How long can you leave the gun loaded?

[Doug Lykins]

How long do you leave your ML loaded when on a hunting trip? We often camp for several days at a time and will normally load up on the first day of hunting but may not get a shot for several days. I know BP is very corrosive but is there any harm in leaving a charge in the barrel for a length of time?

 

[necchi]

BP isn't corrosive, the residue from burn powder is corrosive and especially so when allowed to gather ambient moisture.
I've left a rifle loaded during an extended season for 3 month.
There's about 50 topics on this subject. :wink:

 

[pab1]

I left a .32 cal Crocket loaded overnight once since I planned to take it out the next day. The next days hunt never happened and about two years later I took it out grouse hunting. Fired without any issue other than me missing the grouse. I did mark the gun as loaded with a piece of surveyors tape while it was stored.

 

[robinsroost]

I have left my .50 caliber percussion hawken style rifle loaded for a year, one deer season to the next, with no ill effects. It fired first try and there was no sign of rust. Black powder, as well as the substitutes, is not hygroscopic until it is burned, then it turns slightly acidic. Leaving it loaded for a few days should not present a problem. I should add that I removed the cap and put a square of truck inner tube over the nipple and under the hammer. Keep yer powder dry.......Robin :wink:

 

[wattlebuster]

I leave mine loaded till I fire it. Done it many yrs with no ill effects and have went bang when called upon :hatsoff:

 

[Grumpa]

As all above, no problem one year to the next. Just do like pab1 said, and mark/tag the rifle as "loaded", for the sake of anyone who picks it up "between shots".

 

[juancho]

I would emphasize , as mention already, for as long as IT IS MARKED AS BEING LOADED!!!

 

[Stumpkiller]

I did an experiment and left mine loaded 11 months in an unheated garage - a percussion with a removable barrel.

First shot was about 3" high but went off first try.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I have kept guns loaded for months. I put about a 3/16" long piece of nylon fuel tubing (the clear stuff with and OD of about 1/4") around the cap/ nipple to keep out moisture. Also, make sure not to keep a gun loaded for and extended period of time with a spit patch or a patch with any water containing lube in it, as it will make a rust ring where it contacts the bore and will also most likely kill your powder.

 

[satx78247]

YEP. = A county museum in OK had an "accidental discharge" of a 16bore DB percussion shotgun some years ago that had been "displayed in a glass-fronted case" for several decades. - An (NOW "former") employee of the museum took the shotgun out of the case & pulled the trigger, to "show how it works".
(That is an EXCELLENT reason to presume that ALL firearms are LOADED, unless they have been carefully inspected & found to be unloaded.)

According to a school friend of mine (who is a docent there), "It made 'piscopalians of us all." = THANKFULLY nobody was "in the line of fire".

yours, satx

 

[Supercracker]

I keep my Navy revolver in my truck loaded. I killed at coyote a few months ago with a load that HAD to be over a year old and had been in a closed truck in Florida the whole time.

At the beginning of the year I got an old perc shotgun that was loaded. The wadding was newspaper from the 1920s. Powder burned just fine.

 

[Shine]

Why was it capped

 

[satx78247]

I have NO idea. = Probably the same sort of DUNCE, who didn't assure that ALL the museum's firearms were actually unloaded, left it capped.

yours, satx

 

[Shine]

That is scary

 

[Roguedog]

Same here. I keep it loaded until I fire it. I have left them loaded for months with no ill affect. However, I don't bring a cold gun into a warm house. I will keep my gun in the basement or somewhere that has a similar temperature as the outside.

Jeff

 

[Luzur]

Both my 1815 musket and the 1762 was loaded when i got them, the 1815 was easy to clean as the bullet and powder almost came out by themselves when i removed the paper, but the gunpowder in the 1762 had "mutated" over the years into a thick unigniting lump (yep, tried to fire the load after i got the bullet out, no reaction at all, so it had to been in there for a hundred years atleast...), so i had to make a special tool and drill it out while drenching it in hot water, got it all out after a days work.

 

[Melnic]

Hmm, Accuracy would be my concern. I hear plenty of people say "it fired fine" but if it misses, would not be worth the ease of keeping it loaded. I'm not sure I"ve heard too many claims on how it affects accuracy to leave it loaded. I have been patching barricade, then dry patching before loading and clearing it with a primer pop. But if hunting, loading it and leaving it, would I want to swipe the bore with something before storing and then dry patch (while loaded) before taking it out into the field?
If more than a couple days, I can easily take to the range to fire it. Don't think I'd need to keep it loaded more than a day or two.