Blowing down the barrel?

[jderrick]

Hey. I was reading a book about muzzleloading and it mentioned and illustrated using your mouth to blow down the barrel after firing to keep fouling soft. I saw a similar action on a recent documentary.

Is this standard operating procedure in black powder?

 

[guncobbler]

jderrick - Most folks don't. The few that do use a tube so they don't put their head in the path of a bullet. Those that put their mouth directly on the barrel freak the heck out of rangemasters and most of us who take safety seriously. I prefer to run a damp patch down the barrel. Does a better job than breath and keeps my head the heck out the line of fire. There's a thread on this topic that you might find by searching on "blowing". GC

 

[jderrick]

cool deal... I'll check out that thread. Thanks!

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Below is excerpted from: "Pteryplegia: Or, The Art Of Shooting-Flying". [url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/ptery.html[/url]

Found at "Bob's Black Powder Notebook"[url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/[/url] If you haven't visited his site, check it out, in MHO, it is a classic unto itself.




A BLOOMING Youth, who had just passed the Boy,
The Father's only Child and only Joy,
As he, intent, design'd the Larks his Prey,
Himself as sweet and innocent as They,
The fatal Powder in the Porch of Death,
Having in vain discharg'd its Flash of Breath,
The tender Reas'ner, curious to know,
Whether the Piece were really charg'd or no,
With Mouth to Mouth apply'd began to blow_
A dreadful Kiss! For now the silent Bane
Had bor'd a Passage thro' the whizzing Train_
The Shot all rent his Skull, and dashed around his Brain!

 

[robinghewitt]

As none of my ML guns are auto-loading I feel quite safe blowing after the bang.

No bang = No blowing :grin:

 

[robinghewitt]

The Shot all rent his Skull, and dashed around his Brain!

Is this where we get the expression "scatter-brained" from? :thumbsup:

 

[Halftail]

No bang = No blowing

:rotf:
I see no problem with it either.

 

[roundball]

Hey. I was reading a book about muzzleloading and it mentioned and illustrated using your mouth to blow down the barrel after firing to keep fouling soft. I saw a similar action on a recent documentary.

Is this standard operating procedure in black powder?

:hmm:...JD, this is one of those topics that will be discussed "til the cows come home", ad infinitium.

One either subscribes to gun safety practices that preach not pointing a muzzle at anything you aren't willing to shoot;
Or, to the speculation that "I just shot the rifle (I think) so what's the worry";
:shocked2:

Personally I'm a chicken and I know I make enough mistakes as it is, so unless I've just finished cleaning a barrel in a bucket of steaming hot soapy water, I personally won't intentionally allow situations, however remote, where I might somehow blow my own head off.
(I believe in computer parlance, that would be known as an unrecoverable error!)
:winking:

Besides, there's obviously no NEED to do it in order to shoot muzzleloaders as most people don't do it anyway.

My .02 cents in answering your question
:thumbsup:

 

[Cherokee]

I saw a guy on the History channel the other night blow down the barrel of a musket. He was showing the effects of the unions musket load compared to the confederacy.

I dont think its that big of a deal. If a grown man wants to do it its his choice.

 

[jderrick]

I think that's exactly the show I was watching. If you're interested, there the similar discussion over on the pecussion thread with even more good posts.

 

[Stumpkiller]

As none of my ML guns are auto-loading I feel quite safe blowing after the bang.

No bang = No blowing :grin:

After Civil War battles many rifles were found with multiple charges. The soldiers thought the gun had discharged when just the primer popped off. Of course, if you are immune from doing dumb things, go ahead. But, if you've ever dry-balled you are a cantidate already. Mistakes happen.

That's why they call it "accidental death" and not "reckless suicide".

One woman had a missfire and handed the gun to her husband to clear. He thought she had fired and blew into the barrrel in preparation of reloading it for her. She watched him die when it turned out to be a hangfire.

 

This usually winds up being a heated debate everytime it's tried and furthermore, is one of my hot buttons. I blow down the barrel AFTER the shot. None of mine are auto loaders either. If a fella can't tell the difference between a pop of a cap or flash of a pan of priming from the big BOOM and white cloud of smoke from a full load going off......I remember when the NMLRA rules changed and I was not happy about it then nor am I happy about it now. I think a lot of these mishaps with people blowing fingers off or hands getting shot are from NOT blowing down the barrel and loading on a hot ember. When the ball is driven home and the rush of airflow going through the vent ignites the powder from that live ember, well, you figure it out. When you blow down the barrel 'til the smoke stops coming out the vent you know the ember is dead. I have seen post on this forum as well as others that imply "blowers" are stupid, dumb, less than intelligent. My opinion is that anyone who DOESN'T is asking for trouble eventually. I have heard the story of the gal who had a hangfire and handed it to her husband before. Is that the only instance that the NMLRA used for changing the rules? How about all those instances I have heard about missing fingers and disfigured hands from guns going off while loading? And... guess what? The conjecturers after the incidents always conjecture that he must have....Had a primer in place or he was loading with a full cock firearm or... and the list goes on but never even once have I seen these conjecturers say anything about the possibility of ignition from the blast of air on a hot ember from pushing the ball down. I'm here to tell you it is an unsafe practice NOT to blow down the barrel or at the very least swab with a damp patch between every shot. BTW, since the changing of the NMLRA rules, I don't shoot NMLRA matches. I think, IMHO, that this ruling was a knee jerk ruling and was not deeply thought out. Well, there you have it.
Don

 

[roundball]

This usually winds up being a heated debate everytime it's tried and furthermore, is one of my hot buttons. I blow down the barrel AFTER the shot. None of mine are auto loaders either. If a fella can't tell the difference between a pop of a cap or flash of a pan of priming from the big BOOM and white cloud of smoke from a full load going off......I remember when the NMLRA rules changed and I was not happy about it then nor am I happy about it now. I think a lot of these mishaps with people blowing fingers off or hands getting shot are from NOT blowing down the barrel and loading on a hot ember. When the ball is driven home and the rush of airflow going through the vent ignites the powder from that live ember, well, you figure it out. When you blow down the barrel 'til the smoke stops coming out the vent you know the ember is dead. I have seen post on this forum as well as others that imply "blowers" are stupid, dumb, less than intelligent. My opinion is that anyone who DOESN'T is asking for trouble eventually. I have heard the story of the gal who had a hangfire and handed it to her husband before. Is that the only instance that the NMLRA used for changing the rules? How about all those instances I have heard about missing fingers and disfigured hands from guns going off while loading? And... guess what? The conjecturers after the incidents always conjecture that he must have....Had a primer in place or he was loading with a full cock firearm or... and the list goes on but never even once have I seen these conjecturers say anything about the possibility of ignition from the blast of air on a hot ember from pushing the ball down. I'm here to tell you it is an unsafe practice NOT to blow down the barrel or at the very least swab with a damp patch between every shot. BTW, since the changing of the NMLRA rules, I don't shoot NMLRA matches. I think, IMHO, that this ruling was a knee jerk ruling and was not deeply thought out. Well, there you have it.
Don

Does this mean you don't swab between shots?

 

Not between every shot. I usually have to swab about every 3-5 shots depending on the humidity.
Don

 

[Puffer]

Below is excerpted from: "Pteryplegia: Or, The Art Of Shooting-Flying". [url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/ptery.html[/url]

Found at "Bob's Black Powder Notebook"[url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/[/url] If you haven't visited his site, check it out, in MHO, it is a classic unto itself.




A BLOOMING Youth, who had just passed the Boy,
The Father's only Child and only Joy,
As he, intent, design'd the Larks his Prey,
Himself as sweet and innocent as They,
The fatal Powder in the Porch of Death,
Having in vain discharg'd its Flash of Breath,
The tender Reas'ner, curious to know,
Whether the Piece were really charg'd or no,
With Mouth to Mouth apply'd began to blow_
A dreadful Kiss! For now the silent Bane
Had bor'd a Passage thro' the whizzing Train_
The Shot all rent his Skull, and dashed around his Brain!

THANK YOU :hatsoff: The rest of The of the Poems concerning "Gun Safety" are fantastic

Puffer

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Swabbing to soften fouling and quench embers works well enough in a plain-breeched barrel with an unconed touch-hole. With an internally-coned touch-hole and/or a patent breech (Nock, Manton, etc.), all it does is to "blow" one bore-volume of smoke + ambient air through the touch hole and/or the longitudinal and transverse segments of the patent breech. Other than by blowing, the only way to adequately reach these areas is to pour water down the barrel.

Since I got my double fowler, I've put blow tubes in all my shooting bags, but I still blow directly down my rifles sometimes.

Like most folks who apply biogenerated moist air, I do it DIRECTLY AFTER I've seen the smoke + heard the boom + felt the recoil, etc. If ALL the usual symptoms are not observed, the shot is treated as a possible blooper/hangfire/misfire and investigated accordingly. If I've delayed, put the gun down, etc., I don't usually blow, and if I do, it's after convincing myself that it is actually discharged.

Realizing that neither camp in this difference of opinion will ever convert the other, I remain &c,

Joel

 

[roundball]

Just for my clarification, my rifles all have a patent breech...and when I ram a wiping patch down bore, the compression blasts a foot long jet of smoke out of the vent with significant force.

Are you saying that in spite of such an action, I still have danger of a glowing ember remaining that could ignite the next powder charge?

 

[tg]

I wonder how long it will take for this topic and many like it to get to the point that they will recieve no replies at all? In time there may not be many active posts. I have allready found many repetitive posts not compelling enough to respond to, I wonder if others are having the same feeling.

 

[bnail]

with 1813 posts, I'd say you've seen a few redundant subjects TG. I'm noticing a few myself now.
recently, I've begun wondering if perhaps it's not time to step away for a while; Unfortunately, when things get slow at work, I find myself drifting back over here :youcrazy:
This particular thread, however, does annoy me. "To blow, or not to blow," As long as it's not my head at which the muzzle is pointed, then I have very little stake in the argument! :winking:

 

[tnlonghunter]

I think it's human nature for most folks to add their .02 just because they want to be heard, even if they are mostly repeating the same basic thoughts as others.

As regards blowing down the barrel, I don't for the following reason: as a psychologist I've learned that the more I do something, the more comfortable and eventually careless I get with the details (I know, maybe I didn't need to get into psychology to learn that, but it helps me put it into perspective). If I blow down the barrel, it is possible, however unlikely (I hope) that I might get careless or in a hurry, or something, and make a mistake. Everybody makes them. So it falls into the same realm as other parts of gun safety like not pointing the muzzle at anything you don't want to shoot and treating every gun as if it was always loaded. That line of thinking just helps me (and many others I suspect) fromg getting too comfortable. Cooner45 makes a good point about the embers at the breech, so it's really hard to come up with a solution that is 100% effective for every single person. Just be careful what habits we get into. I guess if we just took the worst case scenario, I'd likely only lose a hand or some fingers by not blowing and running a wet patch, instead of my head by the freak accident of blowing.