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Why a fouling shot when hunting question?

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After several fail to fire at large game I fire a 1/2 load every morning the load and hunt, discharge and clean each night. Never an issue since. Tags are too hard to come by, let alone the huge Bull Elk that was the last one to get away, not too much trouble for piece of mind
Only misfire I had while muzzleloader hunting occurred with a TC caplock in the early 1980s. Had started the day doing what I had read - a light charge fouling load followed by a couple of caps while watching grass blades move in front of the muzzle. Did not shoot at any game that day, but at the end of the day when I tried to empty the gun, no boom even after popping a couple of caps. Back at the cabin remember pulling the clean out screw and running a pipe cleaner to the breech. It came out with goo and crud on it. It was a typical day weather wise where I was hunting. Low to mid 30’s with that wintery mix and likely near 100% humidity. Just my experience. Since then I have started every hunt with a charge loaded into a clean dry barrel and have not had a failed to fire on a first shot since.
 
I've seen replies on another thread which advocate a "fouling shot".
I always wondered if a bit more testing with patch an ball would eliminate that ??

I always hunt with a clean bore, wiped dry, then loaded for the deer. At the range just plinking I swab after every other shot. When shooting for score I swab after every shot.

So here's some of my results starting with a clean bore, loading, hunting, emptying the bore after dark, cleaning, and reloaded when I go back out the next day...,
Deer.png 2012 Deer.jpg DEER 2019.jpg

Which proves not much...,
See I'm using my rifle, not the rifle of the guy who swears by the FS. If I was using his rifle... who can say?
Also the farthest shot in the above photos is the second photo which was at 60 yards. I probably don't need really tight groups if I'm hunting at those distances.

So really we can only tell you what works for us using our rifles.., you'll have to double check your rifle. ;)

LD
 
Here's the last buck I shot, the Buffalo Hunter had been loaded on a barrel cleaned with dry patches opening day and got the shot on the third weekend.
I left it capped in camp with an eraser protecting the cap, but pulled the cap omw home.
I've never left my rifle in the cold, except to keep cheap scopes from fogging on unmentionables in my youth.

500 gr minie, 60grs fffg. 45 yards.
Screenshot_20190506-113724_Gallery.jpg
 
Same here, just keep it dry and do not bring in if the weather is cold as not to condense moisture.
Yep that’s another thing. I always figured the first shot from a clean gun to be the most reliable when swabbed with a degreaser like alcohol. Swab bore and pipe cleaner / Q tip depending on flint or percussion. And one other very important thing, real Blackpowder. There is no substitute when hunting.
 
Never fire a fouler either.
I have never had a first fire failure, hunting or at the range, only when the guns gets pretty dirty.
I swab the bore with windex before first load, use a blast of canned air down the nipple and load it up.
 
The night before my first hunt, I clean the barrel with dry patches to remove any oil or other moisture, then run a dry pipe cleaner through the touch hole, and wipe the frizzen and flint with a dry rag. I've never had a misfire on the first shot on a gun cleaned in this way beforehand, even after having left the gun loaded for the entire season.
 
I've always fired a couple caps to clear the channel, and then wiped the barrel very well, before loading. You can do this and leave your rifle loaded for a long time without any problems. The only difference I use between target shooting and hunting, is when I hunt, I put a paper wad between the patch and powder to keep the lube from leeching into the powder. Never have had a problem with this method.
 
I was raised in the "fouling shot" camp as well. Was also taught to unload at the end of the day. In hindsight, these likely didn't do anything other than give me a few extra practice shots each fall. I have seen no appreciable difference in accuracy from my first to second shots and now leave my rifle loaded for a at least a few days without worry. I still get a bit nervous after about a week but it always goes bang...
 
i hunt with a clean bore and don't snap caps. Rifles that put balls from clean and dirty bores to different points of impact soon go away.
Hi Okie. Your statement soon go away made me wonder. Go away where? If you know that your gun impacts different, and you are up town enough to have adjustable sites, the problem is easily solved. There's been very few times that I was forced to shoot a fouled barrel over one that was wiped. I always thought it was my choice whether to do so or not. Do you still use the antiquated sights that our forefathers did? If so, do you still use the coarse gunpowder that they did too? And I'm sure you couldn't use a petroleum product and you probably don't. I am period Correct purely by accident. I hunt and shoot targets with the Flintlock, For the challenge. I do own many modern firearms, I'm sure others on this site due too. Percussion caps are not a challenge to me much more than my single shot rifles, though one of them cost me the biggest Whitetail Buck I ever had a chance to kill. As a side note I didn't' snap caps either and still don't. If I adequately clean I don't find the practice necessary. The government has almost forced me to use Pyrodex because of their problems with black powder, and it does work for me okay, I just enjoyed the smell of burnt black. Thanks for listening, I mean no disrespect, and if my war bag was bigger I might consider a different rifle.
Squint
 
Hi Okie. Your statement soon go away made me wonder. Go away where?

Speaking for myself, they go down the road. Thankfully that's been pretty rare. I can usually solve the phenom or reduce it to the point that I don't care for hunting simply by manipulating components, especially my lube. A good lube (in my case almost always a grease) along with a tight patch that scrubs the fouling back down to the powder when I seat the ball are key. If my lube keeps the powder soft and seating the ball scrubs the bore, I'm in essence firing each shot from a clean bore. And groups including the first shot shrink to the point there's no need to foul the bore like match shooters. If I scrub the bore between group firings I can usually find such a combo. If I'm sighted in for the first shot, any slight variance in those that follows doesn't matter a hoot on hunts.

Meanwhile the rare guns that don't work out with that kind of care in load development take a very fast hike down the road.
 
Keeping your M/L loaded over a longer period of time is not a big deal. In the early days I don't believe anyone in the woodlands or mountains ever even thought about unloading at the end of every day, for many reasons. Can you think of a few?
 
Bad rains?
I keep my gun loaded till I shoot, however if caught in a rain or snow I pull and reload before the next day.
When you could only result once a year I bets you were careful about waste.
 
I've never detected a difference in POI of clean bores vs fired bores. Mine are flintlocks (and percussion) with primitive fixed sights; don't know if that has an affect or not. I swab the bore for hunting season, run a pipe cleaner in the touch hole and load. Unless the gun gets fired it stays loaded for the duration. The hunting lube is mink oil and the loads I use are rather tight. The only time I fire a cap or flint is when the gun is loaded for the job at hand.

A tight load pushes the previous shots fouling down on top of the powder keeping the bore with only one firings worth of fouling. "Why introduce unnecessary fouling to the bore before a shot at game is ever taken"? This is question I asked myself when I first entered the sport. We all have our individual procedures that work for us.
 
If you choose to fire a fouling shot I would tend to agree with those thay say it would be to clear oil. With that said and for that purpose the shot could be made with smallest amount of powder to achive the heat and pressure to accomplish it. Matter of fact a projectile is not even required. A simple wad of patch material would suffice. The shot would be very quiet and extremely less fouling compared to a complete charge.
As far as long ago trappers I don't perceive seeing them carrying their rifles or leaving them loaded unless they have very good reason to believe there is a danger persistent to warrant it. Too many variables in their environment. Rain, river crossings. Humidity changes from temp and elevation changes.
For us now a days as far as housing we have way better environmental controls. Leaving a BP gun loaded in the home is less adversarial given conditions.
Where I live it can be 20 at dawn and 50-60 by noon. It does cause issues in humidity. Sitting in shaded stand everything stays cold longer then move from that into the warmer temp and the temp change is rapid enough to cause issues. I can see our frontier hunters being just better hunters and being able to spot the game, judge path and outcome and being more capable to load just prior to that outcome insuring successful firing. There is really no way anyone can guarantee that a loaded BP will fire days later out exposed to environment changes. I think for them it had a lot to do with it being loaded when the need is well perceived.
 
The hunting lube is mink oil and the loads I use are rather tight.

That's my path to happiness too. In truth the only rifle it didn't work in was persnickity in the first place, having only single load combo it liked at the best of times. And swabbing/fouling were desperation measures just to get the blooming thing to shoot well.

I have to confess that the happiest moment of my life was watching the last horse trailer heading down the road with our last and final horse. Second happiest moment was seeing the smile on the face of the new owner packing the offending muzzleloader down my driveway.
 
I use olive oil in all my guns and rifles. I had one misfire for the first time the other day at the range with my PH Navy rifle. Normally all I do is snap a cap or two before loading.
I find patent breeched rifles a bit difficult to get the first shot away sometimes. For a hunting trip I would fire one shot in camp before loading, then after loading wipe the bore out. Any subsequent shots I would, when back in camp, wipe the bore again and leave the gun loaded but not primed ready for the following day.
Guess you just have to find something that works for you. Here down under the weather is pretty mild generally, no snow as a rule for most of us. If you do use a small fouling shot, do wad it so you don't get excess fouling.
In my patent breeched rifles I have found snapping a cap at a blade of grass is not a good indicator of a clean channel.
 
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Couple years ago, I loaded my flintlock the end of November the night before our rifle opener. I didn't get a chance to pull the trigger on a deer until the last day of the flintlock season, which was the end of January, which was probably close to two months. The gun went bang and the deer went down. I've got a load of #6 shot in my smooth bore that was dumped there on April 27th. I'll be hunting with it on Friday, as it will be my last day of turkey hunting for the season. I'd bet money it will go off if I get the chance to pull the trigger.
 
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