AAMEN with Dphobby. Before you heat make very sure that there is no load in the barrel. A friend of mine works for the national parks service and they recently got a number of old guns from the war of 1812, Brown Bess and the like. These had come in from other museums around the country. When he suggested checking them for loads the rest of the crew just laughed. Turns out that out of about 3 doz guns only a few were not loaded. For God's sake check the gun. It should be the first thing you do whenever you pick one up.