Muzzle-loading rifles. You pour everything down the barrel and use a tamping rod to pack it in place, then shoot. A chance spark could cause a misfire and blow off digits. Definitely common.just worked in a shipyard. he lost two fingers on two different occasions, so i don't think he could do much.
a man i was in contact with told me that it was common to lose fingers when filling the gun (i am not really gun literate, sorry) but they had to poke the ball down with some kind of stick? so their hand would be up in the air and easily get shot.
Sometimes I wonder how we as a species survived the industrial revolution through the advent of modern medicine and surgical techniques. Darn near every job and many "normal" household tasks and tools could maim or kill.

