Blowing down the barrel

[redheart]

Blowing down the barrel is a God given right.
Blowing down the barrel of a loaded rifle makes you a candidate for the Darwin award.
If you do it and it fires you could very well win the award.

[Sharpsman]

If I ever attain the height of being so daft that I can not know when a rifle is loaded or unloaded.....I have instructed my wife to just drive me to the Old Vets Home....and drop me off!! And prior to that occasion she will already have learned that I can no longer find my way home....and will have hidden my rifles...out of sight!

[Bob Roller]

In 1982, I witnessed a fellow have a misfire, instantly drop the butt to the ground, and put his mouth over the barrel.  All of us screamed at him, mostly out of horror about the consequences.  The rifle did not go off, but it was loaded, and had sustained a bust cap without the charge going off.  I'll never forget the dumb look on his face.  Placing any body part over the muzzle of a rifle/gun, apart from the loading process, is not a good practice to get into, to the point of it becoming a habit.  Just my opinion.

It can be described as a possibly fatal brain @$#%.I've been told by others
that they could take my face and a bulldog's back side and tree the devil
but it's the only face and head I have so I will try to keep it intact.

Bob Roller

[James Rogers]

I take it there are no blowing naysayers who fit shotguns to folks or have ever been fitted themselves? 

[sqrldog]

Maybe that's why my guns don't fit I wasn't blowing down the barrel when I measured drop and length of pull. Tim

[Mike Brooks]

Maybe that's why my guns don't fit I wasn't blowing down the barrel when I measured drop and length of pull. Tim

Just think how much better that Wallynut gun would shoot if you blew down the barrel!

[sqrldog]

If it got any better I'd have to sell it to Brice. He could get the full potential out of it.

[rollingb]

I've been hollered at a couple of times for blowin' down the barrels of my guns after takin' a shot,.... never had any takers though when I offered to give'em my gun IF they could get it to fire again without "reloading" it first.
I may have a (somewhat) warped sense of humor, but I think it would be entertaining to watch'em if they were to take me up on my offer. LOL

[bones92]

Interesting thread. I always figured the merit of blowing the smoke out of the barrel was to evacuate the barrel of smoke that would otherwise cling to the inside of the barrel, adding to fouling.   

Around here, we have plenty of humid days, so much so that it seems to attract fouling to the bore wall.  So I'm not sure how adding moisture is a good thing.  I believe a muzzleloader that sits for 10 minutes after a shot with no swabbing of the bore will be harder to load in any situation, humid or arid.

Speaking of which, I kind of wish that the RSO would call for "swab your bore!" after every cease fire.  So that once all firearms are clear, people have a minute to swab the bore before they are set aside during cease-fire.   As it is, I always try to leave a minute or two before cease-fire is called so that I can punch the bore once or twice before the rifle sits for 10 minutes.

I'm not sure of the rule at my local club, but  in the future I will probably keep a short section of plastic tubing handy for blowing down the bore.

[hanshi]

To paraphrase Bob Dylan: "The answer my pal is blowing down the barrel; the anser is blowing down the barrel". 

Forgive me but I just couldn't resist. 

[JCKelly]

Got this cousin Murphy who wrote some law . . .  just can't remember it right now

[thecapgunkid]

Jingles Christmas.  What have I started?  A lot of sage advice and opinions here, but nobody answered the question.

What event started the ban?

This tells me one thing....

We need a convention...all of us in one spot on the map where there are no hurricanes...

[rfd]

Jingles Christmas.  What have I started?  A lot of sage advice and opinions here, but nobody answered the question.

What event started the ban?
.....

yer question was answered.  it wasn't an event that lead to the NMLRA (and NRA) to ban barrel blowing, it was the natural outcome of living in an extremely litigious society where the powers-that-be (of those orgs, in particular) sought to protect the dumb at the expense of the not-so-dumb.  i'm sure y'all can think of at least a few other dumb a$$ societal laws we've come to dislike if not hate.

http://bwanabob.info/page2.html

[JCKelly]

Still think Cousin Murphy had it right

[rfd]

this is an imperfect world we populate.  murphy was here before us and will be here whence we depart.  so what.  the onus is on each of us to attempt to use our brains in a positive manner.  failing to do so is momma nature's way culling out the dumb and rewarding the smarter ones, for the progression of the species.  ala darwin.

[WadePatton]

...
What event started the ban?
...

...it wasn't an event that lead to the NMLRA (and NRA) to ban barrel blowing, it was the natural outcome of living in an extremely litigious society where the powers-that-be (of those orgs, in particular) sought to protect the dumb at the expense of the not-so-dumb...

because this little video reveals the general understanding of muzzle-loaded arms by society.

[Joe S.]

Now I'm all confused,if thats true as with Elmer fudd shooting daffy duck in the head,daffy just rearranges what's left of his face and is fine for the next scene.Why would there be so much fuss blowing down the barrel then?perhaps they should be addressing the mouse problem at the shoots

[oldtravler61]

  Nate if we all get together at one place. Then have a convention. We would probably be classed as a serious wind storm!!! Or a buffalo ranch after all the animals had left...LOL. Oldtravler

[hanshi]

We on the forum are all, I trust, experienced enough to know what we're doing.  I recommend that those who blow down the bore continue to do wo; and those who don't continue to avoid doing that.

Yep, Murphy is always around but is - often as not - wrong or at least misguided.

[n stephenson]

At least give Sylvester a little credit. He was shooting a fullstock and he wasn't dropping Pyrodex pellets down it, I do think he was using precut round patches. Some will probably be put off that he didn't "mic" his patch material but it did look to be .0225 . I don't think it was the mouse , I believe he was ramming it home too hard, that compression thing , that got him .At least he wasn't using a metal range rod and, loading from a tackle box , he`s a bag and horn kind of guy  . I`ve seen a few people that could take lessons from Sylvester   

[Frank]

We all blew down the barrel years ago and for reasons many have mentioned here. If I ever get to the point where I am to stupid to know if my gun went off, I need to be put in a home. It is always some smart ass that has only been shooting muzzleloaders for a short time that will try and give you a hard time at the range. I have known a few of these guys. They have been shooting for about 6 months and they talk like they have been doing it for over 50 years. Mostly they are idiots and dangerous and should be avoided at costs.  Used to be a fun time with the guys. Many of them no longer come around, because the newbies have ruined it, which is why I prefer to shoot alone. One final thing. You can't teach these smart asses anything, because they already know it all. Now I got to go to my shop and work on that York County Rifle.

[sqrldog]

Frank
You have a problem we don't have newbies. There aren't any here.

[Joe S.]

There's newbies here,new to builds at least and have learned much.This also includes that there's more to just shoving a ball down the barrel and pulling the trigger.But I'm humble and know I don't know everything.That said you can also have the fellow with years of muzzleloading under his belt,builds too and is a total jacka$$.He knows he knows it all and does everything in his power to prove it.This fellow will drive folks away as quick as the newbie who thinks he knows it all.The cream will always rise to the top on either end of the scale.

[Bob Roller]

To paraphrase Bob Dylan: "The answer my pal is blowing down the barrel; the anser is blowing down the barrel". 

Forgive me but I just couldn't resist. 

Another one of my favorites from Bob Dylan is It's all over now,Baby Blue" as
done by the first generation Seldom Scene.
Bob Roller

[EC121]

Joe:  Take a chill pill.  Tim meant that the whole bunch of us are all getting older with very few replacements coming up.  Seems like all the shows are full of grey headed old men with no crowd of youngsters to fill in the dwindling ranks.  I joke about a restaurant in my home town that checks IDs at the door.  If you aren't 60 or over, they don't let you in.  The NMLRA membership is tapering off.  Kids today don't  have Davie Crockett and Jeremiah Johnson to get them interested in the hobby.  They have Androids and Iphones, and parents who shudder at the thought of any kind of gun.