i bought a 45 cal smoothbore 3 years ago. i cleaned it oild it put some bore butter in it and had it ready to go. the gun was purty old but i thought i had it ready to go. i entered into a smoothbore competion and on the 5 th shot i thought that the "crack, boom" was awful loud and that there was some extra smoke. upon further examination i found that the nipple had blown clear out. it was old and went right by my ear.
if i would have had it closer or if i would of been firing left handed they would a been calling me "one eye" or dead. remember to change out the nipple when buying used and old. (by the way i hotfooted back to camp, got out my kit ,fixed it and went back to finish 2nd.)
Glad you are ok.
I had one let go a few years ago and am glad I had eye protection on. I never knew where the nipple went and had to do some cleanup on my forehead. The embedded powder grains were visible for several years as black spots.
I had nipple blow out of cav rifle no damage to me put over size in .fire lots times after that works good . It is neat how they come different sizes.
never lost a nipple, but did blow out a short clean out screw ...Right hand lock shooting lefty..went right in front of nose...got a good wiff of BP smoke...
Doug