Cold Weather Shooting Tips for ML events

[gjkershul]

I seek the wisdom of the forum in regard to keeping your smoke pole functioning at cold weather events.
In my former life in the Wolverine State I was pretty much a one gun man shooting a Brown Bess for all seasons except for aggregate events. About the only adjustment I had to make with the Bess shooting paper cartridge for cold weather was to include a bottle of windshield washer fluid in my kit to swab out the bore if fouling got to be a problem below ten degrees.
What are some of the techniques we collectively know of to keep a patched roundball muzzle loading firearm working in the cold weather?
Also, for the NSSA types and rifle musket shooters are there any quirks to keeping a Minie shooting iron functional in cold weather?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Almost all my shooting is cold weather (summer is for fishing & sailing). I'd recommend a grease type lube (as opposed to liquid), a lube that will also go multiple shots without needing a bore wipe, pre-lubed and patched balls in loading blocks at the events that allow their use (cold fingers drop stuff in direct proportion to the amount of time you spend fumbling around in the shooting bag).

There is less moisture in the air when it dips below freezing so a lube the works well in the summer might come up short in the winter. You may drop down a thickness in patch (say from 0.021" to 0.018") ate take a slight drop in accuracy in exchange for ease of loading & reduced need for a spit wipe between shots.

As you noted, if you do mix up a liquid lube or powder solvent double the alcohol & reduce the water accordingly to keep it from freezing. Or even swap out all water for a like amount of alcohol (rubbing alcohol can be 50% water to begin with - I use 91% isopropyl from the drug store).

 

[jdstrang]

Also, for the N-SSA types and rifle musket shooters ...

Two come immediately to mind:

Remove all liquid lubricants from the lock internals, and replace sparingly with powdered graphite; and

Switch from your favorite fair-weather, beeswax-based lube to straight Crisco (cooking/baking lard for our European friends).

Now, if there was just some way to pull a musket cap out of a pouch without lacerating your numb, frozen fingers... :cursing: