jt 6
Reading thoughtcayugad's last entry I do not know if you can get any straigter answer than he is giving you.
Granted, there are rifles out there that shoot on a clean barrel and even on a fowled barrel close enough that it makes little or no difference.
This statement applies to most of my guns but I still damp patch the barrel after each shot. I can tell and most good hunters can tell what kind of shot they got on an animal and when I am confident there really is no hurry - I also know if I needed to load a quick second shot without patching - I know I could and it would be very close to sight in...
Give yourself time to calm down, think out your last shot and what happened, decide on your new direction of travel, note landmarks, etc as you swab and reload. For now you know the second shotshould be as accurate as the first was. As for damp patches, a simple zip lock bag with them in, is easy to carry. Snap a rubber band in the middle, one side damp, one side dry. After all it is not like you need to carry a hundred of them.
Perfect statement....
Most hunters I grew up with used to tell me, do not chase right after them. Give them time to react to the hit.
Believe this one.... the only time I take a rapid quick second shot is when I may have wounded the animal and it is right there on the ground struggling - then I will quick load and finish the dispatch.
Another reason I damp patch after a shot is (and this is a no-no to a lot of people) I do not pull or shoot out a load at the end of the day. I am using T7 and it is the least corrosive of all the synthetics that I might use - so I do leave loads in from day-to-day or even a week. Another no-no - I do not strip clean the gun until the end of the season in most circumstances, unless I have subjected it to so really bad weather and even then I am not in to big of a hurry because i do have a very very light coat of gun oil in the bore to protect it from rusting either from condensation or moisture from outside.
So my general rule is I always shoot a relatively clean barrel 99% of the time just as it is when I sight it in...
just my thoughts...