I am sure it would be " cleaner" to just pull the ball and powder charge. However, a lot of people seemed concerned about "disturbing the game" by firing off their gun at the end of the day. I used to have the same concern.
Then, back in 1985, 7 members of my BP club were hunting a new property, and only one member shot a deer on opening day. We all stayed out on our stand the whole day, coming into camp near where we parked our cars at dusk. The manager of the property told us to unload our guns by shooting at a dead apple tree he had to cut down. He hoped that all our fire would cut the tree down for him.[ At that time, Illinois law required guns to be UNLOADED before they could be transported in a vehicle. "Unloaded" then was defined as having NO charge and projectile in the barrel, and no percussion cap on the nipple, or priming powder in the pan. That law has since been change to allow transportation of MLers, with charges and projectiles in the barrel, provided the gun is no t primed.]
All 7 guns were fired off at that tree within a one hour period. It was the most gunfire heard around us all day long.
About 3 minutes after the last shot was fired, a yearling buck( button buck) and a 6 pointer ran thru the meadow where the camp and cars were located, Within 50 feet of us, as the 7 of us were discussing what we saw and heard all day long. None of us was holding a gun. None of the guns were loaded. And those were the only two bucks we saw that 3-day weekend.
So much for " disturbing the game".
We did have failures to fire, with all the percussion rifles, that time, while the two of us with flintlocks had the guns fire the first time we dropped the hammers. I even loaned my vent picks and nipple wrench, and then poured priming powder into their bolsters, so that the guns could be fired.
In all cases, after discussing how the shooter prepared his gun before loading the powder in it, the shooter failed to flush the barrel, and flash channels with alcohol to remove oils and moisture, before loading his powder charge. None had used a pipe cleaner to clear the flash channel or drum of either oils, or moisture condensing on the cold warm metal.
The next day was a bit warmer, and a lot drier, and none of the percussion guns failed to fire at the end of the day. All the percussion shooters flushed their barrels and flash channels before loading the powder that day. We didn't see any deer all that day, or on Sunday. We later learned that the deer spent the day lying in a swale on an adjoining property, where we didn't have permission to hunt. According to the farmer, the deer were sleeping in a grassy area out of the wind, and enjoying the warm sunlight. He watched them from a second floor window of his house.
I don't consider cleaning a fired barrel something onerous. Its not a real chore, to my way of thinking- just part of what you do to shoot MLers. I figured out how to clean my rifle properly and quickly many years ago.
I don't understand why people insist on making this a big deal. Its Not. I also don't understand why people so resist cleaning a gun- whether its a mler, or a modern, suppository model. :hmm:
:surrender: :hmm: :thumbsup:
