unloading

[No Deer]

Well :shocked2: I had never put any water on the powder when pulling the ball. But I did blow it out with the compressor. Wow was that easy.

Putting water down the barrel kinda defeats the purpose of blowing it out. You might as well shoot it out as pour water down, it makes a big mess and needs a good cleaning after, IMHO.

 

[leadball]

I tested it. After i shot my small doe on thursday eve. i cleaned the gun, reloaded, and stuck it out in the garage. Fired it this am. Fired fine. That's four days. But it was cold and i left it in the garage

 

[Keppy]

I tested mine also and I'm glad I didn't have a shot to take. It's been below 0 here in Minnesota and I loaded the rifle Saturday morning and have left it in the cold. I take the cap off and put a patch of leather over the nipple and drop the hammer. I figure it will keep the mosture out. Well it's Monday and I figure I better call it a weekend of hunting because its work tomorrow. So take a shot at this oak and pop the cap goes off. :shocked2: I hold for awhile. So the only thing I did is hit the side of the barrel near the breech and I do that after dumping the powder. I then took another cap and BANG. :thumbsup: So I was the one who started this unloading thing that started this subject. So now I think I will shoot it every nite. Oh yes I did see a deer about 60 YDS and she did out smart me. "THIS TIME" I am glad she did out smart me cause she would have had the last :blah: twice. Thought I would share this.

 

[roundball]

I tested mine also and I'm glad I didn't have a shot to take. It's been below 0 here in Minnesota and I loaded the rifle Saturday morning and have left it in the cold. I take the cap off and put a patch of leather over the nipple and drop the hammer. I figure it will keep the mosture out. Well it's Monday and I figure I better call it a weekend of hunting because its work tomorrow. So take a shot at this oak and pop the cap goes off. :shocked2: I hold for awhile. So the only thing I did is hit the side of the barrel near the breech and I do that after dumping the powder. I then took another cap and BANG. :thumbsup: So I was the one who started this unloading thing that started this subject. So now I think I will shoot it every nite. Oh yes I did see a deer about 60 YDS and she did out smart me. "THIS TIME" I am glad she did out smart me cause she would have had the last :blah: twice. Thought I would share this.

Had that happen to me about 10 years ago with a caplock...squeezed off on a 6 pointer at about 50yds and had what turned out to be a delayed ignition...cap popped, no main...I barely started to bring the rifle off my shoulder thinking I'd recap and the main went off...missed the buck of course.

Swore I would never start a hunt again without a fresh charge in the barrel and ever since that day I always pull or blow out a day's load, wipe the bore, let the rifle warm up & dry out inside over night, then reload fresh the next hunt...never any doubt about ignition that way.

IMO, it's silly to work, plan, and wait all year for a couple weeks of hunting then take those kinds of risks if/when I finally get my sights on a deer.

 

[Keppy]

I did hold the rifle to my shoulder for at least a half a minute. I have not had a delay discharge happen yet but I have heard of others that have. I recall an earlier post. I found out that I was carrying a club instead of a rifle all day. I think that the temp change probably had a great deal to do with what happen. The high was 8 above and 14 below at nite. And it did try to snow.

 

[leadball]

whereabouts in Minnesota are you from? I grew up in northern minnesota(Twig)

 

[Archer 756]

Question' what did they do in the so called old days.Every day pull load or shoot, I don't think so. I have left a charge in flints for up to three weeks hunting season and have had no problems.Just used vent pick and some 4f and BANG!!.

 

[pennsyltucky]

ive left charges in for a couple years and they went off just like new...... dads .50 was fired for the first time in 3 years this summer and it had been in and out of the house many times.

how long can a 45-70 case sit with balck powder in it? its not sealed any better than a flintlock with a toothpick in the vent.....

 

[CrackStock]

This is an interesting discussion. As to keeping MLs loaded after the hunt, some people hunt at deer cabins in the woods and guns are rarely emptied each night, but rather stored in a locker which remains at outside temperature. They are racked with muzzles level or down and vents or nipples plugged to keep moisture from the charge. Many put a lubed patch at the muzzle to keep moisture from wicking into the patch and ruining the charge from that end. Therefore this discussion has merit in this context.

It should be noted that we often discuss "How to" topics, but everyone should think carefully upon how they choose to use this information. There is a difference between the study of how it was done and when to use these bits of information now.

While one can manage keeping a charged ML for long periods of time with some degree of safety and ensure that it will fire reliably, I think that it is also better to carry an uncharged gun home and to have it uncharged while at home. Home defense is for modern guns.

CS

 

[pennsyltucky]

I think that it is also better to carry an uncharged gun home CS

especially if it was uncharged at the intended target!!

i wasnt advocating leaving one loaded for so long, just adding to the conversation....

mine are never loaded for long, im always shooting at somethin, even if its just clay pidgeons!!! i love these guns!

 

[guncobbler]

Roundball - Have you ever noticed just how much pressure it takes to get the ball to move? I've pushed them out with a bicycle pump and a reamed out inner tube valve stem that fit the nipple of my caplock. It's probably just as easy to do with a portable tire inflater. That would work in camp. GC

 

[roundball]

Roundball - Have you ever noticed just how much pressure it takes to get the ball to move? I've pushed them out with a bicycle pump and a reamed out inner tube valve stem that fit the nipple of my caplock. It's probably just as easy to do with a portable tire inflater. That would work in camp. GC

That's not a bad idea to have one at a camp...and I bet you can get some serious manual pressure leaning down on that pump handle...wouldn't hurt to get a good strong heavy duty one and experiment.

I don't know how much pressure it takes...and it's different in my different rifles...some I can barely tweak the trigger and the load just softly bloops out into a box of old towels.

Yet on a .54cal smoothbore that has such a tight fit using a .530 ball & .015" patch, I give it the full trigger and can't budge it with a 30gal tank of compressed air set to 120psi, so I have to use a ball puller on it...the good news is a ball puller works fine on it.

 

[Maestro]

I just ran into something the other day that I can add to this thread. I had left a charge in my flinter for about a week (every day thinking I'd get out hunting the next day!) and after reading some of your thoughts on that, decided to unload it and give it a "fresh" charge.
I used a CO2 cartridge "blower" and that removed the ball & patch no problem - but when I checked the touchhole with a pick, the charge was still in the barrel! - probably caked in from the humidity. Rather than water it down and clean it out as is, I decided to see if I could ignite the charge before cleaning it out. I didn't expect it to be too loud without having anything present to compress the powder. I was very wrong! My neighbor came out of his house thinking the chimney to his wood stove blew up! Fortuneately, he got a good laugh out of what I did. (This topic is being discussed in another thread - shooting blanks in your yard!)

 

[sidelock]

You don't need to unload ever night----- as you found out.. Wonder if L&/or C unloaded every night? I have gone as long as 3 months loaded and everything BOOMED OK. My T/C .50 is in the gar. now loaded for about a month, and I may fire it off in a month or two---- if the weather lets up a bit. Depends on how you loaded to start with as to how your loading will perform. :thumbsup: By the way, passed up 27 legal elk standing right in my front yard last day of the season---- I'll have to continue to buy beef this year I guess.

 

[AK in PA]

Last year, I thought pulling the ball seemed like a fine alternative to shooting the load out and cleaning. On both occassions that I tried it, I test fired the "unloaded" barrel to be certain that all the powder had been dumped out. ...Just as much boom erupted as with a fully loaded barrel. Due the large amount of powder residue which remains and is open to the air, and which will certainly suck up moisture, I can't see how you can possibly avoid cleaning the barrel completely once you load it, regardless of whether you shoot or pull the ball out.

 

[sidelock]

AK you are right. If you load properly (snap caps,etc) you need to clean well after unloading wheather firing off or ball pulling if you are not going to reload right now.(within a very few minutes). Like I said before, I have gone months between loading and firing (sometimes whole hunting seasons) and when I pulled the trigger to unload -----BOOM. When I have gone that long I place a slip of paper stating LOADED under the half cock hammer to remind ME as well as anyone else of the situation. :thumbsup: