How often do you unload?

The corrosive nature of BP does not manifest itself until it has been burned or if is wet.

True. ive left mine loaded for a couple days at a time with no ill effects. i know guys that keep their rifleguns loaded ALL Season long with no problems. One time after shooting a round at Rond. i cleaned quickly with a spit patch and put said rifle back into my truck. Next morning i had etching in my barrel :cursing:
\As long as your barrel is clean&DRY when you load, there should be no problems with leaving it loaded. :v

 

[oneshot]

Me I've left my Sidelocks Loaded for days long as there was no rain or snow.You mention 209 primer.The only time I had a problem was with the other Firearms and 209 primer,left it loaded over night wake up next morning so foggy you couldn't see five foot in front of you.The thing would not fire.

oneshot

 

[10 gauge]

It all depends on your local weather condition.
Here in AZ its so dry and hot we add water to our blackpowder to keep it from self combusting :grin:

 

It depends on the humidity. If its humid - pull the ball, dump the load, clean out the powder residue and punch / dry the flash hole when you get back to the log cabbin and before taking a pull or two on the jug. Do NOT put any bees wax or manure on or arround the lock. That is asking for trouble.

 

[Vaino]

I think it depends on the individual's personality. Personally, I've never had a misfire w/ a caplock due to a rifle having a load in for up to 5 days, during which time it rained a lot. If one doesn't "feel right" doing this, then do whatever makes one comfortable. Some hunters meticulously start preparing for a hunt 5 or more weeks ahead w/ many lists so nothing is overlooked and these hunters would probably want to unload daily. I think that if a MLing rifle is throughly cleaned and dried before loading, the load won't deteriorate for a long time inspite of rain etc. Nearly all of the "fail to fire" problems aren't due to the weather at all, but are caused by dirty, oily flash channels and to some extent this also appplies to chambers. With a tight fitting cap and the powder protected by a greased, tight fitting RB, just how can moisture gain access to the powder?.....Fred

 

[BrownBear]

We hunt country that's "wetter than wet" in most people's definition. For example, we got 8.76" of rain in the first three days of July. I don't think I'm the exception among my hunting pards in getting well over 60 days a year in the field in spite of the weather, between hunts for big and small game.

Most of the trouble with cappers as far as we can tell comes overnight while the gun is sitting without a cap. Why no cap? Because caps go to heck in a hurry with very little moisture or even prolonged exposure to high humidity if it gets inside them. That applies to your capper as well as your nipple. My principal hunting pard had a series of sad cap failures last fall, but since he's here on the site too, I'll let him tell his own stories if he's inclined.

If I was to leave a charge in a cappper overnight, I'd be pulling the cap PLUS plugging the nipple to keep humidity out. I have little experience with flinters, but I assume an overnight prescription would include plugging the vent hole, too.

But like I said..... Fresh loads are dirt cheap compared to opportunities for shots at game. Why risk it?

BTW- The best way to learn about all this is to do your testing outside the hunting season. Rainy day? Head for the range and shoot anyway, rather than staying home and watching bad TV.

 

[Vaino]

Why leave a nipple w/o something on it?....seems simple enough to cover the nipple over night by putting a piece of oiled leather on the nipple and lowering the hammer? Have hunted in a hard rain for 6 days and the gun still fired. Sealed at both ends, how does the moisture wet the powder?.....Fred

 

[BrownBear]

Not saying to leave it unprotected. Saying you should protect it. But 120+ inches of rain every year tells me to empty it completely. No theory involved on how moisture gets in there, but I can verify that it does in our climate.

Congratulations on your drier climate and easier conditions!!!!

 

[Vaino]

Like I said.. do whatever puts your mind at ease. Caps deteriorating I can understand and even though the fulminate {or whatever} has a coat of laquer, who knows if it's waterproof. In your weather, I certainly would store the caps {and the powder} in an air tight container w/ a moisture absorbing compound. Too bad there aren't some definitive tests to determine if moisture can "get past" a lubricated PRB and a tight fitting cap. I don't have a cheap rifle that I can pour water down the bbl to see if it gets past the lubricated PRB and also to turn the hose on the nipple area to see if it gets past or "deadens" a tight fitting cap. Now this would be a test that would be enlightening, irregardless of what the results were.....Fred

 

[roundball]

In my humblest of humble opinions, I believe people who have misfires from leaving a ML loader over night are like people who dry ball, and they fall into two catagories:

Those who have had misfires (dryballed); Those who will have misfires (dryball);
Its not a question of "if" a misfire (dryball) will occur, only a question of "when"...and the bad news is it won't happen or matter until you're tripping the sear on a nice longbeard or a 8-10 pointer.

Takes less than a minute to pull a load and only costs a couple pennies worth of powder...I toss the patch & ball into a can to save for use at the range after the season is over.

For me, there are already enough "Murphy's" lurking behind every tree when Mr. Big comes down the trail so I like to manage as much risk out of my life as possible...and with the ball pullers and CO2 dischargers available today, its so simple and fast its hard for me to understand why anybody WOULDN'T pull a load, but that's just me...

 

[paulvallandigham]

I think putting plastic over the nipple before capping, and plastic UNDER the PATCH before loading, is the best way to protect the powder charge. If a leather pad or soft rubber eraser is placed over the nipple after the cap is removed, no moisture should be able to get down into the flash channel.

I don't recommend taking loaded gun out into cold, or back into warm, because whatever moisture was in the air when the gun was loaded is surely going to condense on the metal inside the flash channel, and foul the load.

I also think that putting a patch soaked in alcohol( denatured, not isopropyl) on top of the nipple will suck out any moisture that might be in the flash channel and powder charge from when it was loaded as the alcohol evaporates. Do this either on the way to the hunt, or at night when the gun is being stored with the charge in it, on your porch or someplace outside that is safe, and dryer than the pouring rain around it.

You can also buy small O-rings that will fit around the base of your nipple. Then, putting a pistol cartridge case over the nipple to act as both a safety device, and to keep moisture away from the caps and powder charge will do the job. I think a .380 pistol cartridge will fit the O-ring.

 

[Vaino]

I dunno....have hunted elk many times in Colorado since 1985 along w/ 4 others in all sorts of weather and we never unloaded the charges at night and have kept the charges in for up to 6 days {at times we weren't very lucky} and never had a misfire. But again...a person has to feel comfortable and confident that when the time comes, the rifle will fire and he should do whatever he thinks will get the job done. If someone in our party had a misfire on game or at anytime when we out there, I might think differently.....Fred

 

[paulvallandigham]

The relative humidity in the mountains is very dry, even when its snowing. That makes the difference. The cold air just does not hold much moisture, and you know how cold it gets at night up there. With daylight being short, there is not enough light, long enough, to heat up the ground and raise the relative humidity very high up there. That is also the reason that meat does not spoil as fast as it will down on the flats. Bacteria need moisture and heat in which to multiply. Remove either, and they die. Remove both, and the air becomes essentially sterile. Leave the meat hanging in the shade of trees and it will be alright for days. Do the same thing down on the flats, and you have spoiled meat. Some people get used to, and like eating spoiled meat, but I am not one of them. To each his own. :thumbsup:

 

[Greenmtnboy]

Leave mine loaded from start to finish or shot at game. Have never misfired.

Once loaded the first week of September and killed an antelope with that same load first week of October.

Once intentionally left the rifle loaded for four months and it went of without a hitch and delivered the shot to poa.

Same here.
Hay slayer when does marmot season start.
Marmot stew and dumplings yummmmm.

 

[Halftail]

Leave mine loaded from start to finish or shot at game. Have never misfired.

Once loaded the first week of September and killed an antelope with that same load first week of October.

Once intentionally left the rifle loaded for four months and it went of without a hitch and delivered the shot to poa.

Same here.
Hay slayer when does marmot season start.
Marmot stew and dumplings yummmmm.

Leaving a gun loaded and having it go off reliably has alot to do whit where you live.Here along the Coast where I live I unload every day after the hunt.An Ounce of prevention........

 

[DENNIS B]

I leave my rifle loaded for the whole season or untill I get a shot at game. I never have had a misfire, Here in N.Y. between the blk powder season and the regulare gun season I'm talking about almost 2 months, if I don't get a shot..I just shake out the priming in my flintlock and remove the cap on a precussion. Reprime when I go out again, How ever if I get caught in a heavy rain I will discharge my rifle and reload the next day..I don't hunt in the rain if I can help it,

 

[Chilidog]

I do alot of bird hunting with my fowler and towards the end of the season I may not get a shot for days on end (especially on dove). I just dump the prime and cover the frizzen for safety sake and haven't had any problems. She always fires.

 

[Trench]

I came back empty handed last year because I thought plugging my venthole and leaving my rifle out in the garage to avoid condensation in the barrel would do the trick. I shot and reprimed 4 times on a deer before it figured out what was going on. Now, I will pull that ball and charge EVERY evening before I start my hunt again in the morning.

 

Actually, I get a load-on more frequently than I unload. We are talking about Rebbel Yell, are we not?

 

[Ethan]

I've kept a load in my .40 flinter for several weeks. I do a lot of woods walking during off-season (3 -4 days a week) without any particular aim to shoot the gun unless I see an unruly stump. I've never had the charge, even in wet weather, hesitate to fire. I'll discharge the load after several days hunting big game.