flintlock rifle

[flowerhopper]

What is meant by the term 'Huffing the barrel"?

 

[silverfox]

How about a wild guess. Sounds like blowing down the barrel to see if it is clear after shooting, blowing the smoke out the touch hole.
Not a good idea to do this for safety. I would not recommend doing this but I have done it in the past.
Fox :hatsoff:

 

[Hunter66]

Silverfox,
I am not sure of your reasoning of safety on this issue. One the barrel was just fired and two the reason for blowing is to put out an ember that might still be glowing in the breech before dumping more powder on it and igniting it. I do it if I am not stopping to swab before the next shot.

 

[Zonie]

Safe or unsafe, blowing down the barrel at most shooting ranges will result in your being asked to leave. No if's, and's or but's.

zonie

 

[bob1961]

Safe or unsafe, blowing down the barrel at most shooting ranges will result in your being asked to leave. No if's, and's or but's.

zonie

wow, so i guess they would rather have ya toss new powder down on an amber that could be left in the barrel and flash out the barrel and burn yer hands :shake: , when there's no chance of a flash from blowing in a just fired barrel to make sure ya got no ambers left....ok, that makes sense now :hmm: :v ...............bob

 

[bwhoffman]

Silverfox,
I am not sure of your reasoning of safety on this issue. One the barrel was just fired and two the reason for blowing is to put out an ember that might still be glowing in the breech before dumping more powder on it and igniting it. I do it if I am not stopping to swab before the next shot.

its kinda like getting your head or any other body part in front of the bore.Just not a good idea at any time. seems to be a general rule at most clubs, shoots and rondy's.
with a flinter, why not point the barrel down range or up and blow in thru the touch hole?

 

[Mike Brooks]

its kinda like getting your head or any other body part in front of the bore.Just not a good idea at any time. seems to be a general rule at most clubs, shoots and rondy's.

Didn't used to be this way. Not more than 10 years ago everyone blew down their barrel. More common than not.

 

[nj1639]

Blowing moist air down a barrel never made much sense to me. Almost as much sense as putting your finger down the muzzle to check bore size.

 

[guncobbler]

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/269307/

Before we get too far down this road please go to link above. We probably have gotten hot and bottered and said all there is to say on this in 06. GC

 

[xxgrampa]

greetings flowerhopper,

the reason it's called 'huffing' and not 'blowing' is; you take a deep breath and sloowy exhale down the barrel. the moisture from your breath will soften the fouling. if you 'blow' down the barrel it will do nothing to soften fouling.

in the matches we had here, everyone 'breathed' down the barrel. but then again, we knew everyone. if a new guy came in we would check him out on the rite way to do things.

at freindship, can understand why it's taboo. some tender foot can slip in and blow down a charged and primed gun. not good..

last year someone mentioned using a plasic or rubber tube to 'huff' down the bbl. a good and safe idea. sorry but i forgot who it was..

good luck and ..ttfn..grampa..

 

[xxgrampa]

think it was 'slamfire' that mentioned using the plastic tube in the muzzle to breath down the bbl.

..tt.g.

 

[Many Klatch]

I was at the Eastern about 15 years ago when we had 3 or 4 shooters check to see if they had loaded their guns by blowing down the barrel after having a klatch. The NMLRA made the ruling about not blowing down the barrel the following month. I can't blame them, but I had been one of those that blew down the barrel between shots.

Many Klatch

 

If blowing down a barrel is to losen fouling , then why not just run a spit patch down the barrel in the first place? semm to make more sence , and a spit patch would also seem to put out any embers that may still be left. IMHO

 

[Blizzard of '93]

that's what I use, spit patch between shots. But to clear fouling, I doubt any 'embers' remain after say 10-15 seconds following a shot, at least with modern-day 3F.

 

[CZMark]

Around here, most clubs banned blowing down your barrel about 10 years ago. At that time, I was told by a range officer "If you are worried about hot embers, run a damp patch down the barrel".

I always thought it was a dumb rule, but since I've stopped the practice, I've had no problems.

As I recall, it all started in response to a story about some guy (at a range in another state--I wish snopes was around then) who supposedly had a hangfire, somehow thought his gun had fired, put his mouth over the barrel to blow, and the gun discharged. I didn't believe the story then--I don't believe it now.

Just my .02

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Been doing it for year, never been asked to leave yet. Then I only use BP ranges for my flinters.

 

[spudnut]

I used to all the time too.But it's very much frowned on hereabouts now.I use paper cartridges and even in a speed shoot never had one cooked off but to keep people that don't know me from screechin at me (It's happened,about priming from a main horn :yakyak: )I stopped,Think I'll start puffin at the touch hole just to see the looks :haha:

 

[Frank/Pa]

Been shooting flintlocks for over 30 years, and everybody did it. Must be a new breed of shooters out there that big brother has to watch over now.

 

[Soinkuhndog]

I was taught to never lean over (or stand in front of) the muzzle at any time.

As far as blowing down the barrel: Wouldn't blowing down the barrel introduce more oxygen to a glowing ember, not extinguish it -- sort of like blowing on an ember on char cloth to get it to burn?
I don't know the science, but ember plus oxygen plus powder equals a very hot flash (or at least the possibility of it).

 

[spudnut]

you'd be a goof to blow down it with powder in it :youcrazy: