Unload at end of day?

[The Hungry Hunter]

What does one do while lets say hunting for deer and does not get a shot. Do you fire the rifle at the end of the day or leave the charge in the barrel and take the cap off and or unprime the pan??

 

[rabjr]

Long as its not damp, I unprime, close the frizzen down on a folded clean cleaning patch. Case the gun and lock in either in the barn or a vehicle. Next day I vent pick, prime and go hunting. I have gone up to two weeks before getting a shot but I generally unload/reload after a week unless the weather is mild.

If its damp, rainy, I pop the load with a Co2 discharger and then go through my ritual the next morning of reloading, and off hunting again.

 

[longcruise]

What does one do while lets say hunting for deer and does not get a shot. Do you fire the rifle at the end of the day or leave the charge in the barrel and take the cap off and or unprime the pan??

This is a topic that has been discussed before and you will get every imaginable response.

For myself, I keep my gun dry (by not going out in the rain) and keep the nipple covered when the cap is not in place. I never unload just for the sake of keeping the load "fresh". If I pop a grouse or coyote or whatever, the gun get's cleaned and reloaded, of course.

I once loaded the first week of September for an elk hunt and did not fire a shot. Cased the loaded gun up and locked it away with a "loaded" tag on it at home and killed an antelope with it a month later

 

[roundball]

I never shoot them out...just creates unnecessary noise and an unnecessary cleaning job.

I always pull the load & wipe the bore...takes less than a minute...let the ML warm up and dry out in the house and reload fresh for the next hunt...

 

[Halftail]

What does one do while lets say hunting for deer and does not get a shot. Do you fire the rifle at the end of the day or leave the charge in the barrel and take the cap off and or unprime the pan??

I unload everynight after hunting.Mostly do it with a C02 discharger but sometimes shoot it out.It don't take long to clean it up so it's no problem.I must add when I'm hunting I'm hunting and in no hurry for other things.

 

[jbtusa]

If it's nice weather I leave the load in the barrel for 2 days, just unprime at night. Any longer, then I pull the ball and wipe the barrel with a dry patch. If it's rainy, I pull the load nightly and use a dry patch again. I do not shoot the load out because the fouling will draw water and the noise will spook the game.

 

[BrownBear]

You're hearing recommendations for the CO2 dischargers, and I luv em, too. Just one precaution with them. Be aware that they leave a fair bit of powder in the bore. My hunting pard discovered the hard way that there's enough to be quite noisy when you pop a cap the next day to clear the nipple. :shocked2: And his wife hadn't let him forget it.

Be sure to swab the bore after using one, but know too that all you're really doing is pushing the unburned powder back down into the breech. If your rifle is real specific about a particular powder charge to be accurate, that extra powder isn't doing you any good. Never tried to measure it, but there's quite a bit.

If I really want to be sure I get rid of it, after using the CO2 discharger I'll use either a bore brush or scraper (depending on the gun) before swabbing the bore. Just keep the muzzle down and the powder you loosen with the scraper or brush will mostly come out when you withdraw the rod.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Dump the prime, wipe out the pan, clean dry patch, close the frizzen, prop it in the corner, reprime the next morning, go hunting.

 

[Halftail]

Dump the prime, wipe out the pan, clean dry patch, close the frizzen, prop it in the corner, reprime the next morning, go hunting.

How Humid is the air out in Hill country Texas?Most times around here the Humidity is close to 100%.I like a fresh load everyday.

 

[John Wasmuth]

usually in whitetail season, which runs from first part of Nov. till near the end of January its very lowspecially since we've been in a serious drought for the last 2 years. If it is damp I'll run a ram rod with a dry patch down the tube and leave it there over night, along with a tooth pick in the vent.

 

[tg]

I do not unload unless I have shot the gun or it has been a wet day, I have left it loaded for the whole season and it went off when needed, there is no safety issue if you use common sense and no damage will occur to the gun,i have left it loaded for several weeks in the damp Pacific coatal Mts. and as long as no real rain hits me hard I leave it loaded, I suspect this was the practice of the past and I try to experience that in every aspect that I can. it is a personal choice,with no right or wrong way to go.

 

[Halftail]

I do not unload unless I have shot the gun or it has been a wet day, I have left it loaded for the whole season and it went off when needed, there is no safety issue if you use common sense and no damage will occur to the gun,i have left it loaded for several weeks in the damp Pacific coatal Mts. and as long as no real rain hits me hard I leave it loaded, I suspect this was the practice of the past and I try to experience that in every aspect that I can. it is a personal choice,with no right or wrong way to go.

Oh yes I agree it's a personal choice with no right way or wrong.Interesting though to see/read what others do. :v

 

[The Hungry Hunter]

I hunt here in the southern zone of New York, our season is late Nov and ends early Dec. When I bring the rifle in the house after being out in the cold and then bring the rifle into the house condensation builds up on the barrel and the metal parts. This must also occur in the barrel id so is there any way to correst that or should I leave the rifle in the garage??

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you don't drive the car home with the heat on, you won't get condensation in the barrel. But, if you do, its better to unload the gun.

Years ago, now, here in Illinois, we had a law that defined a unloaded gun as being unloaded- No powder or ball in the barrel. About 10 years ago, a Hunting regulation was introduced that allowed a MLer to be considered " Unloaded" if there was no powder in the flash pan, or no percussion cap on the nipple. We could then transport guns with loads in the barrel. Before that, we had to remove the charge by either pulling the ball, or by shooting out the load.

If you want to avoid rusting in the barrel while hunting, run a greased cleaning patch down the bore after seating the PRB in the bore over the powder. You can also put a piece of plastic Wrap between the powder and the PRB to seal the barrel from moisture so that it can't get to the powder charge during a long hunt. With a percussion gun, put a piece of plastic wrap over the nipple before seating the percussion cap on it. Then trim the extra plastic off. That will keep moisture from getting into your powder charge through the nipple.

That can and does happen. I hunted all day here on opening day in November, with 5 men who were shooting percussion rifles. It was foggy in the morning when we went out in the dark to our stands. It drizzled a bit that afternoon, and was raining a bit when it grew dark, and we came in from our stands. Because we could not legally transport a gun with a loaded barrel, we all fired off our guns at a damaged tree that had to come down anyway. NONE of the percussion guns fired. The 2 flintlocks fired on the first hammer fall. We loaned priming powder, and I got out my nipple wrench to remove the nipples from some of the rifles, so that we could put 4Fg powder down the flash channels under the nipples. With that done, the guns fired. None of the barrels on the percussion guns showed any water down the muzzle. The owners had all kept the muzzles down during the hunt, and when coming back in to the camp. Many of them were wearing rain ponchos, that covered the stock and action of the guns. The powder could only have been fouled by moisture getting to the main charge through the nipple.

We all learned a lot that afternoon.

 

[rabjr]

When I bring the rifle in the house after being out in the cold and then bring the rifle into the house condensation builds up on the barrel and the metal parts.

Don't do that....

 

[Halftail]

I hunt here in the southern zone of New York, our season is late Nov and ends early Dec. When I bring the rifle in the house after being out in the cold and then bring the rifle into the house condensation builds up on the barrel and the metal parts. This must also occur in the barrel id so is there any way to correst that or should I leave the rifle in the garage??

Our season is similar,timewise as yours.And yes.I leave mine outside in under the weather rather than bring it into a hot steamy camp.A few years ago I hunted all morning in the wet cold snow/Drizzle.I got back to camp around lunch time cold, tired and disgusted(I had hunted 23 mornings and evenings with no Buck)and vowing to shoot the Next thing I seen that had fur. :cursing:
Without a thought I uncapped my New Englander and brought it into a warm camp to wipe it off and have lunch before heading out again.
Later that day I was sitting in my nice comphy treestand watching a few Does milling around when Just before Dusk a little bigger deer came in.Yup it has Small horns so good enough.I took up good sight at the butt of his neck and squeezed er' off!What happened was the loudest SNAP of a cap going off I ever heard! :shocked2: :shocked2:
There was 6 or 7 deer down there when I snapped off and everyone ran in all directions! :redface: :shake:
I crouched down inside my Treeblind and recapped thinking that I could still see the 3 point that was standing out in the clear just seconds ago.Sure enough it was him....I took up sight again with the new cap and let drive.Luckilyit went off and found it's mark killing the fat little 3 point.I learned a lesson that day and the gun stays outside and gets either shot off or blown out and re-loaded new every day.Regardless.If it had have been a big mature deer there would have been no second chance.

 

[rabjr]

Yeah Soggy said, you need all the help you can get. :haha:

 

[RC]

I hunt here in the southern zone of New York,

:hmm: :hmm:

how southern...?? :wink:

 

[Halftail]

Yeah Soggy said, you need all the help you can get. :haha:

A-Men to that Brother! :grin:

 

[Vaino]

Judging from all the misfires w/ freshly loaded MLers, I somehow think that failure to fire is sometimes self inflicted. If oils or WD-40 are used in the bore, they must be totally expunged or the resultant "wet" load won't ignite. Have seen this happen many times during sight-ins at our "deer clinic", on the range and early on w/ some members of our deer camp. Our elk hunting party of 6 doesn't empty and reload unless the caplock has been fired and even during seasons of mostly rainy days, the Mlers {all caplocks} never failed to fire even after the load sat for up to 7 days. Could never understand how moisture could reach the powder if either a well lubricated conical or PRB is plugging the bore and a snug fitting cap is on the nipple.To me, flintlocks are a totally different situation especially if raining because the powder at the TH is exposed. The loads in my flintlocks are "dumped" after every day of hunting......Fred