I do lube using pre-treated patches from Traditions. They are yellow and smell like Ben-Gay. I canalways load easily and accurracy is great. Clean up after the day is a snap and the barrel is not affected since there is no buildup like you would get with pastes. The patches are not wet but feel slick, I usually got up and down and turn it over and repeat. Not sure why it works so good but it does. I tried not using it once to see what would happen and I could not even load the bullet. This seems to help my guns greatly. Of course all guns are different and it really is up to you, but you should be doing something to prevent fouling and mis or even hangfires.