Giving your barrel a blow?

[roundball]

Ok here you go RB

:huh:

 

[Tahquamenon]

I'm with Crackstock, your mouth and head does not belong over the muzzle of any weapon.

I have seen used a tube with a rubber cork on the end that fits neatly in the muzzle and then a "puff" in the tube clears the barrel. I would think that is much safer if you wanted to clear the barrel.

I have never cleared the barrel on a ML. Only swabbed now and then or inbetween each shot.

:m2c:

 

sorry i was just making a statement that just becouse you can blow through the barrel doesnt mean its clear , worst case my friend

 

[TexiKan]

Mea culpa, mea culpa........I did not give the FULL NMLRA rule regarding this topic.

1090--BLOWING DOWN THE BARREL--There will be NO blowing down the barrel of any firearm during NMLRA matches in any manner that requires placing the head in front of the muzzle. A flexible blow tube may be used at the shooters option providing that the shooter's head is not placed in front of the barrel.

Our club had condensed the rule. However, a point of interest is.........during NMLRA matches...... Does this mean club events or does it specifically mean sanctioned NMLRA matches, liker the territorial and Friendship matches?

Here are two more from the NMLRA rule book:

1110--SWABBING BETWEEN SHOTS--Swabbing between shots with a damp patch to eliminate the possibility of glowing embers igniting the next powder charge is strongly recommended.

1220--POWDER MEASURE--A seperate powder measure or holder will be used to carry the powder charge from container to the muzzle of the gun. Charging directly from horn or flask is unsafe and is not permitted.

Source: National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association's Rules and Regulations, September 2001 Edition, Second Printing 9/02

TexiKan
___________________

If you continue to do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got.

 

[USMCsniper]

I usaly blow through the venthole, keeps the muzzle in a safe direction and dose the same job. it makes a little smoke cloud come out of the muzzle :winking:

 

[Kevin M]

From time to time I will blow air into the barrel. Notice I said into the barrel not down the barrel. I blow the air in from an angle from the side. Kinda like you blow on a bottle top to make it toot like a horn. Nothing touches the barrel and my head is well back from the barrel. Not something I do alot, but I occasionally will do it. I probablly should either do it one way or the other because I think that when you change up your loading routine you can run into trouble. Kinda like someone talking to you when you load. I have dry balled a number of times doing that. If you keep your routine the same everytime and keep your head from being over the top of the muzzle whether you blow into it or not you would be well ahead of some shooters.

 

[Zonie]

Just a little thought about safety.

Many of you have heard of Walter M. Cline. Many more of you have not.

Walter Cline wrote the book "The Muzzle-Loading Rifle...THEN and NOW". It was published in 1942.

Walter grew up with muzzleloaders, and when most people were relegating them to the junk pile, he was out shooting them.
He was a founding member of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

If anyone knew about these guns he did.

Unfortunately, his book was finely published by his wife. It seems old Walter somehow managed to kill himself when his muzzleloader accidently went off.
I wonder if he blew down the barrel? Something to think about.

 

[dodgecity]

Nope, it just ain't so Zonie. Walter Cline was killed by a shot through the heart while loading a caplock rifle which had a live cap in place on the nipple. Hard to believe that a man of his experience would make such a mistake. Of course, Mr Cline had been seriously ill for sometime, and had even undergone a nervous breakdown. Accidental, or not, however, old Walter didn't fall victim to the old blowing down an unloaded barrel mishap.

 

Unfortunately, his book was finely published by his wife. It seems old Walter somehow managed to kill himself when his muzzleloader accidently went off.
I wonder if he blew down the barrel? Something to think about.

This is exactly how rumors get started. Now someone speed reading this thread is going to tell his friends that "Walter Cline blew his head off while blowing down the barrel" and they'll tell two friends and so on and so on. personally I'm with Captchee all the way. The one caveat is when shooting doubles. I never reload one barrel until both barrels are spent because I won't blow down one spent barrel while the other is loaded and i wont load a recently fired barrel without blowing down it first.

cody