Roundball, there is no such thing as too much cleaning. I completely tear apart mine even if I didn't shoot it but still loaded it. I lube everything etc. and always check with the ramrod to see if the gun is loaded before putting it back after the cleaning! Extreme but it works. As far as bonehead mistakes, I was at the range and the typical conversation of what do you shoot came up, well I had the pellets ready and bullet ready on the range bench. Well I loaded the bullet and forgot the powder, thankfully I marked the ram rod and figured out exactly what I did. I had to tear out the breech plug and ram out the bullet. I haven't shot out the ramrod yet and hope not to.