Blowing down the barrel

[Russ T Frizzen]

Definitely a toss up issue. I can see not doing it if you're in a speed shooting situation with quite a few people on the line.
My BP club says don't do it any time so being the rule I don't. Funny how it didn't take me long to just stop doing it.
Stopping it did not have any change in accuracy or loading so IMHO it's unnecessary.
The odds are very high for hot ember or super delayed ignition so the question is are the odds worth your life.
Gun safety states to never point the muzzle at anything not intended to be shot, including yourself.
I've seen hang fires that lasted upwards of 4-5 seconds. I've seen rifles laid down pointed down range go off as the shooter walked away to get tools.
I'll side with Murphy's law. Anything that can happen will eventually happen.

If you have a single shot muzzle loader and you can't remember that you just heard it go bang, maybe you shouldn't have a muzzle loader.

 

[beardedhorse]

House guests and fish tends to get old and smell bad after three days. Old posts too, maybe but if a newbie on the forum can get some safety insights from the discussion, maybe it should run occasionally or if kept in a file, direct that newbie to old discussions. From the 70's on in Kansas most of the ml shooters blew down their barrels after shooting to soften any fouling in the high humidity state.

 

[tenngun]

Didn't say the two directly relate. I'm saying we all can make mistakes, and placing a hand or face over a muzzle isn't the time to discover it.

Yes but you could say that for dumping a fresh charge or running a new ball down a bore. Just like every other step in loading a ml you can screw the pooch
You have to be safe, if your unable to tell if your shot or not maybe you should look for another hobby
To be effective you shoot, butt tge gun and blow, it’s just mechanical rhythm of shoot recover

 

[Jim K]

I don't blow down the barrel. I think I'd need to understand the science and how a very minimal volume of air, blown thru a barrel at extremely low pressure, with high relative humidity but minimal volumetric moisture can actually soften fowling before the remaining heated air inside evaporates the moisture to the point where it has zero effect on the fowling created from extreme heat and pressure.

I guess if you are committed to this, you carry around and use one of those blow tubes to keep your mouth off the barrel and residue that is likely known to be a carcinogen to the smart people in CA, to maximize the air volume and pressure through the barrel. However, with the right lip-to-barrel or nipple contact, I do wonder if it is possible to blow Reveille.

Is that Hanshi??!?

 

[Coinneach]

Im a firm beliver in sucking instead of blowing down the barrel.

I assume then that youre a retired politician...

 

[tenngun]

I don't blow down the barrel. I think I'd need to understand the science and how a very minimal volume of air, blown thru a barrel at extremely low pressure, with high relative humidity but minimal volumetric moisture can actually soften fowling before the remaining heated air inside evaporates the moisture to the point where it has zero effect on the fowling created from extreme heat and pressure.

I guess if you are committed to this, you carry around and use one of those blow tubes to keep your mouth off the barrel and residue that is likely known to be a carcinogen to the smart people in CA, to maximize the air volume and pressure through the barrel. However, with the right lip-to-barrel or nipple contact, I do wonder if it is possible to blow Reveille.

It’s will soften fouling maybe, but the real thing is blowing out the vent. In flint that whoosh of air means no hang fires and faster fires.
In cap lock again you clear the flash path.

 

[Steveoko922]

I assume then that youre a retired politician...

Lol...honestly I do blow down the barrel between shots..cartridge and muzzloaders. Like others have said, if you don't remember that you discharged a single shot rifle, mabey you don't need to be handling a firearm.

 

[Tumbledown]

If you have a single shot muzzle loader and you can't remember that you just heard it go bang, maybe you shouldn't have a muzzle loader.

There are numerous examples of Civil War guns with multiple loads because soldiers didn't know they never fired.

 

[nchawkeye]

There are numerous examples of Civil War guns with multiple loads because soldiers didn't know they never fired.

Yep, on the battlefield, not in the hunting field, just a little different...

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I prefer my barrels browned not blew'd....

 

[tenngun]

There are numerous examples of Civil War guns with multiple loads because soldiers didn't know they never fired.

Are you thinking a guy scared to death, which a bit of blood and gore on him from his buddies massive wound on his face, Trying to move across a killing field, under the noise of cannon, gunshot, cry’s of pain and anger, yells of sergeants and officers, drum and bugle calls is to be compared with you at the range or tall timber?
Just maybe a blow down the barrel after the missfire on the first would have revealed his gun didn’t go off, and he could have corrected that before facing the enemy with a dud gun

 

[DuncNZ]

House guests and fish tends to get old and smell bad after three days. Old posts too, maybe but if a newbie on the forum can get some safety insights from the discussion, maybe it should run occasionally or if kept in a file, direct that newbie to old discussions. From the 70's on in Kansas most of the ml shooters blew down their barrels after shooting to soften any fouling in the high humidity state.

When you are shooting in high humidity the fouling stays soft , hot dry weather is when the fouling gets hard .

 

[Shiloh]

I personally don't blow down my barrel. As hot as a chamber gets upon ignition leaves nothing to burn? I also am one that runs a patch down the barrel after each shot. I don't like putting any part of my body in front of the muzzle of a rifle/pistol or cannon! LOL!

How do you load?

 

[pacanis]

How do you load?

I was wondering the same thing myself.
For as many that say they won't put any part of themselves over the muzzle of a fired/unloaded gun, I'm wondering if they use ball starters or range rods with a (ball on the end) while loading the gun with a charge of powder in it? Or for that matter, how do they cut a patch? Not the knife hand, the hand holding the patch?

Pre-cut patches? Smoothbores with balls that drop down the bore?

I can see some of my guns I could load with my fingers a ramrod's width away from the center of the bore, but not all of them.

 

[toot]

I don't blow down the barrel. I think I'd need to understand the science and how a very minimal volume of air, blown thru a barrel at extremely low pressure, with high relative humidity but minimal volumetric moisture can actually soften fowling before the remaining heated air inside evaporates the moisture to the point where it has zero effect on the fowling created from extreme heat and pressure.

I guess if you are committed to this, you carry around and use one of those blow tubes to keep your mouth off the barrel and residue that is likely known to be a carcinogen to the smart people in CA, to maximize the air volume and pressure through the barrel. However, with the right lip-to-barrel or nipple contact, I do wonder if it is possible to blow Reveille.

well if you must half to blow down a barrel, that is the end to do it on!

 

[toot]

View attachment 187458

It looks empty too me….

doing that will certainly ruin a nice hat!

 

[toot]

remember the saying-I didn't know that the gun was loaded-I didn't know that the gun would kill!

 

[toot]

as stated it is just DARWINS THEORY. thinning out the ones from reproducing!

 

[LME]

How do you load?

The way the directions that came with my muzzle loader told me to. I often wondered why some of the best muzzle loader shooters in the country didn't post on forums? Now I know why.

 

[Shiloh]

The way the directions that came with my muzzle loader told me to. I often wondered why some of the best muzzle loader shooters in the country didn't post on forums? Now I know why.

I don’t claim to be the smartest guy in the room but I don’t how to load a muzzle loader without at least getting my fingers and a hand in front of the muzzle and since they are body parts therefore my question.