Many Klatch
69 Cal.
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I thought that this forum would find these instructions to be of interest. Lt. Col Hawker was a very successful shooter and writer in the first part of the 1800's. His first edition of this book was printed in 1814 and the American edition that I have was printed in 1846. He was opinionated but he had the experience to back it up. He preferred flint guns but by 1846 had come to appreciate the detonator guns. Most of these instructions were meant to apply to double barreled shotguns, but they apply to single barrels as well.
Enjoy.
Many Klatch
Instructions to Young Sportsmen in All that Relates to Guns and Shooting
By Lieut. Col. P. Hawker
First American Edition from the Ninth London Edition
Philadelphia
Lea and Blanchard
1846
Page 47 ”“ DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING GUNS ”“ AND PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THEIR HANGING FIRE
Let your barrels be first washed perfectly clean with cold, and then fill each of them with hot water; which by the time it has nearly run out at the touchhole, will accelerate their being wiped dry, as much as though boiling water had been used; and before they have completely discharged the water; stop the muzzles and touchholes; and after shaking it up and down in the barrels, turn it out at the muzzles, by which means you will effectually stir up and expel any extraneous matter that may have lodge in the bottom of the chambers.
I have recommended washing guns with cold water, from having found that it always more readily removes the foulness occasioned by the powder, which, from sudden heat, is apt, at first, to dray and adhere more closely to the caliber: whereas with cold water, it remains in a moist state, and immediately mixes.
In cleaning barrels, a little fine sand or brickdust will remove the lead. If hot water should be required for this purpose, the gun may be scoured with it having been washed with cold.
Some have their guns, occasionally, only dry wiped, which is not so well, as the introduction of the cleaning-rod drives the dirt into the chamber, from whence it becomes difficult to remove it without water. But when a gun is put by, after a few shots only have been fired, there is no objection to wiping out the barrels, with dry tow or cloth, provided it be so sparingly applied as not to force the dirt into the breechings.
The tow proper for cleaning guns is that fine sort, which is called surgeon’s tow, and sold by chemists; but for cleaning barrels, the breechings of which cannot be readily seen through, and particularly those of detonating guns, I should recommend using nothing but cloth, which answers nearly or quite as well, and by which means you are not liable to the serious accident that might happen from having tow left in the chamber.
Cloth is more portable for travelling, as the same pieces of it may, by being washed, serve for several times.
Some of our moderns recommend a sponge! fitted to the end of the cleaning-rod. Let us have a receipt to kill birds without shot, and this will do vastly well; but unfortunately guns, after being fired, become leaded, and then of what avail is a sponge?
We are told, that a barrel should be cleaned after having been fired about 20 rounds; but, as it is not every manor that will now afford so many shots in a day, it becomes a query, how often we may venture to put away a gun that has been used, I think that if 8 or 10 shots have been fired from each barrel, it will be best to have the gun washed on returning from the field: and , if not, the way to prevent it from hanging fire (if kept loaded) is simply to pick the touchhole put in fresh prime, and give the butt a few smart strokes with the hand; or, with a detonator, to prick the hole of the nipple, and lodge therein a few grains of powder, before you put on the cap, which, by the way, should never be left on when the gun is put by for any length of time. Should the gun have been in the damp, or loaded some time, the more certain way is to fire it off; then put in a fresh charge of powder, while the barrels are warm, and afterwards take off your locks, and wipe them, as well as the outside of the breechings and touchholes which may be warranted to be free again, by being probed with the clipped end of a stiff feather; and all this is done is less time than it takes to explain it.
When you put away your gun empty, you, of course, always let down the springs of the locks; and their being kept at the half-cock tends so much to weaken them, it would even be advisable for those who keep their guns loaded to do the same. A piece of tow should be put in the pan (or on the nipple, if a detonator ) to prevent damp, and the ramrod left in, as a caution to those, who might otherwise take up the gun. It is highly improper, however, under any circumstances, and particularly where there are children in a house, ever to leave fire-arms about charged, unless secured under lock and key.
A little cleaning ought to be occasionally had recourse to in the field. Were the pans of a flint-gun wiped, and the feather inserted in the touchholes after every shot, your gun would scarcely ever be known to hang fire, unless this precaution had been counteracted to load it while warm, some other circumstance; and I see nothing to justify your neglect in this, except the incessant rising of birds, in which case you may be permitted to await a leisure opportunity. Nothing is more absurd, if a gun has been washed, than dirtying it, long before there is any occasion for so doing, by what is called squibbing, which answers the purpose only of alarming women and poultry, putting your cattle into a gallop, and your kennel full cry; in short making a general disturbance among your domestic animals! -- very excusable in a boy would desire not better fun!
If a gun, after your having probed the touchhole, should ever flash in the pan, you had better draw the shot; and, in firing off the powder, hold the gun sideways (that is with the touchhole uppermost). I have seen shooters plagued for half an hour with their gun, which have gone off immediately on being held in this manner.
The proper, safest, and most certain way of ascertaining that your gun be perfectly clean, is to hold it to the light, and look through it (as before recommended); and to prove that neither oil nor damp be left behind, put your charge of powder into the barrel, and, before you add the wadding, see that the few grains that you can shake into the pan are quite dry; and if so, prime, and finish loading; but observe, that in trying this with Mr. Joseph Manton’s original patent hammers (which are the best he ever invented), you must for the moment leave the pans open or no powder will pass.
If a stupid fellow wedges dry tow into your gun, with the cleaning-rod, pour boiling water on it, and the rod may then be turned around and drawn out. I remember this occurred with a large punt-gun, at which I caught four men hauling away most unmercifully, but to no effect. I luckily came by and save the destruction of the cleaning-rod if not the injury of the barrel, by suggesting this simple contrivance.
These little remedies, I am aware, must be insipid to the reader; but, when wanted, often prove worth double the price of a book; so that I have never failed to pencil down, and afterwards insert here, all that I thought had the least chance of being original to the average of sportsmen.
Enjoy.
Many Klatch
Instructions to Young Sportsmen in All that Relates to Guns and Shooting
By Lieut. Col. P. Hawker
First American Edition from the Ninth London Edition
Philadelphia
Lea and Blanchard
1846
Page 47 ”“ DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING GUNS ”“ AND PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THEIR HANGING FIRE
Let your barrels be first washed perfectly clean with cold, and then fill each of them with hot water; which by the time it has nearly run out at the touchhole, will accelerate their being wiped dry, as much as though boiling water had been used; and before they have completely discharged the water; stop the muzzles and touchholes; and after shaking it up and down in the barrels, turn it out at the muzzles, by which means you will effectually stir up and expel any extraneous matter that may have lodge in the bottom of the chambers.
I have recommended washing guns with cold water, from having found that it always more readily removes the foulness occasioned by the powder, which, from sudden heat, is apt, at first, to dray and adhere more closely to the caliber: whereas with cold water, it remains in a moist state, and immediately mixes.
In cleaning barrels, a little fine sand or brickdust will remove the lead. If hot water should be required for this purpose, the gun may be scoured with it having been washed with cold.
Some have their guns, occasionally, only dry wiped, which is not so well, as the introduction of the cleaning-rod drives the dirt into the chamber, from whence it becomes difficult to remove it without water. But when a gun is put by, after a few shots only have been fired, there is no objection to wiping out the barrels, with dry tow or cloth, provided it be so sparingly applied as not to force the dirt into the breechings.
The tow proper for cleaning guns is that fine sort, which is called surgeon’s tow, and sold by chemists; but for cleaning barrels, the breechings of which cannot be readily seen through, and particularly those of detonating guns, I should recommend using nothing but cloth, which answers nearly or quite as well, and by which means you are not liable to the serious accident that might happen from having tow left in the chamber.
Cloth is more portable for travelling, as the same pieces of it may, by being washed, serve for several times.
Some of our moderns recommend a sponge! fitted to the end of the cleaning-rod. Let us have a receipt to kill birds without shot, and this will do vastly well; but unfortunately guns, after being fired, become leaded, and then of what avail is a sponge?
We are told, that a barrel should be cleaned after having been fired about 20 rounds; but, as it is not every manor that will now afford so many shots in a day, it becomes a query, how often we may venture to put away a gun that has been used, I think that if 8 or 10 shots have been fired from each barrel, it will be best to have the gun washed on returning from the field: and , if not, the way to prevent it from hanging fire (if kept loaded) is simply to pick the touchhole put in fresh prime, and give the butt a few smart strokes with the hand; or, with a detonator, to prick the hole of the nipple, and lodge therein a few grains of powder, before you put on the cap, which, by the way, should never be left on when the gun is put by for any length of time. Should the gun have been in the damp, or loaded some time, the more certain way is to fire it off; then put in a fresh charge of powder, while the barrels are warm, and afterwards take off your locks, and wipe them, as well as the outside of the breechings and touchholes which may be warranted to be free again, by being probed with the clipped end of a stiff feather; and all this is done is less time than it takes to explain it.
When you put away your gun empty, you, of course, always let down the springs of the locks; and their being kept at the half-cock tends so much to weaken them, it would even be advisable for those who keep their guns loaded to do the same. A piece of tow should be put in the pan (or on the nipple, if a detonator ) to prevent damp, and the ramrod left in, as a caution to those, who might otherwise take up the gun. It is highly improper, however, under any circumstances, and particularly where there are children in a house, ever to leave fire-arms about charged, unless secured under lock and key.
A little cleaning ought to be occasionally had recourse to in the field. Were the pans of a flint-gun wiped, and the feather inserted in the touchholes after every shot, your gun would scarcely ever be known to hang fire, unless this precaution had been counteracted to load it while warm, some other circumstance; and I see nothing to justify your neglect in this, except the incessant rising of birds, in which case you may be permitted to await a leisure opportunity. Nothing is more absurd, if a gun has been washed, than dirtying it, long before there is any occasion for so doing, by what is called squibbing, which answers the purpose only of alarming women and poultry, putting your cattle into a gallop, and your kennel full cry; in short making a general disturbance among your domestic animals! -- very excusable in a boy would desire not better fun!
If a gun, after your having probed the touchhole, should ever flash in the pan, you had better draw the shot; and, in firing off the powder, hold the gun sideways (that is with the touchhole uppermost). I have seen shooters plagued for half an hour with their gun, which have gone off immediately on being held in this manner.
The proper, safest, and most certain way of ascertaining that your gun be perfectly clean, is to hold it to the light, and look through it (as before recommended); and to prove that neither oil nor damp be left behind, put your charge of powder into the barrel, and, before you add the wadding, see that the few grains that you can shake into the pan are quite dry; and if so, prime, and finish loading; but observe, that in trying this with Mr. Joseph Manton’s original patent hammers (which are the best he ever invented), you must for the moment leave the pans open or no powder will pass.
If a stupid fellow wedges dry tow into your gun, with the cleaning-rod, pour boiling water on it, and the rod may then be turned around and drawn out. I remember this occurred with a large punt-gun, at which I caught four men hauling away most unmercifully, but to no effect. I luckily came by and save the destruction of the cleaning-rod if not the injury of the barrel, by suggesting this simple contrivance.
These little remedies, I am aware, must be insipid to the reader; but, when wanted, often prove worth double the price of a book; so that I have never failed to pencil down, and afterwards insert here, all that I thought had the least chance of being original to the average of sportsmen.
