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Loading the Rifle

by Bill Roberts

Part 1
Part 2

Loading Without Cleaning Between Shots

There are three basic ways to do this, one of which might be best described as a "sort-of' method of shooting without cleaning.

Why would someone want to shoot a muzzle loader without cleaning? For one reason alone: no matter how careful the shooter might be in cleaning, there is always the probability of leaving more or less moist residue in the breech area of the barrel. The more or less, as applied to dampness, may be translated on the range as follows: more equals low, and less equals high as the bullet approaches and strikes the target.

The first method is primarily used with lubricated grease groove bullets and is relatively simple. A supply of card wads is cut or purchased. The cardboard backing from ordinary legal pads works just fine as wad material. A small quantity of the same lubricant that is to be used in the grooves of the bullet is melted in a double-boiler arrangement over a low heat source such as a kitchen range. Once the lubricant has melted, half of the cut wads are placed in the lubricant and allowed to remain until they have absorbed enough lubricant to sink to the bottom of the container. They are then removed from the liquid lubricant with tweezers and placed upon a flat surface until the lubricant cools and hardens.

During loading, the powder is loaded first. Then, a lubricated wad is placed into the bore, followed by a plain, dry wad. Both are seated at the same time on the powder charge with the loading rod before the bullet is loaded in a separate operation.

The entire purpose of this exercise is to provide a source of lubricant to soften the fouling that normally builds up at the point where the bullet is seated on the powder. This allows the lubricated bullet to seat firmly on the next charge without deformation. The greased bullet itself scrapes the bore moderately clean as it is loaded.

The second method is normally applied to paper-patched bullets, which can be difficult to load in a fouled bore. This is due to the fact that the fouling in the bore tends to tear the protective paper patch and render the paper useless for its intended purpose of protecting the bullet from contact with the barrel.

A non-lubricated felt wad is cut or purchased. Before use, the wad is saturated in natural sperm oil. Using an ordinary glass eyedropper as a measure, three to four drops per felt wad is just about right. The oil-soaked wad is then seated directly onto the powder, followed by the paper-patched bullet, which has been wiped with a small cloth saturated with the same sperm oil before loading.

What are we doing here? We are simply swabbing the bore with the oiled felt wad and providing a source of lubricant to keep the fouling soft in anticipation of the next loading. Within reasonable limits, the application of the oiled felt wad directly to the powder charge seemingly has no apparent effect upon accuracy.

The third method, previously described as the sort-of-method, consists of loading the powder and a standard wad in the normal manner, and then swabbing the bore with a damp patch before loading the bullet. This keeps any dampness away from the critical breech area of the barrel and provides a relatively clean bore, ready for the loading of the bullet.

© 2004 WA Roberts

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