Unload at end of day?

[rabjr]

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

This is what I do the night before, I swab with clean patches then I push a tight fitting patch/es down the bore, place the gun upside down and leave it that way all night. Next morning before going hunting I remove the patch/es, give it another wipe, then I'm ready to load. Works for me, haven't had a miss fire yet in the woods.

 

[Halftail]

Am I the only one here that "snaps a couple of caps" prior to loading each day?I know gets a little noisy doing that off of the House Patio but up in the camp nobody knows any differant and I am 100 sure things is dry.

 

[RC]

Swamp sayed..

place the gun upside down and leave it that way all night.

:thumbsup: yup! works fer me too.. :hatsoff:

 

[lonehunter]

Every time I pull out the perc. 1 cap to clear the flash channel and another one to make sure. :v

 

[Edlebrock454]

I do a lot of hunting in Florida and Georgia in swamp bottoms and thickets where the humidity is through the roof even in the winter so I always pull the load and clean the gun and reload in the morning, in my opinion it really depends on the weather conditions and where your hunting at, hope this helps.

 

[JohnM]

I am not so sure I would try the plastic wrap over the nipple before seating the cap. My experience has been that the cap becomes wet and will not fire, the powder charge has been fine (when hunting in a driving rain). I have read on this forum to paint the inside of the caps with clear nail polish and allow it to dry for days before using during a wet hunt. I have tried this method and it does keep the cap dry. My two cents!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Its easy enough to test. With an unloaded gun, simply cap the nipple, and fire it off in the dark. Check to see how much flame comes out the muzzle. Then, put plastic over the nipple before seating the next cap, and fire that in the dark. See if there is any difference in the flame that comes out the muzzle. The plastic certainly will protect the nipple from the invasion of any moisture or rain. I can't talk about the ignition compound inside the cap, unless we talk about a specific brand. It can't hurt a cap to spray them with an acrylic lacquer, or nail polish( lacquer.) That would coat the inside of the cap and seal the ignition compound from moisture affecting it any way it might get into the cap.

I have been shooting CCI caps for years, but have shot Remington, and RWS caps in the past. I have never had problems with a cap not going off, provided the nipple is in good enough condition to seat the cap properly on the top of the nipple. I fired my percussion rifle in some pretty miserable weather conditions, again, with no problem.

 

[Halftail]

I always figured that if you had a good tight "cap to nipple" fit there would be no way water could penetrate the charge from that end.I have hunted in some pretty dreary conditions here in SW Nova Scotia during our one week early muzzleloader season.5 Straight day of off and on rain with the trees still in full foliage and never had a problem with one going off.I have a buddy that flipped his canoe on it's side and half filled it with his muzzleloader capped and loaded fully under water and it still went off first crack.He used a good tight thick patch and ball combo.figured it sealed the muzzle end of the load just long enough to keep water out.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Personally, I have also never had a failure to fire with my percussion rifle ( or shotgun) due to moisture. However, in 1985, 7 members of my BP club hunted the same farm, 5 shooting percussion rifles. All 5 had failures to fire at the end of the day, after we walked out in thick fog, and stood waiting for dawn in both fog, and then drizzle, and then mist, as the sun rose.

I only began thinking about how to prevent that from happening again, after that incident. I decided on using an OS card down my barrel on top of the PRB to stop moisture down the barrel, then tried taping the muzzle, and found that worked as well.

As for the nipple, someone here wrote that they were using the plastic wrap. I tested the plastic on my shotgun, with an empty barrel, as described above- with and without the plastic. The plastic didn't impede in any way the firing of the nipple. I have not yet had the shotgun out on a miserably wet enough day to pass my own " Acid test!" :rotf: But, it will happen, sooner or later. I have had the gun out in rain, and it fires just fine, but I have used the same gun without the plastic in the same light rainy conditions, without problems, too.

So, I am looking for one of those horrible days when its raining up and down, and you can't decide whether you need to pray for wings, or gills, to survive the day! to really test the plastic wrap concept. :blah: :rotf: :wink: :hatsoff: