Some of the allegedly very best muzzleloading riflemen do not pour their powder charges down the barrel where some of the powder might not fall all the way to the breech, but due to static electricity, might adhere to the barrel side not all the way down. To avoid this problem, they insert a long tube down the barrel and pour the powder down that so that all the powder collects neatly in the breech ready for the firing spark. What puzzles me is the fact that the powder might stick to the side of the tube and remain there and never get to the breech at all. I don’t know what the tubes are made of, but in most cases, as they pass through your hands, the static electricity will really build up. That’s really the second lapse in logic, the first being that if in pouring the powder down the actual steel barrel some flecks or more of the powder adheres to the steel partway down, won’t the rather tight fitting patched ball sweep if off the bore wall and into the breech where it and all the other powder are waiting for the firing spark?
This practice continues in spite of my thoughts and so. one might figure. there remains a good reason for doing it. Many have but I remain puzzled.