i alway break my muzzle loader down and clean it . and i mean clean it ,my wife is going to divorce me one day over my doing it in the bathtub. if you want it to be around for years instead of a piece of rusty steel (stainless too) clean it good . my couson didnt clean his from oct to dec. it took about two hours of work before we could get a jag down it. the lands and groove were shot. i hate to hear about accidents that could have been prevented . especially if the guy had used better habits.