I dry patch my .40 cal air gun. if you use too much spit it starts running into the valve and ball and has to be cleaned, I wipe my gun with oil and lightly oil one patch for the inside of the barrell, never have needed a short starter as my ramrod is brass. I shot the L&C rifle but I like mine better, little heavier but feels better on my shoulder. the needle valve on this gun is a little different than mine, there is a flintlock on mine that actually works to open the valve. Mine will kill a deer at full charge at 83 yards. I can get 10-12 good shoots out of a full charge before I start to worry about effectiveness. Mine also has a sleeve for the barrel so u can shoot ..22 cal. pellets out of it and you can literally shoot all weekend on one charge if u use .22's. Every year at the Midwest Rendezvous we have an air gun shoot on Friday for fun and I always get a bunch of kids on my team. There are usually 2 of us that have these guns and we have had the maker attend 3 years so we have 3 teams going at it! My air reservoir takes 2,200 pumps to be fully charged, or the valve for a scuba tank fills it to full in like 3 seconds(don't think I will wear out my pump hehe)
nobber