Sponge for Gun Loading

[armchairgeneral]

Are gun crew holding the sponge, i.e. the long staff with a piece of fleece or lamb skin wound about its end, only applicable to smooth bore artillery or was this item still used with rifled guns?

[frank xerox]

I think as long as they’re muzzle loaders they’ll need a sponge

[CapnJim]

Yes - that's correct.  Even rifled muzzle-loaders needed to be sponged after firing and before loading.

[armchairgeneral]

Thanks for the replies chaps 

[Freddy]

It is not the rifling nor the muzzle loading- it is the powder. Black powder burns really messy, modern nitrite based powder appearing at the end of XIXth century is much cleaner. Even the breech loading Dreyse rifle had to be cleaned with a gun rod after every 5th or so shot because of the powder and paper cartridge remains.