Waterproofing a horn

[tx50cal]

How do I do this? I am mostly concerned with the large end of the horn where the wooden plug fits into the horn. What do I seal it with? Thanks for the help.
Rob

 

[Dave K]

Get some sodium silicate, also known as water glass, it is a clear liguid. Pour a little into the horn let soak for a miniute or 2 and then pour it out. In a day or so, it will be dry inside and it will be water proof.

 

[LFC]

Not that I know much about such things, but last month I picked up some new powderhorns ($ 5 each), and observed that the rear dome/plug parts weren't installed so as to be waterproof or airtight. My attempt at a solution involved taking some water-soluble-but-dries-watertight transparent caulk that I'd gotten at Home Depot, running a bead around the crack between the wood plug and the horn, also putting a spot over each of the tacks, in case there were any leakage through there, working the caulk into the cracks as well as I could, sucking as much air out of the powderhorn as I could, just to encourage the caulk to fill in better, and repeating the caulking once or twice, until I could get a really good vacuum pressure inside the horn. Soon after each application of caulk, I'd use a damp paper towel to dab off the excess caulk from the outside of the horn, taking care not to remove any that was filling the spaces between the horn material and the wood. After the caulk dried, I went over the whole horn with fine steel wool, partly to remove the "just bought at a modern store" shine, which also took off the several patches of excess caulk that I always missed with the paper towel. Results seem likely to be fairly water-resistant. One thing I didn't want to do was seal the horns with anything that might react adversely with gunpowder or powder substitute over time, hence my approach that involves very minimal (and maybe almost no) potential contact of the powder with the sealing material.

That said, I'm quite the novice at this, and I'd welcome anybody else's suggestions, cautions, cautionary anecdotes, etc.

 

[laffingman67]

Not PC, but waterproof as a duck's butt. Gorrilla Glue. Make sure everything is clean, lightly dampen the horn, apply glue to the plug, insert plug and clamp together. This stuff is tough! The glue expands inside the joint to fill all voids. Just sand away the excess when the glue is dry (over night is best). Also use it on the wood pegs to keep the plug in place. (don't really need any pegs or nails or anything else with this stuff, but the horn don't look right. :haha: )

 

[whiskey]

I dilute some elmers glue to make it flow a bit easier. I then suck it up into a clear plastic tube until is amost to my mouth. Then I stick the flexible tube in the horn until it touches the bottom and slowly blow the glue into the bottom of horn. I then swish the glue around the bottom to get in all the cracks. Then I place my mouth on the horn and blow a little pressure into it and it forces the glue into any openings and completely plugs them.

 

[chipper]

Why not try coating the plug with bees wax. I do bees wax on the pointy end plug too. There are times at my club shoots where it's required to dip your horn in a bucket of water, then shoot from it. It simulates getting dunked when crossing a stream. Quite realistic and fun to watch powder run out like liquid.
Regards

 

[Legionair]

Beeswax is exactly what I've used on my horns. Both the plug and the spout stopper.

I put a chunk in a tin and get it warm enough to turn paste consistency, then greased the plug and the inside of the horn with a good coating.

I sand my plugs to fit the natural shape of the horn base with a slight taper so as to go in easy at first (into a heated horn).

This method will get messy (melted wax on your hands etc), but will make a water and air tight seal.

Plus, it's easy to polish into the horn and natural.

Good luck

Legion

 

[Harddog]

I glue the buttplugs into the horns I make, but if there is an air leak after the glue sets up I take small pieces of beeswax and roll it in my fingers to make it into long round worm shaped pieces, lay these on the seam between the horn and the buttplug and then heat the beeswax with a heat gun or hairdryer until it soaks down into the crack. This seals the horn completely. Any excess beeswax is rubbed onto the body of the horn. I have personal horns that I have done this way and carried for over 25 years and they are still waterproof.

Randy Hedden

 

[tx50cal]

Is the outside air temperature a factor with beeswax? In the spring squirell season the temp can be in the 90's and during deer season the temp can vary from 30's to mid 80's. This is my only consern with beeswax, this is what I thought of originally. Thanks for the help guys.
Rob

 

[Harddog]

Is the outside air temperature a factor with beeswax? In the spring squirell season the temp can be in the 90's and during deer season the temp can vary from 30's to mid 80's. This is my only consern with beeswax, this is what I thought of originally. Thanks for the help guys.
Rob

Rob,

Don't worry about beeswax being affected by those temperature ranges. It will not melt and run out of the crack. You will actually have very little beeswax in the crack and you don't need to worry about it. I trek in all seasons of the year and never had any problems with my horns. I don't know if beeswax actually freezes, but I have been out in -30 degrees below zero and not had any problem.

Randy Hedden

 

[Claude Mathis]

If beeswax melted too readily, all the bees would have died off long ago. :wink:

 

[omarick1948]

There's no substitute for a tight fitting base plug or wood to horn fit. A lot of guys like the traditional sealer of bee's wax, while other's use everything from Liquid Nails glue to Camel Squirt. Personally, I try to handfit a base plug as hand tight as I can and then heat the horn pretty hot, so the natural base end interior rim of the horn gets slightly tacky. This heat forms a natural "Hide Glue" and then I just press the wood into the horn. I like to add a tiny speck of slow drying epoxy in the holes of wood pegs or base plug nails. I've been using this method since about 1975....Works for me!

Rick Froehlich