The NMLRA has some wonky rules. 

At least one is dangerous to limb and life. 

I avoid the NMLRA as much as possible and employ my personal common sense rules.

To each their own!

YMMV.

On this day in 1840, British lawyer and writer Nicholas Maillard arrived in Texas.

He settled in Richmond, where he acquired a reputation as a mixer of excellent drinks and became coeditor of the Richmond Telescope. In May and June 1840, he made several trips to Houston and one to Austin, but by mid-August had returned to London, where he immediately began writing letters to the press and to British officials condemning Texas. In 1842 he published a book, The History of the Republic of Texas, from the Discovery of the Country to the Present Time and the Cause of Her Separation from the Republic of Mexico, in which he claimed that the Texans were "a people whose existence as an independent nation is owing, first, to their own base treason, and secondly, to a political juggle of Andrew Jackson." Texas, he continued, was "filled with habitual liars, drunkards, blasphemers, and slanderers; sanguinary gamesters and cold-blooded assassins; with idleness and sluggish indolence (two vices for which the Texans are already proverbial); with pride, engendered by ignorance and supported by fraud." He warned against the recognition of Texas by Great Britain and against British emigration to the wretched, sickly place. Though biased, the book nevertheless contained an excellent account of the Indians. Ashbel Smith, charge d'affaires to Great Britain, stated that the book failed to "produce the slightest effect" upon the British recognition of Texas independence, which was accomplished on June 28, 1842.

I will add the following to the first post in this thread ...

On the matter of the use of the bayonet, it clearly was the best close quarter combat weapon because there was at least a four foot distance between combatants and the weight of the musket or fowler or smoothbore turned any bayonet equipped firearm into a fairly deadly spear.  A patriot having a firelock with no bayonet, and only a hand held knife or tomahawk whence charged at by a Redcoat wielding a bayonet on the muzzle end of their Bess musket was for the most part a big patriot disadvantage. 

Having a fowler/smoothbore with a plug bayonet was better than having no bayonet.

I believe that there were many variations to the weapons and accoutrements and clothing of the AWI patriots and soldiers - far more so for the first 2 or 3 years, to a lesser degree as the war progressed.  If your town or state militia joined the early Continental Army, it was far more likely you arrived with a fowler/smoothbore and some manner of blade(s).  The advantage of having a bayonet would hit home quickly.  Some fowlers/smoothbores were retrofitted with socket bayonets - stocks were cut off at the muzzle and a socket lug was brazed on to accept a bayonet that was made for the bbl's muzzle area dimensions.  There are documents and preserved guns with provenance of such added socket bayonets.  While there is documentation and original artifacts for the use of plug bayonets in the French & Indian war, non exists for the Revolutionary war ... but ... common sense would think that it is quite likely that there was at least some use of plug bayonets in the AWI, at the very least within 1775 aand 1776, when the Continental Army was made up of militia with their fowlers, dressed in their simple clothes.

A long time ago, I tried Ballistol.  I could not stand the aroma so the first time was the last time.  I gave or threw the rest of the container away.
I clean the bore with Ol' Thunder patch lube and bore solvent.
Then I run two or three dry patches down the bore a couple of times each.
Then I lightly coat another dry patch with Bumblin' Bear Grease from October Country and run it up and down the bore a couple of times or so.
Finally, I take that same greased patch and give the whole rifle a light coating.
Then I put my rifle in the closet and forget about it until the next time out.
Don't overthink things, it ain't rocket science.
KISS is the word.

Bravo, Rob.  A well done capture of arms used in the Rev War by the winning side.

Another possible topic of conversation is what arms the Lewis and Clark Expedition really used. 
I would really enjoy your take on that.