Chapter 3

“As you see, the litho portrays bison herds that originally roamed Yellowstone and the Great Plains as being decimated in the 1800s by white men firing rifles filled with black powder. It’s the weapons that interest us here. The residue left from that kind of powder not only gummed up a gun’s barrel, it ate through the metal if you left it on. To stop the powder from corroding the barrels, men learned to clean them immediately after they’d finished shooting for the day.”

Blaze slid off the stool and stood behind his display. “Today’s powder isn’t corrosive, but it still leaves a residue known as fouling that can cause a gun to be unreliable.” He pointed to his semiautomatic pistol as it lay on the table. “Someone tell us how this gun works, please.”