What are some good methods to keep my cap-lock hunting load dry while hunting in wet weather?
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How to keep hunting load dry?
- Thread starter Flint-Hunter
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You could get ye one of them cow knees that covers the action. And if you really want to get wild get one of them little rubber muzzle covers. I believe you just shoot the muzzle covers off.
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Don't use a cap !!! Use a Mag Spark adapter with a 209 primer ,tape muzzle with black electrical tape and you have a Watertight ignition as long as you keep it in a unheated garage /room . The mag Spark also saves nipple erosion being sealed ! Buy an extras cap (as important as a extra flint) . My charge will last the entire (LONG) season and fire what ever you use for propellant (I use OE black) Ed
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I just keep my action under my jacket and keep the muzzle pointed downward so water doesn't run down it. This is during light rain. If it is a downpour, I don't take my muzzle loaders out. I don't like getting my muzzle loaders soaked.
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Maybe some soft wax on the nipple before pressing on the cap? You could put tape on the muzzle but I’d just keep it pointed down.
64Springer
75 Cal.
Rub the nipple area with Gavin Newsome's greasy hair.
Instant waterproofing.
Instant waterproofing.
I always have a box of nitrile gloves around for paints and stains an such,, I learned I could cut the fingers off a glove and roll those up to make muzzle protectors. I never worried too much about the cap, a good nipple cap fit is pretty much waterproof by itself.
smoothshooter
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If you are using a patched ball, no water is going to get past that.
If using a bullet with no patch, you will still be okay. It would take a heck of a rain to get a meaningful amount of water in the bore. Keeping the muzzle pointed down eliminates that problem. If you are still worrid, just put a piece of tape over the muzzle.
As for the other end, dab some Vaseline or some kind of grease around the bottom of the cap.
There’s really not much to worry about.
What you DO NOT want to do in rainy weather is fire a shot, and fiddle-fart around for several minutes before reloading. The burnt powder fouling soaks up the humidity in the air on a rainy day like a sponge, and seems to enter primarily thru the nipple and go right to the flash channel and breech. I used to have this problem once in a while when I first started down the sometimes torturous muzzleloading path about 56 years ago.
I started hunting with a small gauge percussion shotgun when I was 11 years old (several days a week in all kinds of weather) out of necessity for weeks at a time when I would shoot up my Dad’s supply of .410 gauge shells for our bolt-action shotgun. It would take him several weeks to get around to getting more shotgun shells, but he had a size-able stash of cans of old Du Pont FFG powder, caps, and bird shot he had gotten somewhere years before. He had showed me how to load the muzzleloader early on, but I had to figure out the finer points on my own since he worked 6 days a week and did not have the time to hunt and shoot very often.
After a couple of years I got to where I preferred the little muzzleloader to the .410 cartridge gun.
So I know from experience what works ( for me, at least ).
As they say YMMV.
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Just a liberal coating does it?
I’ve always just hunted and not worried about it. As others have said, cap is pretty water resistant and a tight fitting patch with the muzzle pointed down is just fine. I am always more worried about condensation.
I put a small brightly colored party balloon over the muzzle (reminds me the gun is loaded) and an empty .22 short brass case over the nipple. Keeps the water out, easy to flip off when needed, and also acts a s form of a safety.
Thanks everyone. All you replies were excellent - some made me laugh. 
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