Leave it loaded vs. new charge daily?

[Ames]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out that cooling causes condensation. Not warming. The warm air cooling on the gun you bring indoors will leave moisture on it that will soon dry in the houses low humidity.
I think you are going to have a bigger issue if you take a warm gun out into zero in the woods. The barrel frosts up along with your grooves. Sure, it goes boom, but did the frost hurt the accuracy? op:

 

[hanshi]

I never store muzzleloaders muzzle down; on a rack that is horizontal but has the barrel sloping downward. Not necessary, IMHO, but it is what it is. After hunting I bring the gun inside, wipe off the outside and put it up with a toothpick in the touch hole. No, that's not necessary, either. Our house is childproofed; so if one got in anyway, we would notice. :2

 

[azmntman]

Well.......I have had several loss of game instances when I left loaded. Since I started gong theough the extra hassle (if ya wanna call it that) of firing and cleaning the rifle every evening then popping 2 caps and firing a half load before the next mornings hunts I have never had another mis fire whilst aiming at a deer/elk. Thats why I do it. Had those several deer/elk came home with me I too would leave loaded. I want the meat so I do what has worked.

I have been known to load and leave loaded a pistol for self defense though. I learned that bore butter does in fact make the powder go poof instead of bang and the ball does dent but not penetrate a tin can :rotf: I now use the lil neat felt wads and dont "seal the chamber" anymore. Since then I can see outta the mirror on the way home too (I shoot alot out the window of my car) and bore butter sprays real well on mirrors :redface:

 

[dsayer]

Well.......I have had several loss of game instances when I left loaded. Since I started gong theough the extra hassle (if ya wanna call it that) of firing and cleaning the rifle every evening then popping 2 caps and firing a half load before the next mornings hunts I have never had another mis fire whilst aiming at a deer/elk. Thats why I do it. Had those several deer/elk came home with me I too would leave loaded. I want the meat so I do what has worked.

I have been known to load and leave loaded a pistol for self defense though. I learned that bore butter does in fact make the powder go poof instead of bang and the ball does dent but not penetrate a tin can :rotf: I now use the lil neat felt wads and dont "seal the chamber" anymore. Since then I can see outta the mirror on the way home too (I shoot alot out the window of my car) and bore butter sprays real well on mirrors :redface:

I can identify with this approach. Some things may in fact be unnecessary, but a misfire at an animal will make you question everything in your routine. I guess it comes down to a cost benefit analysis to me.

So far, I've taken sort of an intermediate approach for elk hunting the last two seasons. The season is 9 days long and I left my rifle loaded and slept with it in the tent with me for 3 days at a time. Never had an issue with firing, but also didn't want to risk going longer in the case of an opportunity on an elk. Just makes me nervous and my Dad has always been an "unload every night" guy, so it's ingrained. One of my buddies in the group (using a modern muzzleloader and 209 powder) did have a failure to fire after 3 days in the same conditions last year.

 

[bender20]

I load once and don't unload till I shoot at an animal or decide its time for some practice. Have gone 6 months without shooting unfortunately, but she goes bang every time. I've found once you start to understand them the only misfires you should have are due to a dull flint. Every other instance is operator error in my opinion.

 

[Arcturus]

You all might be exactly right, but storing muzzle down vs. up seems a low cost low burden preventive measure IMO.

If there is no advantage, why do it?
We all do things because it feels right or believe serve a purpose, but actually have no effect. Why bother?

There is always an advantage to having water run out my barrel instead of down into my breech. Water is the enemy of steel. As you stated, with a tight-fitting mink-oiled patch and roundball, the powder is sealed up about as water-and-oil proof as can be. But water causes rust, and the amount of condensation on the outside of my barrel is sometimes considerable...I have to believe there is moisture inside as well. It costs me NOTHING to let gravity work for me and let water drain OUT my barrel instead of down it. I'm sure my gun would probably fire the next day stored muzzle up, but I prefer to do everything possible to minimize any chance for rust in my barrel over the next few decades.

 

[stubshaft]

AMEN! :metoo:

 

[Jimbo47]

There is always an advantage to having water run out my barrel instead of down into my breech. Water is the enemy of steel. As you stated, with a tight-fitting mink-oiled patch and roundball, the powder is sealed up about as water-and-oil proof as can be. But water causes rust, and the amount of condensation on the outside of my barrel is sometimes considerable...I have to believe there is moisture inside as well. It costs me NOTHING to let gravity work for me and let water drain OUT my barrel instead of down it. I'm sure my gun would probably fire the next day stored muzzle up, but I prefer to do everything possible to minimize any chance for rust in my barrel over the next few decades.

Well said, but I can almost hear heads exploding as I type this. :haha:

 

[Ron LaClair]

After having problems with a caplock not firing when I needed it I switched to flintlock many years ago. The expression, "Keep your powder dry" is the #1 rule

I leave my gun loaded for the whole season or until I shoot something. I don't bring it inside at night. If I follow the procedure below I never have a problem

Flint be sharp to make good spark, no damp be in the pan

pick the vent it must be clear to do the job at hand.

plug the vent with feathered quill when storing for the night

do your part so carefully and it will serve you right."

 

[dsayer]

After having problems with a caplock not firing when I needed it I switched to flintlock many years ago. The expression, "Keep your powder dry" is the #1 rule

I leave my gun loaded for the whole season or until I shoot something. I don't bring it inside at night. If I follow the procedure below I never have a problem

Flint be sharp to make good spark, no damp be in the pan

pick the vent it must be clear to do the job at hand.

plug the vent with feathered quill when storing for the night

do your part so carefully and it will serve you right."

There is likely a flintlock somewhere in my future but who knows when I'll have the funds and motivation for such a switch.

 

[stubshaft]

Count me in on the "keep it loaded" camp.

 

[jrmflintlock]

I had the same experience as NWTF Longhunter. When I hunted with percussion rifles I had a lot more instances of misfire. Not saying I don't have misfires with my flintlocks, but usually its due to a dull flint or dirty frizzen or dirty gun. All of which I could have avoided if I had paid attention. When Hunting, I Pay Attention and thusfar, Knock on wood!, I have not had problems leaving my rifles loaded through the season.

 

[Britsmoothy]

There is a lot that can be done to keep a capper reliable as a flinter.
Same principles.
Keep oil and grease away from the nipple and flash channel, even if it surface rusts some. Hang some leather off the trigger guard to put between hammer and nipple to keep damp out.

B.

 

[SDSmlf]

Personally, can't remember witnessing a misfire because of temperature changes and how long a muzzleloader was loaded. Sloppy cleaning (think excessive oil or cleaning with H2O and immediately loading), on the other hand, have seen lead to numerous misfires. Because its free, store all muzzleloaders muzzle down, at least for the first 24 hours after cleaning. No secret, need to keep your powder dry. Just to play it safe, some sort of cap over nipple or toothpick in vent hole always makes me feel better when storing 'loaded'. Have left guns with a charge in the barrel for nearly a year (I clearly mark with a tag on the hammer/cock that gun is loaded) and they have always gone bang at the moment of truth. Also, when hunting in nasty weather, use 'PC' black plastic electrical tape over the muzzle.

Bottom line, suggest you do what makes you feel good. Nothing wrong with unloading at end of the day with dad. Or leaving loaded for days at a time.

 

[Tb54]

If I may resurrect this thread to shed some light on the science of condensation. Seems like there’s some misunderstanding in this thread that may set some minds at ease. Temperature change, has little to do with condensation. The reason why a cold gun brought inside to a warm house gets condensation on it is because the gun bbl temperature is below the dew point of the warmer, more humid air inside. Warm air can hold more water in it than cold air and relative humidity, is relative to how much water the air can hold at that temperature. If you take 40 degree air on a rainy day, and heat it up to room temperature, it’s relative humidity goes down because at the warmer temperature it still has the same amount of moisture in it but being warmer, it could hold a lot more, than it was able to outside at 40 degrees in the rain. Generally, a home maintains a consistent temperature, and with all the showers, soup cooking, people perspiring...ect, it holds a lot more moisture in the air than the cold outside air can, even if the RH, inside and outside were the same. Because there is more moisture in the warmer air inside, the dew point is higher than outside, than the gun bbl temp. As soon as the air hits the gun bbl and cools below its dew point, it releases the water it was holding, which precipitates out as condensation. As air warms up, it expands, so the air inside the bbl, which already has a lower dew point than the inside air, can’t condense moisture. As it warms, it can actually hold more water, and it expands, keeping the moist inside air out. The best thing you can do is trap the drier air inside the bbl, like standing it muzzle down on the floor would do, or a square of tape on the muzzle, or a sand witch bag rubber banded over the muzzle would do. As it warms to room temp, it would actually absorb any moisture that was in the bbl. once the gun got to room temp, or at least above the dew point of the room air, you could allow air to reach the inside bore and further dry it if needed. Objects like wood, and probly gun powder too, absorb moisture according to the RH of the air around it, so leaving a loaded gun outside in a cold, 75% RH environment, would do more to allow moisture to be absorbed by the powder, than bringing it into a 72 degree house at 45%RH. Just keep the higher water content air from the bore, until the gun warms up.

 

[fleener]

I leave my loaded. I do not bring it inside with the large temp. change. Leave it in the unheated entry way.

Fleener

 

[DJH]

I've seen this topic come up a couple different times and was hoping to get a sense of what people do at the end of a day's hunting.

Do you leave your rifle loaded or blow off a "practice shot" at the end of the day and start fresh? If you leave it loaded, do you have limit to the number of days you'll do so?

Personally, I unload daily when I'm deer hunting with my Dad in Nebraska in mid-January mostly out of habit but also because of the huge temperature swings from outside to the truck to the house. When I'm backpacking in Colorado in September, I leave it loaded for up to 3 days but change the cap daily.

I leave my gun loaded. I use real BP and have left guns loaded for over a year and without fail, they have fired just as if they were freshly loaded. Please note that these guns were loaded into clean barrels that have not been previously fired.

Jeff H

 

[Rat]

Hey...I thought the rolled up piece of paper towel in the pan, with the cock resting on it, was my idea! On a loaded cap gun, I also put some paper towel between the hammer and cap.

I always leave my rifles loaded for the season. Never a miss-fire, and when I do shoot them off after season, sometimes way after season, they kill the paper plate every time. I have never had an issue with rifles rusting or miss firing from being brought into the house from the cold. I think the ride home in the truck or jeep, in a case lets them warm up more slowly, my man-cave is the coolest (temperature wise, and otherwise room in the house, so maybe that helps. Maybe some people's houses are much more humid than others. And, the first thing I do when I get home, or back to camp, is to wipe the rifle down, with a special rag that's kind of dirty and oily.

Popping a cap before loading used to be the WORST thing one could do, even though everyone did it. And miss-fires were common. I hear that the new caps are different, but when the ML craze first got going, the residue from the fired cap would attract moisture, and this kind of "fuzz" would grow and block the nipple and flash channel. Cleaning and drying the nipple, and flash channel within an inch of its' life, and not popping a cap is the way to ensure 100% reliability with a cap gun.

I always use real BP, hate the fake powders. Real black powder will NOT attract moisture. But if you hose down your flintlock lock with WD-40, or any kind of penetrating oil, or even use a generous amount of oil, after cleaning, it will migrate and soak into the priming charge, possibly the main charge, and make one believe that the powder "absorbed moisture from the air". Nope, it was the oil silly. Lube it with grease, sparingly.

 

[renegadehunter]

I always leave mine loaded and haven't ever had a problem with it going bang, either at an animal or at the end of the season. 2f real black powder, patched RB or a GPB with no wad depending on the game. I put a light coating of wonderlube in the bore after loading (not much humidity here), tape off the muzzle with one of those red TC stickers, and set a dense foam earplug on the nipple when not in use. Store it muzzle up in the house. When it is stored with a light coating of oil during storage I do put it muzzle down to keep it out of the flame channel. Last year I left it loaded with a GPB from October clear until April before shooting it out.

 

[Renegade Dan]

I use real black powder. I leave my gun loaded and leave it in the cold garage during the hunting season. Never had any issues as long as I kept my powder dry