Sure-fire loading technique

[kwilfong]

I started shooting muzzleloaders over 30 years ago when I built a flintlock pistol kit while going to college, & hunted with only frontstuffers for some years(flintlock squirrel rifle, caplock shotgun, & various caplock "Hawkens" but got away from it for a while. I'm back big time & am anxious for M/L deer season. I used to wipe the barrel & pop a couple caps before loading my caplock Hawken replicas before loading for deer hunting but the only time I ever drew a bead on one, my Browning Mountain Rifle misfired :cursing:
How do you boys prep & load your caplocks before hunting? I'm tempted to hose it out good with carb cleaner & blow it out with compressed air. That's been working well for me with C&B revolvers.

 

[rabjr]

I've never experienced a misfire while hunting, much to the dismay of quite a few deer...

Go through your cleaning procedure and make darn sure the gun is clean and dry. Some guys use an alcohol wet patch to make sure but I've never done this step myself but can see it makes sense. Use a pipe cleaner to get the chamber under the nipple to the powder chamber. When your satisfied the gun is clean and dry, load up. I have one final step I do just before going out the door and that is taking the nipple off and trickling 3F in the chamber under it, leaving just enough space to reinstall the nipple. Once I reinstall the nipple I poke the hole in the nipple with a thin wire making sure theres no blockage.

See deer, shoot deer. Everytime. :thumbsup:

 

[William O.]

I always swab the barrel with an alcohol patch to get rid of any left over rust prevention oil before shooting.

 

[lorren68]

I run several alchohol patches thru my bore the night before the hunt, when thay come out with no oil residue on them I follow up with 4-5 dry patches. My muzzleloader is stored muzzle down, until I case it up to leave for the hunt. I left it loaded for up to three days and it went boom when I took it out and shot it.

 

[necchi]

I'm tempted to hose it out good with carb cleaner & blow it out with compressed air.

And it works on rifles too :thumbsup:

Then everything Swampy said. :thumbsup:

And carefull how ya store it, ya don't want condensation forming temp swings. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/260948/post/new/#NEW

 

[Herb]

Kwilfong, I had something like that happen to me on an antelope hunt. Cleaned my .54 Green River Leman, which I made in their shop, after a hunt and then loaded it the next morning. Crawled up on a nice buck. Cap went bang. Buck looked. Re-capped, same thing. And again. So I ooze backwards on my elbows and toes, take the nipple out and see a black caked fouling at the bottom on the hole. Poked a hole in it, put some 3F in, and nipple, recap. Buck has lost interest and moves off with does. So from then on I do as suggested here, finish with alcohol and store muzzle down as lorren68 does.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Over the years I have developed a "ritual" for deer hunting preperation. First throughly clean all oil from bore and breech area with alcohol.Use a few dry patches to remove any alcohol . (I use an older rough rifle for deer, since I hunt brush areas and store it heavily oiled out of season ) Then set off two caps with a oiled patch stuck over the muzzle on the second to make sure the flash chanel is clear. If the patch blows clear I then load powder, leather wad heavily lubed prb or short mini. After loading I then run a very heavily lubed patch in and out to give the bore a good lube coating since it usually is raining for deer season.Then when I step outside I put a cap on and take a heavily greased thin cloth and then rub a beeswax&lard mixture around the base of the cap to seal the nipple/cap seam. As long as I use this method I have no misfire no mater how heavy the rain/wet snow. I never store the gun loaded over night unless it is well below freezing. If it is well below freezing I leave the rifle in the barn over night.NEVER take a cold rifle into a warm area it will condense moisture just like glasses "fog over" :hmm: :hmm:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Pull the nipple. Run an alcohol patch through the bore a few times. Run a dry cotton patch. Twist a piece of cotton/flannel into a point and poke & twist it into the nipple hole. Replace nipple. Poke a nipple pick through (straightened small paperclip wire). Wipe bore with lightly lubed patch. Add powder. Crumple up a small piece of waxed paper and set it on top of powder. Load lubed & patched ball.

Prime when outside on the path to the woods. Keep cow's knee over lock if damp, raining or snowing.

Shoot deer.

 

[robtattoo]

Before a hunt, I clean mine with warm soapy water in the kitchen sink (Sorry hun!) using 2 or 3 patches, nipple removed.
I drain out the water & swab the barrel with 5 or 6 dry patches, while the oven warms up to 450º
I then put the breech end of the barrel, the nipple & cleanout screw in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes (Whilst sampling a beer)
Remove from the oven & leave to cool & then re-assemble totally dry with no lube at all.
Load as usual, with the exception of an over powder wad (toiley paper)

The trick is making absolutely, 100% sure, without a doubt, that there is no water or oil in the breech.

 

[rjgreen123]

can you tell me if the back of the breech is basically flat to the bore or is it concave? Curious to know what the shape is in order to achieve the best contact from the jag and patch.
Am I hearing that you should clean with warm soapy water after every shooting outing? :idunno:

 

[Leatherbark]

You dont have to use warm soapy water. Some do some dont. It works well though. Your breech may be flat or concave. What I do for the concave breech is use a patch worm and gob a patch in the worm and clean out the concave section whether it be a chambered breech or a concave breeech.

Bob

 

[robtattoo]

You should absolutely clean your rifle fter every shooting session. Whilst black powder isn't particularly corrosive itself, it is hygroscopic. The residue will suck every available drop of moisture out of the air & hold it in contact with the inside of yourbarrel, lading to rust pittng in a very short space of time. Obviously,the more humid your environment, the worse & quicker this'll happen.

If you use substitutes (subs) such as triple 7, Pyrodex etc... they are themselves very corrosive & the burnt on residue can ruin a barrel very quickly by themselves.

Both of my rifles have a Patent breech which you cannot get to with a bore-sized jag or brush. Flushing the barrel with warm water forces it into this breech area & cleans out all the crud quicker & easier than poking it with a smaller brush, jag or worm.

 

[StewartLeach]

Three things matter: Clean-Dry-Clear.

Clean means you cleaned the rifle carefully after last use, generally by use of warm water with a few drops of dish soap, plus brushing with bronze or nylon bristle brush (my preference) and many patches to clean and dry. Really important is to get the passage from bottom of nipple to powder clear. If there is a plug screw, remove it. If only a nipple, remove it. I gorm out the passage with 17 or 20 cal bore brush, or a pipe cleaner with stiff plastic bristles. The pipe cleaner will go around corners.

Most manufacturers of new sidelocks use some variation on the patent breech system, with a less than bore diameter powder chamber. The nipple and flash channel connect to the powder chamber. A lot of manure can build up here. I clean these with a 375 or 40 cal nylon brush. Also available is a breech scraper with a curved end. Only place I have seen it for sale is The Gun Works up in Oregon.

Clean also means you removed the preservative oil (WD40, Ballistol, Sheath, Barricade) before loading. Most recommend alcohol- be sure to use 100% alcohol. Rubbing alcohol from the drugstore is anywhere from 9% to 30% water. See next heading.

Dry- fairly obvious. Put your powder down a dry bore. After removing anti-rust oil with alcohol, get barrel really dry inside. Use of 100% alcohol from hardware store paint department makes this easy.

Clear- pop at least two caps with muzzle against a blade of grass to be sure nipple, flash channel and bore are clear before loading.

That's my drill, and I've been sticking with it since 1985.

White Fox

 

[rjgreen123]

All great advice. I will definitely adopt a very similar regiment. I love this forum! :bow:

 

[hounddog]

Rgreen, All the other fellas advice is good to do . However I like things plain and simple. My sure fire was is. PUT YOUR POWDER IN FIRST. then your ball. If you do that you will go bang 99 percent of the time. simpleminded hounddog, eahaw

 

[Tony Logan]

I didnt see this tip yet, but a very good friend of my familys that lived out in the country used to go a bit further than the walk out on the carport and bust a few caps before loading routine. He actually loaded his gun and stepped out on the porch and touched off." He always laughed when it surprised anyone that wasnt accustomed to his method,and said know you know its going to fire" Then he loaded again and went hunting without a care about whether the nipple was fouled or not. He had a good day, but I dont know how his wife and kids ever went back to sleep.

 

[phoenix511]

As for a caplock, here are my thoughts:

Barrel cleaning with alcohol works for me for removing grease/debris/lubricant and water.

As many have already said: snap some caps on the nipple (I do at least 5) over something that will deflect, like a grass blade, to assure the cap is getting to the main charge.

I've not had a problem with a rifle left for 4 - 8 days firing after this technique, but always left outside at ambient, maybe 20F to 40F.

As for flinters, I don't know but would like to hear how they load for a hunt.

 

[Zonie]

Loading for hunting? The following is my recommendations.

1. Make sure all wet oil's are out of the bore and the snail/drum. All alcohol must be evaporated.

2. Pop at least 2 caps on the unloaded guns nipple to blow any debris out of the flame channel between the nipple and the guns bore.

3. With the nipple uncapped and the hammer at half cock pour in the powder charge.

4. With a VERY lightly greased patch, load the ball and ram it down to the powder load.

5. With the muzzle pointed downrange, remove the nipple and place some loose powder granules into the nipple hole and the interconnecting flame channel.

6. Reinstall the nipple.

7. Cap the nipple when you get into the actual hunting area.

If the gun has double set triggers that can fire the gun from an "unset" condition, use the gun without setting the rear trigger.
The combined excitement and adrenaline when you see your game animal will more than offset the heavier trigger pull the unset trigger will require.

Have fun.

 

[S.Kenton]

all I do is run some brake clean through my barrel.. then pop 2 caps off. I then load and head to the woods! I normally clean with luke-warm water with Dawn detergent soap in it. I then set it in front of my heater ( or in the summer I set it in the sunniest window I have) then let it dry for an hour or so, run a dry patch down it, followed by patch with some gun oil or bore butter( I have not quite decided which one I like best bore Butter or Rem Oil). No rust, nor crud, nor misfires. BUT,Plenty of Venison in the fridge!! :thumbsup:

 

[Wolfgang4570]

I follow most of the same advice that has already been posted. The only change for me is that after I finish wiping the barrel with alcohol and drying it I normally put a clean patch on my jag and run it back down the bore and I pop a couple of caps while the patch is down there to catch any latent oil/alcohol that may still be present. I will normally pop one more with it removed toward something light to make sure the flash path is clear before I load.