Thanks for all the help. Seems in my naivety I did not disassemble the new BP as I should have and the breech plug had only factory oil on it. I called Traditions and they insisted that their instructions tell you this and I assure I read them cover to cover last night again and they do not mention cleaning and greasing prior to use. On a better note the 2000 , I’ll get the name later tonight, is discontinued and was an earlier inline before #9 ignition was the in thing as it uses Musket caps. Its real sweet looking short barrel 21” I think with a heavy grain wood stock that has the stick your thumb through grip the Monnel fluted barrel with muzzle break is held to the receiver by a pin and comes off for cleaning.

By the way I don’t think the gun got very hot as the 12 shots were evenly distributed over 2 hours. I use a Traditions pre-lubed patch after each shot. This doesn’t bother the 50 grain pellets but I am getting a Pennsylvania Long rifle this afternoon and I will use loose powder and was wondering if the barrel needs to be drier so the powder will cascade down the barrel properly?