Flash in the Pan!

[Trench]

Well, I am now the poster boy for pulling your load at the end of the day. After my first day of deer hunting, I left my loaded flinter in my fathers garage with a feather pushed in to the touch hole. That evening we had a very moist wintery mix come down. Surely with a feather in the touch hole and sitting in my fathers garage, the main charge would remain dry. NOT!
A few minutes before sun down today I had a small herd of 7 deer pass in front of me about 30 yds away. I took aim at one of them and squeezed the trigger. Flash. Nothing. I reprimed. Flash. Nothing. I reprimed yet again and, you guessed it. Flash. By this time the deer had had enough and trotted off.
This is only my second year deer hunting with MZ's. When veterans on here tell you to pull your load at the end of the day, YOU DO IT. :yakyak:
I still have the rest of the week for the hunt, so I'll probably still get my harvest. Good thing this wasn't the last day of the hunt, eh?

 

[The Baron]

A frustrating lesson learned. Is your father's garage heated? Could it have been condensation getting into the charge? Pulling a load is a pain in the rear, but I think I will learn from your experience and unload unless the weather is dry.

 

[Trench]

The garage is not heated, but stays above freezing. That's why I left my rifle out there. I was trying to avoid condensation. But, when you can feel the moisture in the air on your hand, perhaps I should have known better.

 

[The Baron]

Yeah... hindsight is always 20-20 isn't it! :haha:

Sometimes things happen for a reason. I'll be watching for your post with the big buck you shot since you didn't fill your tag today. :wink:

 

[roundball]

Well, if you get yourself set up with a good strong rod with a large wooden ball (or T-handle) on the end for leverage, and a good quality ball puller with the correct size caliber centering collar around it...pulling a ball is actually easy and only takes seconds.

I missed a 6 pointer at less than 50 yards in the early 90's with a delayed fire from leaving the rifle loaded overnight...have never / will never do that again...IMO, it's too hard to get a good buck in your sights to begin with to justify the risk when you finally do.

It's too simple, easy, and cheap to pull the load at the end of every day, patch the bore, let the rifle warm up and dry out overnight in the house, then load fresh before I leave for the next hunt whether it's the next day or next week.

Others claim they've left their's loaded for days, weeks, months, years, etc, etc...that's fine for them...but Murphy's Law lives in my neighborhood and I'll never do it again.

 

[playfarmers]

I have shot deer with a rifle that was left loaded for days and have never had a problem with a hang-fire because of it. That said, I am of the opinion now that it is best to unload at the end of the day. I like to pick a target and let er fly, rather than pulling the ball. It is nice to have full confidence in the rifle and load.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

I dont pull my load. Then again, i dont feel that leaving a loaded rifle in a garage is the right thing to do. If i load mine and dont get to shoot it, It goes back up on the wall with a toothpick in the vent hole. My caplock is the same, only i just leave the hammer down.
My cap lock has been loaded for 2 days now, went hiking in snowy weather today, plan to leave it for few more days and then check POI and see.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Trench: an alternative is to put a cleaning patch soaked in alcohol in your pan, with half of it bent up along the barrel and covering the vent hole. The evaporating alcohol will suck any moisture out of the powder charge and leave it dry for you. Try this in the off season, first, of course, but I think it will give you an option to pulling the ball.

Since I have seen deer not move an inch when a gun was fired from just yards away, look around, and go back to feeding again, when the shooter missed them, I just shoot the ball out of my gun at the end of the day. I don't mind doing the cleaning, and its become an easy thing to do after years of practice. One shot does not leave the gun very dirty. A cleaning patch with Moose milk down the barrel gets 90 % of the crud out, and kills off the rest. A dry patch pulls most of the rest of the crud out, after that. A wet patch to clean the pan and barrel around the touch hole, and the flint, and its ready for overnight storage. If this goes on for 3 days or more, I will take the lock out and give it a good cleaning, and then reoil it. The barrel will also get a good pumping of water and soap at home to thoroughly clean it out. Then its dried, lubed, and put in the gun room for storage.

 

[RC]

well,i leave mine loaded for days..but gun is always hung barrel down..have yet to have a problem, up north it goes in the tent with me at nite, and huntin at home it goes right in the house..will say,i had a problem once but was using 3fff...once i switched to 2 ff..no problems..just what i do..(an i'll tell ya,, this year i've saved a bunch of powder,balls patches and cleanin stuff! i haven't had to shoulder the gun yet! much less shoot! :shake: good luck!

 

[Trench]

Thanks Paul. I'll give the alcohol patch a go. Do you have any idea how long it must sit with the patch in order to draw moisture from the vent?

 

[paulvallandigham]

Not very. The alcohol begins evaporating immediately. The real problem would be replenishing the alcohol over a long damp night. That is why I just shoot out my load, rather than taking a chance. I had a slightly damp load go off in my gun when I shot at a small deer under my tree stand, and the powder mostly failed to ignite. The ball hit the deer in the shoulder andknocked him over, but did not penetrate the skin. I saw the ball bounce off. The sound of the shot told me that my powder was fouled. That was from sitting in a tree stand before dawn until about 3:30 P.M. that afternoon in fog and mist, and damp air when the fog burned off. I will take a alcohol dampened patch with me if I hunt in those conditions again. I had the muzzle covered, and used a toothpick in the vent, but obviously they were not good enough.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Say Trench, sometimes when shot gunning on a day like Saturday over here as in heavy rain my cap locks failed to light up the charge so I carry a long thin prick that can reach into the powder and stir it up some, it seems to work. Maybe after an over night a good stir as described may help :thumbsup: