I started at 6 yrs old shooting only bp, my father always started me out always bust 2-3 caps muzzle toward grass dust or leaf on ground,to make certain your gun is clear, and leave cap on nipple , this serves two purposes:
1. It makes sure flash hole is clear
2. No moister in barrel
here's an example last year dad and I were getting ready fo Georgia's muzzleloader hunt, he wanted, to use his trusty t/c hawkin( older than hell 40 yrs old and wore out two barrels milloions of rounds shot out of it), I cleaned it that day told him to pop a few caps through it to dryit out and clear the flash hole, he said nawww it'll be good, I warned him I put 5 musket caps through my 1855/61 fayettville and busted one more just for the heck of it, and left the cap on, next morning dads loading, hey I said you gonna bust a few caps , he just laughhed naw I had it leaned against the wall muzzle down it'll be good, well two hours later suns up , I spot movement Fromm right going left it's brown I up and bang nice big doe, couple mins go by I her pop, couple seconds later pop pause pop pause pop, hmmm... You know what that means, I reload walk quietly 200 tars were dads at see him tossing things too his left sneaking over to the edge if the tree line there's a 8 piont buck blowing at him and stomping the ground , well I couldn't help myself and burst out in laughter, buck took off, looked at the old man, what happened???? Dang gun woulnt go off, give it yo me , I pulled the nipple and dropped some powder in it replced nipple capped it off and blam, oh dad was hot, just looked at him and said well told ya to dry it out, but nooooo......... Don't listen to me, I don't know nuttin
, guess you know the rest of the story . It's a true story, honestly.
