Loaded for 18 days and it fired!

Yesterday I finally got around to shooting the loaded TC Hawken I had laying out on the porch. It had been loaded for 18 days and still fired just like it had been loaded five minutes ago. The powder was Triple Seven 2F, which is what several of my hunting rifles like best. I had heard a lot of good things about mink oil, so after I shot off the round that was in the barrel I shot couple with patched round ball and mink oil. After 3rd shot, had to stop as it was getting hard to push the ball down the barrel. I normally use bore butter and don't have this problem. May have been the cold weather too? Hit the gong at 60 yards all 3 times. I be happy.

I use mink oil on PRBs and find the determining factor to be the brand/granulation/charge of powder. With Swiss its 2-3 shots, Diamondback a few more, KIK or Goex quite a few.

I had my TC .54 loaded for 6+ weeks, in and out of the house and vehicle several times, and it fired with no hesitation. 90gr Goex fffg.

If you have no stiff loading with bore butter, it may just combine better (than mink oil)with the residue from your powder.

Leaving a fired ml for 18 days, loaded or unloaded, without cleaning is not a good practice. :shake: Would not surprise me if you had some beginning corrosion at the chamber end.

if he loaded it into a clean and dry barrel and breach then there should be no corrosion

I remotely fired a rifle that had been loaded at least 20 years.

:shocked2: it came from an estate I laid it across a tire and with a long string. Boom it fired.

I loaded my GPR for early ML season, in mid October. Took it out Tuesday, fired fine, big fat doe in freezer.. :grin:

shockey's gold, bore butter lubed PRB.

A rifle that is loaded into a clean barrel and left that way is not a problem. Rifle was never brought into the house. It was left out on an unheated porch. I do not leave a fired rifle uncleaned. Rifleman needed to get in another post to keep his numbers up. The reason for the post as the subject keeps coming up.

Doesn't matter how long it sets so long as the powder stays dry. A gun charged over a hundred years ago will still go boom if it has set dry.

and also even if the powder gets moist and dries out it is still dangerous as the nitrate hasn't gone anywhere, it is still active

now if it gets sopping wet and leaches out the nitrate then dries it probably won't go off, but I am not going to be willing to be a target to prove it or not....

I left a percussion (New Englander) barrel loaded in my unheated garage for 11 months as an experiment. Moose Snot lube (and the bore wiped with Barricade after it was loaded) and hunted for two days in December before storing with the same load.

Fired first try but the ball hit high at 50 yards. (Should have been right in the center of the diamond at 50 yards with 6:00 hold.)



The next four patched balls were from a loading block that sat beside it wrapped in newspaper. Had to spit-wipe after the third and fourth shots.

I didn't shoot at paper, just stood out back on my private range and banged away at a gong hanging down by one of the bunkers. Gong is rather small and I hit it first and everytime afterward. This was off hand too. Stump Killer, I'd guess your first shot hit high due to lube drying out? But you have to remember I'm guessing. I often leave one of my muzzle loaders loaded during the season and have never had a problem with them firing when I needed them to do so.

Seemed to be the case.

I leave mine loaded until I get rained on or shoot and reload. Never let the sun set on a dirty gun. ;-)

Shine said:

I remotely fired a rifle that had been loaded at least 20 years.

:shocked2: it came from an estate I laid it across a tire and with a long string. Boom it fired.

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Back at the turn of the century I got to unload an old musket that had been hanging on the wall of a local pub since at least 1901 - it was in situ in a photograph taken that year commemorating the death of Queen Victoria and how it was 'waked' in rural areas.

As a local shooter, I was given the job of ensuring that it was safe to go back on its hangers, and found on examination that the ramrod did not go reach the breechplug by a good three inches.

Tying it to a handy tree, and pointing it into a handy earth bank, I put a musket cap on it and pulled the string - it went 'clik-ka-boom', and something large and heavy hit the bank with a fearsome thud.

It was a nice round ball, unpatched, and the ground between was littered with scraps of newspaper.

One such fragment clearly bore the date of June 1897, the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne back in 1837.

So it had been loaded up, but not fired, possibly in order the celebrate THAT even earlier event.

There can be no doubt that it would have killed or seriously injured anyone standing in front of it, even after a hundred and three years.

tac

There was not a word about cleaning in your original post. Just shooting, loading and shooting again 18 days later.

Rifleman,
I know you were in a hurry to take another shot at me, but no one else thought I was dumb enough to leave a rifle fired and uncleaned for 18 days.

this is always a hot issue i notice.....I had to thoroughly tongue lash my best friend right before deer season....he left it loaded from the previous season (forgot about it he says) the night before opening days he decides to clean it ...DOH! after pulling the ball about equal parts rust and powder came out...after inspecting...looks as if metal termites ate out the breech of the rifle for a snack.....he just lucky that he may be able to save the rifle by reboring it (its a 1inch across the flats and is .54 cal) but theres always a lesson...and if he scraps it I might get a new gun!

I don't see any editing of the original post, and it doesn't mention having shot the rifle prior to loading and leaving it for 18 days. :bull:

excess650 said:

I don't see any editing of the original post, and it doesn't mention having shot the rifle prior to loading and leaving it for 18 days. :bull:

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Thank you excess650. I have often seen new comers ask if they could do this and that's why I posted this info to show them yes it can be done. I wouldn't leave a rifle loaded for longer than needed. Once season is over I shoot it off and clean it. However since I had to clean it anyway, may as well take couple extra practice shots too.

Your friends rusty breech adds merit to the Bevel Brothers findings.

I've written about it before here but they basically loaded several breeched barrels and left them for months in a humid place.

After unbreeching them they actually had to use a 2 pound hammer to drive the rust incrusted patch and balls out of the barrels.

Like your friends gun, the powder also absorbed moisture thru the vent hole (they were vented for flintlocks) and although black powder is not corrosive, the wetness that collected in the powder did a real number on the bore where it was located.

Good point Zonie, I always put black elec tape over the muzzle and leather over the nipple.