Hunting prep

How does everyone prepare their gun to spend some time loaded I know I don't want hardly any oil in the bore or it might not go bang however if I remove all rust protestant then it could well... Rust lol so just wandering what everyone else does since I have little experience with such things

You clean the oil's out completely like always to make a reliable shooting load.
Then, if it "rusts" because of the way you deal with the loaded rifle,, you deal with the rust.

I have, as well as many others here kept guns(rifles/pistols/revolvers) loaded and used in field for hunting for many months without "rust" issues.

Why will your gun rust?

Clean it out well with alcohol and patches. Load it. Then one fast patch with Barricade above the load. You can finish with a strip of electrical tape on the muzzle if its raining or way damp outside.

I don't know that it will rust I was just wandering if there was some special protocol I should follow its not rusting now so I don't think it will and none of my smokeless guns do I just wanted to know I may load it and run a lightly oiled patch down to the top of the load if I see any rust

I wipe the bore with 91% alcohol to remove all old oil.

Then I run a lubed patch up and down the bore a couple times.

Then I load the rifle.

This gives me a first shot in with the rest when target shooting as well. Note that the lubes I use I have tested myself for non-rusting qualities. During the season I make leave the load in place for weeks.

As a test I left a barrel loaded in my (unheated) garage for 11 months. No rust & it went off - though the shot was several inches high at 50 yards.

K ran some alcohol through it (99%) gonna leave it sit till morning then put the nipple in go out to the shed and load it... Alcohol patch came out snow white so I shouldnt have to worry about any rust... The bore was slightly abused at some point in the rifles life (its older than me) so sometimes it likes to try and rust on me its hard to get all the fouling out of a pitted barrel... Still its not to bad and it shoots absolutely great so im not worried about that... Wish me luck guys I still have 2 tags

I wipe the bore with 91% isopropyl alcohol, then fire a cap or two (if it's a percussion gun), then load it.
If I don't shoot it that day, I wipe down to the load with Barricade.

If you swab the bore with rust protestant after loading you may wish to do so with either a loop jag or using a slightly underside brush as a jag, something that won't create an air tight seal. With the flash hole blocked with powder and a projectile arranged so as to form a gas seal, at one end of the barrel, you could have issues pushing an airtight patched jag all the way down to the ball, and when you withdraw the lubed patch you could pull the ball off the powder.

CapPopper said:

How does everyone prepare their gun to spend some time loaded I know I don't want hardly any oil in the bore or it might not go bang however if I remove all rust protestant then it could well... Rust lol so just wandering what everyone else does since I have little experience with such things

Click to expand...

For me I prepare the gun the same for a day of shooting as I do a day of hunting. I explain it in this video.

https://youtu.be/ibU-5uCuy_I

I use wasp nest between the powder and the patched ball. Then i put a little olive oil on a cleaning patch to help with rust . Never rusts but i let them set outside for the entire season. Usually shoot after 3 or 4 months. Olive oil on patched ball also.

Apparently smart phones think we need to scrub our guns with members of religious groups....

Read the o.p.



Maybe scrubbing with a member of a religious group would help some people's shooting.

I make sure a sharp flint is in the lock and load the gun. That's it - no special ceremony or magical thinking...

Clean with map solution to remove any oil, load, run a lightly greased patch (beeswax/olive oil) down the barrel once loaded to coat the bore....
Good for months that way.

If you have any Birchwood Casey Barricade (or Sheath, the old name for it), your problems are solved.

Barricade is a super good rust preventative and it drys shortly after it is applied, leaving its protective coating.

IMO, if your bore is treated with Barricade, you can load your gun and sit it aside without worry.

The dry Barricade will not cause any unusual fouling when the gun is fired so there isn't anything to worry about.

The only problem I've heard of with Barricade is Birchwood Casey refuses to put the stupid California warnings on their containers so California won't allow them to sell it in their state.

Exactly! I use Barricade and the most I ever do is run a dry patch down the bore once before loading. I do wipe the flint and frizzen/pan with a Q-Tip dipped in alcohol and maybe run a pipe cleaner through the touch hole. There's no wet oil in the bore from using Barricade.

Looks like I need to find some then I know I hear a lot of good about barricade

If anyone mentioned it, sorry but I missed it.

For years now I've been running a lubed patch down the bore after loading. I use a grease-type lube (TOW's mink tallow), and so far it's proven a great bore protector when leaving the gun loaded for longer periods, or for a day.

One other thing I do at the end of each day is cover the nipple on cappers with a tab of leather and lower the hammer, and stick a toothpick into the vent on flinters to keep moisture out overnight.

I thought about running a lightly coated olive oil patch down the bore but alas my olive oil is in a solid state cause I left it in the car and its just that darn cold....