On my way back to my truck this morning, while climbing a steep dirt slope, I stumbled and poked the muzzle of my rifle into the dirt. No harm done; I was almost back to the truck, and I was certainly done hunting for the day.

But it made me think--if I had done this miles away, early in the day, it would have been a lot more irritating. Is there any good way to deal with this sort of stupidity in the field? Should I be carrying some sort of cleaning kit? Do you put some sort of cap on the tip of the barrel? I know, I know, the real answer is " don' t trip and take core samples of the dirt." But sometimes not very ideal things happen; I' m hoping to hear how y' all deal with this sort of thing.

some folks will install a finger condom over the barrel.....

carry a brass rope of about 1/16 diameter coiled up in your hunting jacket pocket.

Someone makes them with a mop of some kind attached to clean the barrel from the chamber.

Here' s a great product for field cleaning....

http://www.aspitactical.com/gunmate/...RODUCT_ID=2873

Thanks. I bought a walmart version of this, fits nicely into my pack.

Thanks again!

I always have electrical tape over the muzzle so this has never been a problem for me.

Otis makes a cable cleaning rod that can be rolled up and put in your pocket. It is also stiff enough that if put down the barrel can be used to drive out foreign objects, even stuck shell casings.

http://www.otisgun.com/cgistore/stor...tup=1&cart_id=