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Joined
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GREATER ST. LOUIS COUNTY
A COMMON FEAR FOR THE INEXPERIENCED.
I HAVE JUST FIRED MY RIFLE AND AM PREPARING TO RELOAD. WHAT IF THERE IS A GLOWING EMBER DOWN THE BARREL AND I POUR IN THE POWDER CHARGE. WON'T THERE BE A WHOOSH OF THE NEW POWDER BURNING AS I POUR IT DOWN THE BARREL.
UNIMAGINATIVE SOLUTION IS TO BLOW DOWN THE BARREL THUS CAUING ANY EMBERS TO BURN OUT/
WHILE MISSING A SLIGHT CHANCE OFBLOWING YOUR BRAINS OUT. YOU CAN FORCE A BARREL FULL OF AIR DOWN THE BARREL AND OUT THE TOUCH HOLE OR NIPPLE BY RUNNING A REASONABLY SNUG FITTING PATCH DOWN THE BARREL. THINK OF THE OLD TIRE PUMP PROCESS.
IF THAT TIGHT FITTING PATCH IS DAMPENED, THAT INCREASES THE CHANCE THAT ANY GLOWING EMBER IS PUTOUT.
 
Yep. Great advice, Dutch.
That is why I swab with a damp patch between every shot, even when hunting.
But, there are those who seem to believe there is a special spot in heaven for those who shoot long strings without swabbing at all. :doh: And they walk among us. :shocked2:
 
I swab between shots also, as redskins and redcoats are both rare in my neck of the woods I see no need to see how fast I can load.
I do blow down the barrel after ever shot. It does nothing swabbing won’t but I’ve done it these forty years. If your gun didn’t go off and you didn’t notice it didn’t go off you have not the lung power, in fact Gabriel had not the lung power to blow air passed a patched ball and flair an ember to life.
 
DUTCH, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON THIS.

BLOWING DOWN YOUR BARREL IS PROBABLY THE STUPIDEST THING YOU CAN DO AND PEOPLE WILL FIGHT YOU TOOTH AND NAIL ON HOW THEY THINK YOU ARE WRONG.

EVEN IF YOU DON'T BLOW YOUR OWN HEAD OFF, IT CREATES BAD MUZZLE DISCIPLINE HABITS AND WORSE STILL PEOPLE SEE THAT AND START EMULATING IT THEMSELVES BECAUSE STUPID IS CONTAGIOUS.

THE WHOLE THING IS ABSURD, IT STARTS OFF WITH SOMEBODY SAYING HOW THEY POINT THEIR OWN RIFLE AT THEIR OWN FACE AND THEN HOW THEY THINK IT IS A GOOD IDEA SOMEHOW.

IT PROBABLY STARTED IN HOLLYWOOD WITH PROP GUNS SOMEWHERE.
 
I think you are correct in that it started in Hollywood where the reel experts exist. They are trying to depict this person as being a real woodsman and have him do a lot of strange stuff.. The most consistent weirdness is that they never show anyone seating the patched ball down the barrel. They show old Tex Bear eater just rattling the ram rod in the barrel
In the Davy Crocket TV series they had Davy's rifle fire by electricity. They had no faith in the flintlock. Another fairly fateful gimmick was licking the rifleman's thumb and then wiping this wet thumb on the front sight.. I would like someone to explain the purpose of a wet front sight..

Dutch
 
Redstick Lee said:
yep.....I blow the bore, then grease patch before picking my vent & loading.
never have to fight any fouling ring that way.......


Even though my early mentors were genuine ml champions and experts, they did lead me wrong on this issue. For many years I did blow down the barrel after every shot to keep the fouling soft. Then the last time I blew my brains out :doh: I decided to quit doing that.
 
Redstick Lee said:
yep.....I blow the bore, then grease patch before picking my vent & loading.
never have to fight any fouling ring that way.......
OK.....I just use a moistened cotton flannel patch, instead.
 
In our gun club, blowing down the barrel is a big 'no-no' ... One member who was a fanatic barrel-blower found a way to keep doing it without getting his head in front of the barrel... He started using a flexible tube for blowing in the barrel.
 
THE WHOLE THING IS ABSURD, IT STARTS OFF WITH SOMEBODY SAYING HOW THEY POINT THEIR OWN RIFLE AT THEIR OWN FACE AND THEN HOW THEY THINK IT IS A GOOD IDEA SOMEHOW.

So let me ask you this..., you must never have inspected the bore on a muzzleloader without a bore camera or some sort of mirror contraption? If not, have you told the same thing as the above to anybody else that you've seen inspecting the bore on a muzzleloader, without a camera or some sort of mirror contraption?

OH and your Caps-Lock is stuck....,

:stir:

LD
 
I think you are correct in that it started in Hollywood where the reel experts exist.

Nope, I don't think it did..., and it was done for other reasons too....

"In loading for dangerous game I always adopt the following careful plan, which I recommend to others:-First, put the rifle on half-cock; then blow hard down the barrel, and placing the finger about half an inch from the nipple, feel if a good volume of air passes freely through; then snap a cap upon each nipple, holding the muzzle downwards, pointed a few inches toward any bit of straw, paper, or other light object lying on the ground."

The Shot-gun and sporting rifle: J. H. Walsh 1862

"I first blow through the nipples with my hand at the muzzles, then snap a cap on each barrel, pointed downwards at straw or such like, and if this is blown away by the gas, I load."
The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles
James Forsyth 1867

NOTE he is not placing his mouth on the barrel, but directing his breath down the barrel with his hand, which is what I do after each shot, and may be what is suggested in the next quote. One will note that it has nothing to do with extinguishing embers, but to soften fouling, and in my case”¦, to keep the vent hole or touch hole open, and since the rifle or shotgun is loaded with hands over the muzzle, there is no increased risk by directing air down the muzzle with the same hand or hands used in loading.

"Assuming that you have had little experience in using the round ball hunting rifle which has been kept with the bore well oiled for some time, and which you now with to “shoot at a mark,” as we used to say; the bore should first be wiped of all oil and grease. Then with hammer at half-cock, blow through the barrel to ascertain if the nipple is open; if it is stopped with oil, grease or dirt, remove the nipple with the nipple wrench and clean out the vent." P.99


"After firing, place the hammer at half-cock, remove any part of the cap that may stick to the nipple and blow through the bore to help soften the powder residue and clear the vent in the nipple before loading again." P. 105

Ned Roberts The Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle 1947

LD
 
Just as a point of curiosity, has anyone any evidence, either from the period or from modern day, that a single person has ever 'blown his brains out' while blowing down the barrel in loading?

Spence
 
I've never seen the need to blow more oxygen down there. Trying to snuff out an ember? Not that way you wont. Trying to make sure the nipple or hole is clear? A damp patch and ram rod lets me hear the air blowing by. Not putting my mouth on a barrel. Or hand if you insist on saying the way to do it is blow through your hand. Where's your forehead when you are blowing safely through your hand???
Don't they always teach you to treat every gun as if it were loaded? I can hear the Three Stooges music playing in my head. Pointless, but as always, my two cents.
 
Just because they lived back in the day doesn't make then right all the time. The ones who blew their brains out didn't get to write about it

YOU'RE RIGHT! They let anybody who had a pen publish a book on the subject..., there was absolutely no consideration of how much it would cost to publish idiotic information, by any person, from any place on the globe. They would not have chosen experts.....

...wait.....what?.....

Ames Wrote:
I've never seen the need to blow more oxygen down there. Trying to snuff out an ember? Not that way you wont.
Already established that wasn't the purpose

Trying to make sure the nipple or hole is clear? A damp patch and ram rod lets me hear the air blowing by. Not putting my mouth on a barrel. Or hand if you insist on saying the way to do it is blow through your hand. Where's your forehead when you are blowing safely through your hand???

Off to the side as it is when I'm loading.

Don't they always teach you to treat every gun as if it were loaded? I can hear the Three Stooges music playing in my head. Pointless, but as always, my two cents.

Yes they do teach the breech loading safety procedures for muzzleloader. I hear clown music when you make that point..., because IF you GENUINELY ascribe to it....you cannot shoot a muzzle loader, because since "every gun is always loaded", you are putting one or more hands over the muzzle when loading and that VIOLATES the rule. Simply because an accidental discharge would only maim you instead of kill you when you violate that rule when loading, does not negate that you and I and all of us that use muzzleloaders are in violation of that rule.

So lets not split hairs. I provided references to show it was not a) Hollywood nor b) limited to only the ML era, nor c) stupidity. They expected people to have a certain level of intelligence, and I'd agree that perhaps these days such a level is not the norm but the exception, so I don't teach that practice.

LD
 
Personally I don't blow down a barrel. I'm a retired police officer from a big city and I've seen a bunch of examples of people intentionally putting their mouths of the barrel of a gun. Most were suicides but they looked just like the accident. I don't really want to be an accident.
 
mushka said:
Personally I don't blow down a barrel. I'm a retired police officer from a big city and I've seen a bunch of examples of people intentionally putting their mouths of the barrel of a gun. Most were suicides but they looked just like the accident. I don't really want to be an accident.
How many with a MUZZLE LOADER?
 

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