I am sure the grease gun works, heard a lot about it, never needed it personally.
My thought is: what a mess to clean up out on the range to get back to shooting when 'shooting' it out only requires a swab patch or two and Back in Business!
However; what might be worth pointing out here is - Dry wiping BEFORE loading the first round of the day.
I have seen others run into Flash in the Pan and when we pull the vent liner (ones with one) we find the powder wet, lumpy, even one guy who tried to fire several times before bringing it over, the powder was hardened into a 'Chunk' (cooked solid from his multiple attempts).
Once we picked the fouled (wet) powder out as you described and pushed in clean dry powder - shot it out, wiped it out: Back in Business!
Problem in short; Oil in the breach from cleaning had fouled the charge.
Solution: Always wipe the boare before that first load.
*I see you are in Texas, I assume you use a lot of oil before storage?
(Some say to store firearms upside down...I don't, but humidity is not an issue here and I only use a light coat of oil - BUT I always still Wipe before that first load!)
