the eyeballs in that head could be staring down the barrel. "In front of the muzzle" is a
very easy and strict mathematics issue to me. To illustrate, If I place my rifle on the loading bench and walk out to a target frame, I am in front of the muzzle. It's irrelevant that the rifle is not specifically zeroed in on me- I am
definitely in front of the muzzle, and that's why rifles on the loading bench must be unloaded when the shooters hang targets, at any range I've heard of, just like pistols need to be unloaded in a similar situation, and nobody can approach the bench while targets are being hung- even if you do not intend to shoot in somebody's direction, it could happen- you don't handle the weapon with somebody in front of the muzzle.
Also, the weapon is pointing
up when in a loading stand, which is not the direction normally considered "downrange". I realize that some rifles need to be in a stand to load them but I'm not commenting on flintlock rifles and such, or even modern muzzle loaders, that's not the topic
Now turn the mental image I described earlier horizontal. If the revolver (loaded or not, but we are taught they are always loaded while kids, yes?) was pointed downrange, and your head was in front of the muzzle at arm's length but 45* off and 4 feet to the left, we would all scream "unsafe!". But if its a
loading stand, the rules change and we accept the same relative positions of our body and head as perfectly fine. I have talked to people about this before, and they try to convince me that somehow, your head is not in front of the muzzle during this procedure. But try asking somebody to stand at arm's length while you aim your pistol at a target downrange, past their head and see if there's any takers even with an empty pistol in your hand
When I load, I do not point the muzzle vaguely downrange or up. The revolver
is pointed downrange, and I seat the balls with the stocks socked into my hip, left hand holding the revolver in my fist with my knuckles on the bench, which makes it sure that the thing is not pointing up or down. Hammer is half-cock. Caps are no where near. The only thing I load off the frame is the powder and wads. When the balls are seated, the revolver is re-assembled and I hold the revolver in my left hand, muzzle downrange, and I cap with my right. I should use a capper or a stick but honestly I feel lucky; #10 CCI caps fit so well I don't have to jam or force them on, and they don't slip off. The revolver was on half cock already or in one of the half positions between caps, hammer down if I want to put something away or wipe off excess grease if I'm greasing the cylinders, or maybe my hands if I think there might be powder on them
I allude to this in my previous pos, and this is the whole crux of it to me:
This is no different to me than taking the weapon when the range is hot, and stepping back 6 feet from the firing line with people to the right and left of you still up at the firing line. If the range master saw that, there would be quite a commotion I'd bet
Now, the only person getting shot in my worst case loading scenario is the loader, so as long as I don't do it, well, no biggie for me except for some bad dreams and therapist bills, and maybe some dry cleaning. I told you my take wasn't popular
I see no difference between loading my M1911A1 on a loading stand and loading a BP revolver in one- both guns put my body in front of the muzzle, no question. My torso is higher elevation than the muzzle, so is my head. Therefore, I am literally in front of the muzzle. Many people use these and I bet there's few accidents; it seems BP guys take a lot of care with what they are doing which is always exemplary. But food for thought- your body's in front of that muzzle. The weapon does not need to be pointed between your eyes or at your center mass for you to be in front of it
