vent pics

[hanshi]

Illegal!  That's why I don't use bird feathers.  The feathers I use come from young velociraptors.

[bob in the woods]

So....it's ilegal for politicians to "feather their nests " in Illinois. Who would have thought !   

[bones92]

I have to pick the vent on occasion when it's fairly hot and humid and I've had a flash in the pan.  I have several, the easiest to use being a thin rod of steel mounted in a piece of antler.  I also have one of those finely tapered wrought-iron picks that seems to help clean fouling from the vent.

I don't know about the rules regarding feathers in NC, but I keep meaning to try using a feather in the vent when loading, to cast a channel into the packed powder (and to keep the vent clear of fouling simultaneously).

[Mike Brooks]

Those "feather laws" are federal.

[bob in the woods]

I save the feathers from the geese and turkeys and partridge I shoot. Partridge feathers work really well in a vent. Turkey feathers [ the fine, multi coloured ones ] make into fishing lures and flies. Goose feathers are used for pillows. I guess it's a good thing i"m in Canada 

[Mike Brooks]

I save the feathers from the geese and turkeys and partridge I shoot. Partridge feathers work really well in a vent. Turkey feathers [ the fine, multi coloured ones ] make into fishing lures and flies. Goose feathers are used for pillows. I guess it's a good thing i"m in Canada 

For the most part it's song birds and raptors that are VERBOTEN down here.

[Daryl]

Here (BC), possession of Raptor feathers, especially eagle feathers is frowned upon by the Ministry of the Environment (game branch). A chargeable offense.

[Natureboy]

  Hanshi, I was chatting with a fellow rugby referee, a young veteran from the Iraq war.  I jokingly asked if "it's true that you don't have to put the powder and ball down the barrel anymore."  He replied "yes, and we don't shoot at velociraptors."

[Candle Snuffer]

Well, after loading powder and patched ball, I pick and prime. Reckon I'll keep doing it this way as I see no useful reason to change since it works for me. 

[Carper]

My Grandpa told me that around the turn of the century a mildly retarded man came around to the farms butchering hogs. He killed them with a flintlock. His rifle misfired and he laid it across a fence and fished out a long copper wire from his hat  and proceeded to pick the vent. The rifle fired unexpectantly. It just happened to hit a hog in the side. The man became so flustered he ran down the road. My Grandpa was just a kid but climbed over into the pen and finished it off with a knife.

[thecapgunkid]

Trim the tip of a small feather about a half inch back and leaving about a quarter inch of the feather on it.  This will also get into the cone of your vent once you pick away at the touch hole.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

[hanshi]

  Hanshi, I was chatting with a fellow rugby referee, a young veteran from the Iraq war.  I jokingly asked if "it's true that you don't have to put the powder and ball down the barrel anymore."  He replied "yes, and we don't shoot at velociraptors."

Well, I've heard rumors of guns that don't require ball & powder to be pushed down the bore; but I always figured it was a tall tale.  But now you say it's TRUE?  Alien technology for sure.  And velociraptors make exciting hunting; more so than even a grizzly!  It's a case of hunting something that is hunting YOU.  Of course that's also sometimes true of bears in general. 

[Turtle]

I started picking right after I shoot to break me of the habit of blowing down the barrel which is forbidden now at NMLRA shoots. To replace one habit with another.
                                                       Turtle