.........
What you describe is Nothing like the "seasoning" process linked by any search of the word or term as it applies to steel or firearms.
"Seasoning" a barrel is a myth, an olde wives tale,,
Your extended explanation, read by anyone is simply Cleaning and Oiling. You are using Cleaning agents then Gun oil and repeating the process.
During this extended process you are shooting allot, I would suggest you skip all the extra motions and just shoot allot. If you shoot allot your shooting skills improve, thus the gun shoots better,,
If it's your son's gun that's not shooting well, then He should be the one doing all the shooting practice.
Not once do you mention too bake, roast, or somehow cook an oil into the steel to "season" it as ALL seasoning processes describe.
I don't know who Mr. Newcomb is, but Mike Nessbit is a paid writer of magazine articles, if he doesn't write an article he doesn't get paid.
I gave up long ago believing everything in magazine articles.
Your weak presentation of the definition of the word "
Seasoning" is not even applicable to the topic of this thread (
Seasoning the Barrel of a Muzzleloader). If your intent is to attack the validity of "
seasoning a muzzleloading barrel", attack it at its backbone...find a reputable source that states emphatically that micro-pores in steel and iron as the result of the manufacturing process don't exist; or that treating these micro pores has no effect upon the performance of the barrel; then therefore it will be an easy extension to say that all this money being spent on conditioning or breaking-in modern barrels is not needed and is a waste of time & good money. That would do it in spades.
Unfortunately you are missing the point entirely and you are now grasping at minutia (
minor meaningless details)...Let me explain my meaning in simple terms by providing an example. Let's say that I dig up a chunk of raw iron out of the earth, heat it up red hot and hammer it and make it into a sword. Then let's say that someone else digs up raw iron-ore, heats the ore up to super high temperatures to drive off the impurities; then heats the purified iron to red hot and then makes a sword...the end result is still a sword. The two procedures are different, but the end result is the same; in that a functional sword is produced.
"
Your extended explanation, read by anyone is simply Cleaning and Oiling"...you miss the sublties of the process entirely. Its what happens after the gun is cleaned, and what happens at the range that is critical. The oil that I use was designed to be used with corrosive cordite powders. Blackpowder
IS a corrosive powder, that is why I use it in my process. Wiping the barrel several times over several days after it has been cleaned, with an oiled patch, serves multiple purposes...I get to see what residues are being
displaced by the oil, I'm visually monitoring the seasoning process and I'm introducing more oil into the bore to
displace more residue. Then while at the range I clean the bore after each shot for 5 shots..I am introducing oil into a clean system and then using high temperatures and pressures (Fluid Dynamics) to force the oil into the micro pores of the iron or steel to further
displace corrosive powder residues and season the bore. Call it a cleaning process if that is what you comprehend it to be, but realize that there is more happening here than simply cleaning a barrel.
Micro pores created during the manufacturing process is not a myth it is a reality. Properly breaking in a modern steel alloy barrel to seal these micro pores is also a fact. Seasoning a barrel in a muzzleloading rifle is historical...For lack of a better term I call it "Seasoning" because that is how it was explained to me...
it is what it is.
This process that I have explained is
NOT a traditional seasoning process, but the
end result is the same (
just like in my example with the swords)...when you are done the barrel is seasoned. Call it "
Conditioning" or "
Breaking In" if that makes you feel better...or if that is your level of comprehension, then call it "
Cleaning & Wiping".
I didn't expect you to
KNOW Fred Newcomb.
Seriously??? Its called a citation, I'm identifying my original source and providing that person's considerable credentials on this topic. Mike Nessbit is another source that I cited. He is also a recognized and well recieved figure in the
Blackpowder Fraturnity. And if a person makes a statement, and then another person sees the same or similar results, that lends
support to the validity of their original words.
I don't expect to sway you from your position...you are definately set in your beliefs. But it is not a positive habit to
condem that which you do not understand..."
the world is no longer flat, it is infact a sphere."
