Hunting in wet nasty brushy country

[Greg Y]

Greetings,

I'm new to side locks but have killed a lot of deer and elk. I tend to hunt the jungle of north Idaho and that comes with lots of rain and constant brush crawling.

I've had wet powder on well protected inlines and am trying to plan my attack to use my new hawken under similar circumstances.
I'm aware of cows knees. I am curious what the guys who hunt rain forest type environments are doing to make the shots go off.

I will be using musket caps and considered beeswax or similar around the cap before covering the lock.

A separate question, how often do you tear down the lock and clean/dry the action/trigger?

Thanks in advance,

Greg

 

[Stykbow]

I’m not in a rainforest environment, but East Tennessee woods are thick around here. I’ve hunted in a heavy downpour and my gun still went off. All I did was make sure to keep the muzzle pointed down and the lock in my armpit for protection. I hate hunting in the rain, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes!

 

[The Crisco Kid]

I hunted in Western Oregon in the 70's and it can put down some rain there. I dripped candle wax on the nipple after I capped it. It was a bit of a nuisance but it worked. I also put tape over the muzzle to keep the rain out. Don't let anyone tell you that it will blow up your rifle. It's been a tried and true method for decades, especially in Southeast Alaska where it can really rain! I didn't unload the rifle until I shot a deer or the season closed and I never had a misfire.

 

[R Ellis]

Remove and clean and oil the lock every time it gets wet

 

[Nuthatch]

I wouldn't call where I hunt on the coast a rainforest like N. Idaho or even N. CA. But it's after Thanksgiving and we sometimes get some nasty storms. Sometimes it's dry. Sometimes it's a little wet. Sometimes, it's pouring.

Traditions or some other company makes a muzzleloading rain kit. It includes some latex bore covers that you just shoot through and some pink surgical tubing that slips over the cap & then cut to fit. The latex covers often break or slip off. Using electrical tape is just as good and stays in place better. I've crossed a couple of pieces at 90 degrees over the bore & then wrap another piece around the outside to seal it in place. I've also heard about people using condoms. I've never done that but I'm guessing that they'd need to be tied off or otherwise sealed with a rubber band to keep it on. None of these are traditional or period correct, of course.

For the cap/nipple, the surgical tubing fits perfectly with a standard #11 cap. You can still remove it at the end of the day and put it back on with the tubing & cap staying together. For homemade caps, I'd opt for wax as a cover or just switch to commercial caps & the tubing if I didn't feel like messing with wax. If I expect a good amount of rain, I'll opt for a poncho instead of a rain suit. That way, I can keep the rifle under the poncho with me. It's darned noisy but when it's actively raining or dripping, it hardly matters since there's so much noise already.

In my limited experience, the humidity is rarely a problem for the first shot. It's the subsequent shots that can be problematic. I've been in extremely dense fog, pouring rain, creek bottoms & tule marshes with both flint & percussion. The first shot is almost always fine. But subsequent shots give me grief once the fouling starts pulling that moisture in. The percussion guns start doing hang fires and the flintlocks just flash. If your gun has a regular breech, instead of the chambered breech that's common on production guns, it would probably help a lot to swab between shots if you need multiple shots.

Good luck. Foul weather makes for great memories & fewer bozos in the woods.

 

[Bushfire]

Muzzle tape is a no brainer for any gun in rain.

I never did anything else for inlines and didn’t have an issue on the first shot. With caplocks I put a little Vaseline or similar around the cap.

Shooting flinters now, thinking I need to get a cows knee. Have hunted in light rain with it and kept the lock under my arm with success.

 

[Greg Y]

I've been a muzzle taper for decades. The exposed cap makes me wonder.

 

[Greg Y]

Musket cap vs #11.....any one better or worse when it's wet and or cold? My past years have varied from 1/2" of rain in a couple of hours to potentially 10-15 below zero.

 

[Des52]

Deer Creek Products has rain proofing components for no.11 caps and muzzel protectors. I've used them in pouring rain with good results.

 

[nhmoose]

When I was younger and dumber on wet days with my flintlock carried in its wool case with a cow's knee over the lock. I killed 2 deer on downpour days this way. Slip the case off and flip the knee off cock and bang!

Now at 71, I stay home and watch the apple trees 50 yards away while sipping coffee at the dining room table when deer appears I shoot at it from the porch 5 steps away.

I figure why not as my wife has killed a few deer over the years that way. When I was away on hunting trips with my nephews. Very belittling when the bride gets er done when you come home skunked.