Help with back country care of rifle

When either horseback or backpack style hunting what avenue is better...unload rifle every night and reload every morning before trekking off or just making sure rifle is bone dry when loading and keep end of brrl taped as well as sealing end of nipple when not hunting? Any advice appreciated as I normally just leave rifle loaded sometimes for weeks at a time during hunting season and just use the tape method and it's never failed me. I store gun outside in wood shed. Just don't want a hangfire if I can prevent it. I shoot ffg Triple7 so its fairly hydroscopic but gun never has chance to collect condensation but ml season in CO has 50deg temp swings so other than rainy nights when a reload is mandatory for my sanity what should I do?

Are we talking flintlock or percussion?

I think you should keep the gun indoors, it will help alot.

I leave mine loaded for 2-3 weeks during hunting season from time to time.

I think in your case, the gun will be more reliable with real blackpowder instead of the triple 7. Out of everything ever made to make a steel barrel go boom, the easiest thing to lite out of all of them is real blackpowder.

I either use smokeless for things that go boom, or if I have to use non-smokeless, it's real blackpowder. Even in modern wiz bang 209 primered ones. I only us my wiz banger 209 as a loaner gun. It has been loaded between mid october until mid december this year and it worked just fine and it's loaded with 90grs of FFFg goex.

A suficiently lubricated patched or grease sealed maxiball will keep the muzzle end high and dry. you may want to considered sealing up the other end, this is where the bigger issue is.

Flintlock with a feather or a rubber cap for a percussion gun.

Might be a rough guess here, but I think the flintlock will stay fresh longer. Percussion channel might be harder to keep high and dry than picking into a flintlock flash hole.

If there rain or that soggy mid to upper 30's snow covered dreary day, it's time to change it out.

I've never had a failure to fire when hunting with blackpowder and I use this method above.

I mainly shoot flintlocks, so other might chime in how to keep the percussion sealed up well. Maybe a rubber automotive brake caliper bleeder cap might be a good try.

If you must leave it outside in the shed, consider storing it with a bag of rice or some dry dessicant in the case.

I store mine inside, it can be done safely, atleast in my opinion.

I carried my cap gun for two weeks with at least some rain or snow every day and sometimes all day. The muzzle was taped with electrical tape and the nipple either capped or covered with a rubber vacuum hose cover (auto parts store).

Just to be sure, I fired it, cleaned it and dried it with alcohol every four or five days. I cleaned it in the evening and let it dry under my cot at night and reload it in the morning. Always fired instantly. The tent had no heat, so it was at ambient temperature all the time.

So, that system worked very well. If you are planning to hunt CO, it would probably work for you. I hunt CO every year and do pretty much the same except for taping the muzzle. But, I hunt out of a fixed camp with the gun either in hand, leaning on a tree in camp or in the car overnight.

Will add that if I ever repeat that wet hunt I'll not fire it periodically.

Its a 54cal percussion I use. I shoot the hotter nipples and the hotter caps for black powder sub's and they do a good job. They'll be no shelter other than a tent which will prly get heavy with moisture from my breath and body heat at night so I don't want that. I'll have a lean to tarp system to keep my gear as well as rifle dry. I planned on loading gun opening morning and sealing moisture out when in camp best I can and reloading every couple days by pulling charge and just dry patching brrl not firing or using alcohol swab. Keeping gun out in elements but dry should be my best bet?

pull bullet, empty charge, use co2 to blow out any left. id in cold weather do not bring indoors where it is warm. reload next day. live in co. rockies for 10 yrs.

Have hunted many MLer elk seasons in Colorado w/ caplocks and never unload or fire "to see" if the load goes off.

One year it rained 7 of the 9 day elk season and all 4 in the party left the load in....one guy shot an elk on the 5th day and the rest of us "unloaded" the evening of the last day...all the rifles fired.

We didn't tape the muzzles nor plug the nipples....just left the cap on. All of us used "real" BP.

During this rainy hunt, we did hunt from daylight to sundown...sometimes in a downpour , but usually in a light rain or mist. The days that it didn't rain were still cloudy and looked like impending rain. Not my best elk hunt, but the hunt still had to go on.....Fred

Keeping gun out in elements but dry should be my best bet?

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Yes, I'd say so. Don't bother with the pulling, reloading, etc. Like I said above, if I repeat that type of wet hunt I'll not test fire at all. It's about prevention.

If you are out in the rain, your main concern should be the exterior of the rifle. Keep it well oiled and wipe the moisture off and re oil it when it's been very wet. I disassembled mine to dry it and found there was plenty of moisture in the barrel channel and behind the lock.

My Colorado hunts don't involve that much rain. Flehto's rainy hunt experience is not at all typical but you need to be prepared because the only thing typical about Colorado weather in September is that it can be unpredicable.

There are several things that will help keep a charge dry in the gun, and I have left a percussion rifle loaded for a year, one season to the next, and it fired without a problem. On my .50 caliber hawken replica, I tied a 3/4" x 3/4" patch, cut from an old truck inner tube, to a 6" length of waxed linen cord, and fastened it to the trigger guard. I cap the rifle, place the rubber square on the cap, and lower the hammer on the patch. This makes the rifle safe and the patch falls to the side when you cock the rifle. You can also cut a 1/8" to 3/16" piece of 1/8" ID hose, like used for gas lines on mowers, weed eaters and chainsaws, and push it down over the capped nipple. This will seal the nipple from moisture and it will still fire. I have used both methods, at once, in the rain. Keep yer powder dry........Robin :wink:

Nice...I like the idea of sealing the cap around nipple with the fuel hose :hatsoff: that along with a post alcohol swabbed fully dry brrl that I'll seal muzzle with tape should go kaboom!!! Thanks guys

Generally speaking...humidity decreases with altitude. Something to consider if hunting at elevation.

Unless it's raining or snowing :haha: