blowing down barrel

Jack Wilson said:

Rat Trapper said:

I have my own range, and am not PC, so I can blow down the barrel all I want and do not have to answer to others. Anyone who has a problem with how I do things can pack up his stuff and get to hell off my range.

Click to expand...

Yes that's how it works, and if you're at a range or event that doesn't allow it, you can get the hell off their range.

Click to expand...

Or abide by their rules.

Is this subject ever going to die? :dead:

Here is what I wrote previously on this topic when I was working as a safety officer at a public range:

Why you should not put muzzles in your mouth:

(Does this really need an answer?)

Not doing this is one thing that the NRA, NMLRA, and I agree upon fully.

Most common Rule 1 is keeping your muzzle pointed in a safe direction -- I doubt that includes your head, although in your case, maybe this does not apply...

Your Hunter Safety Instructor will be sorely disappointed and will tear up your Safe Hunter card.

It serves no purpose that swabbing with a damp patch will not do better.

BP residue tastes pretty bad.

Lead is not good for you.

Freud will have shocking things to say about you.

Some of your shooting buddies will say awful things about your preferences. (cleaning of course)

You have enough holes in your head.

You will be kicked off most organized ranges for doing this.

Our insurance is high enough.

We do not need the very bad publicity. Try explaining this image to the press after somebody publicizes a photo of you doing this.

On the other hand, maybe we can find some foolish ML manufacturer who will couple an in-line smokeless ML gun with a mouth friendly muzzle.

You have my apologies in advance for venting over a pet peeve, but your survival and our sport are both important to me.

If you truly must blow into your bore, please do it in private and use some protection. You know, just like they teach the kids in school these days. But in this case, it is a rubber tube that is open at both ends.

CS

and the reason the NRA, NMLRA, local clubs, etc. banned the practice is due to the Insurance companies telling them they would lose their insurance if they did not kow tow to the companies demands...

Frankly anyone who does not know when their gun went off not matter if their are distractions or what caliber IMNSHO shouldn't be allowed to shoot - period...

:thumbsup:

This is not a reply to anyone in particular but how many of you naysayers have dropped a light down the bore to check out the condition of said bore, what's the difference you still have your face in front of the muzzle right?

An enlightening comment like that deserves two thumbs up... :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I think I mentioned that. Yes you have to play by house rules . Objections to the practice however is based on emotion and not on simple fact. You can load safely without , but absolutely noting dangerous about it unless you are sloppy in your movements and chip a youth on you muzzle.
OM G that's the next good objection, the shooter may chip his tooth, oh the children :shocked2:

I'm always Leary of shooting at public ranges....especially when they have rules like "don't blow down the barrel".
It sets a very low standard of competence.

I can't even begin to count the number of accidental discharges, muzzle sweeps and dropped guns I have seen....

Yep some ranges and some people need rules that fit their competence level... :shake:

54mountain said:

This is not a reply to anyone in particular but how many of you naysayers have dropped a light down the bore to check out the condition of said bore, what's the difference you still have your face in front of the muzzle right?

Click to expand...

You have this backwards. The burden does not exist for people who expect reasonable safety measures to explain the obvious concerns involved in muzzles being kept in safe directions. The burden is upon people breaking common sense rules. In short, there must be a compelling reason for taking such risks. There is nothing here which is even slightly convincing.

But since you want the differences explained:

Bore inspections are rarely, if ever done. Therefore, the normal routine of loading and shooting does not lead one into an automated action which during an abnormal instance can foreseeably lead to a tragic result. Laugh if you like, but as a range officer of civilllian and law enforcement personnel, I have witnessed small errors which came far too close to tragic results and seen the aftermath of a tragic event. Yes, with modern equipment, but the basics are identical.

But even under the best circumstances the practice of putting your mouth over the muzzle of any arm leaves a terrible image to anyone witnessing the event.

When a bore inspection must be done, I run a rod down to check for the breach distance and also to hear the vent immediately before putting my eye in front of the muzzle. (But then, running a rod down will likely tell me what I need to know anyway.)

I still see no compelling reason for this bizarre practice.

What does it accomplish that a damp patch on a rod will not do better and safer?

Articulate the basis for doing such a strange thing - or finally admit that you are simply clinging to a ridiculous tradition which should have been abandoned long ago.

CS

The point is is that is is not unsafe. Running a patch down the bore does do the same thing that blowing does....but is not some how safer. It might look better but is no safer.
We get on rollor costers because they look and feel unsafe and scary, but in fact are safe and the scary is just in our heads. In the end rollor costers are a lot more dangerios then blowing down a barrel. People have died from rollor coster mishaps. However, inspite of all the "I knew some one who saw it" stories it has never happened that any one shot there heads off blowing down the bore of a just fired gun. Nor has any one ever blew a spark alive in a hang fire. You could not blew around a patched round ball. Try it. Take the cylinder out of a revolver, load a patched ball in it and blow. Have a match flam or a mirror on th other side, dose it dance or fog...no. The only danger here is a vagel respnse or popping a blood vessel from blowing hard.
Yes it is a tradition...so are flint and wheel and match locks. So are candle lantrens and canvas tents. The sport is the tradition.

Bore inspections are rarely, if ever done.

Click to expand...

What!... :shocked2:
perhaps I'm missing the context.....but!

How do you tell if a gun is loaded?
Both blowing down the barrel and dropping a ramrod down the barrel constitute an inspection.

I inspect the bore every time I pick up a gun.....any gun.

I once pulled a 12 gauge shotgun out of a case to shoot trap and looked down the barrel and saw Abe Lincoln staring at me... Yes there was a penny stuck in the barrel......

I dont blow. IF I had seen Fess Parker do it I may have picked up the habit though! :blah:

Correct!

It goes long back before Fess Parker. It is hc. It does nothing that can't be done other ways. There is no advantage, except a harmless link to the past. One ask why do it I ask why shoot inferior guns wear old clothing, cook in tin and cooper. It feels right to do the gun A way it was done in the old days.

Should mention that I've never found a way to load a muzzleloader with LIVE powder and a ball without getting some part of my carcass over the muzzle.

:bow: :bow: :thumbsup: :hatsoff: atriot:

And when the gun goes off taking half your face with it and there is no one there to help you or hear, is there a sound?

And when has that happen? Oh I know ...you know some one who had a friend that saw it at friend ship, or was it the westren no,no,no it was the eastren when it was in ohio. The guy was right next to his wife and she was holding a new born daughter. His mom and dad were right behind watching him. He had scored a 40 4x and was about to load his last ball when it happen. They gave him a posthumus victory before they booted him out of the club for blowing down his barrel :rotf:

In "The Muzzle-loading Cap Lock Rifle" by Roberts (1940), Roberts gives instructions on how the "old timers" taught him (as a young boy) to load, shoot and clean the rifle. This would have been shooters before the turn of the century that had been shooting from the 1860s or so. He also quotes from a handout given by a gunsmith printed in 1876 on how to do the same for the rifles the gunsmith had made (Some guns came with instructions even back then!) - in neither case was blowing down the barrel mentioned. What WAS mentioned was wiping between shots.

Does anyone have a good historical reference for blowing down the barrel ???

Personally, I do not do this. I either wipe the barrel or, if I want to see if the gun is loaded or dryballed, check with a ramrod that has a marked line for an empty load.

How about pteryplegia from 1727 though this carries the warning not to do it with a hang fire. Audubon records seeing it on frontiersman rifleman early in the 19th century. We have a late 18tg century record of a hunter shooting him self while trying to reload quickly who must have left a hot ember that blew to life as he was running his ball down. His death was blamed on not blowing down the barrel. You could get the same results by a patch for sure. However it shows they were doing it in the past. Roberts is great, he wasn't writing a history but instructions for people looking to learn how to shoot ml.