When Do You Load on a Hunt?

[Dadof8]

Being an engineer, I like to think of all contingencies possible. I will be enjoying my first ML deer hunt in Missouri on Nov. 12 and I have been thinking through the entire process so that I don't screw up and not have something I need.

My question is on the first morning out, do you load when you get out of the truck in the dark before going to your stand or do you wait and load after you get to the stand?

I also guess it is possible to load the night before.

I most likely will hunt Saturday and Sunday. If I don't limit out, I'll go back the following weekend. If I don't fire the gun during the hunt on the first weekend, I'll fire it before I go home Sunday night and reload the next weekend.

Thanks for your help.

Dadof8

 

[SCATTERSHOT]

I load the night before I go out. BE SURE TO POP A COUPLE OF CAPS BEFORE YOU LOAD, to dry out the flash channel. Then leave it loaded but unprimed for the duration. I lower the hammer on a piece of leather to seal out moisture.

BTW, I stress popping the caps because I suggested that to a friend, but he didn't do it. Cost him a nice elk.

Good luck!

 

[roundball]

Being an engineer, I like to think of all contingencies possible. I will be enjoying my first ML deer hunt in Missouri on Nov. 12 and I have been thinking through the entire process so that I don't screw up and not have something I need.

My question is on the first morning out, do you load when you get out of the truck in the dark before going to your stand or do you wait and load after you get to the stand?

I also guess it is possible to load the night before.

I most likely will hunt Saturday and Sunday. If I don't limit out, I'll go back the following weekend. If I don't fire the gun during the hunt on the first weekend, I'll fire it before I go home Sunday night and reload the next weekend.
Thanks for your help.
Dadof8

I load in a well lit garage before leaving the house in the morning, putting a piece of tape over the vent liner to eliminate any chance of a stray spark getting into the main charge enroute to the hunting location.

(on percussions I used small 1/8" black rubber automotive vacuum pipe/tube sealer plugs...they fit snuggly down over the top of a nipple...buy a pack of a half dozen for a buck)

FWIW, I don't lke to discharge a ML anywhere that I don't have to, and particularly after dark...so I always pull my loads with a ball puller, or blow them out with compressed air when I get back to the house.

Then, after the rifle has warmed up in the house for a while I dry patch then lube patch the bore...then load fresh again the next morning...saving the pulled balls for range plinking after hunting season is over.

 

[oomcurt]

I always load on leaving the vehicle. I also make sure that the night before the bore is thoroughly dry and free from any oil. One thing that is very inportant is that I never bring the rifle back into the house or whatever until the trip is over. If I am going to and from the house each day..the rifle stays outside.

 

[Runner]

Pop a couple of caps. Remove the clean out screw and carefully dry the area with qtips or pipe cleaners. Start the screw back. Load the gun. Remove the screw and dump a couple of grains of powder in under the nipple. Not much. You don't want a fuse effect. You just want to make sure it goes off. Replace the screw. Pick the nipple and cap the gun. I load when I am ready to go hunting. When I return to the house, I take the cap off and lower the hammer with a shotgun wad between the hammer and the nipple if I don't just shoot it out. At night I shoot the load and clean the gun. Every night. If you are in a situation where you can't empty the gun every day, then pull the ball and refesh the load at least every other day if it has not been fired. If you do shoot and reload, be sure and clear the gun that night and clean. It sounds like a lot of hassle, but it is a simple system that will never let you down and it isn't much more work than not making sure is.

 

[No Deer]

Remove the screw and dump a couple of grains of powder in under the nipple. Not much. You don't want a fuse effect. You just want to make sure it goes off.

Gee, if you have to prime it, you might as well use a flintlock!! :crackup: :crackup: (sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[roundball]

Remove the screw and dump a couple of grains of powder in under the nipple. Not much. You don't want a fuse effect. You just want to make sure it goes off.

Gee, if you have to prime it, you might as well use a flintlock!! :crackup: :crackup: (sorry, couldn't resist)

After I drop powder, I lift my rifles straight up by the muzzle with one hand, then bump/bump the side of the lock area with my other hand to ensure powder settles all the way down into the flash channel...both Flint and caplock

 

[Gaze]

Remove the screw and dump a couple of grains of powder in under the nipple. Not much. You don't want a fuse effect. You just want to make sure it goes off.

Gee, if you have to prime it, you might as well use a flintlock!! :crackup: :crackup: (sorry, couldn't resist)

After I drop powder, I lift my rifles straight up by the muzzle with one hand, then bump/bump the side of the lock area with my other hand to ensure powder settles all the way down into the flash channel...both Flint and caplock

In the 1934 Mascot Serial, The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye (Actor Harry Carey, Sr) pats Killdeer on the lock side before firing, just as you describe. I figured it was some kind of authentic gesture. With what you say, I'm sure of it.

Harry Carey also sort of gently pounds the ball or powder (I

 

[Runner]

If the ball is not down, the rod will not bounce. Once it is down hard it bounces a lot. It will also beat a flat spot on the ball if you do it too many times.

 

[freetrapper20]

I load in the morning before I leave the house. Frizzen open, hammer down, I keep a round toothpick (half) stuck in the touch hole until ready to prime. Put the toothpick back in the evening. Usually don't shoot off or pull the ball each evening unless its been real wet out. I bounce the ramrod cause it works for me to get more even pressure each time loading and shoot better groups.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Since my Hawken is a patent breech, I just pull the barrel keys and ramrod and lift out the barrel. Once I give it a good flushing and cleaning, I dry it by heating it with hot water then running dry patches through the bore. My nipple vent gets flushed with the barrel. After drying it, I know that my vent is open.

Before loading, I pop a couple caps just for safety, then load before leaving the house. Since my hunt may take me as far as twenty miles, there is always the opportunity to drive upon a big buck right at daybreak heading back to the bed. Season opens 30 minutes before sunup, so my intent is to be ready if I jump one while going to the hunting area. Since we farm a lot of the ground that way, I have a lot of opportunity to hunt on my own land.

I dont stand hunt, I walk, so there is no advantage to being there before legal shooting time. If that area doesnt produce when walked out, then I have to drive 9 miles back to my other hunting area. I posted a picture of a buck I took last year, five minutes after legal shooting time. If I had been back at the truck loading my rifle, I'd have missed him. I had just walked into a real heavy bottom when something told me to hold. I just stopped and sat down on a bank and within about 3 minutes that buck walked out of the weed patch. It is just the luck of the hunt. In a couple of minutes I would have been moving again.

B

 

[Stumpkiller]

I load as I would if it was a centerfire. AFTER I've climbed over the fance at the farmers' back lot and hopped the stream, or just before I enter the woods. In most cases this is an hour before dawn, so it helps to have a loading block and the horn & measure where they're accessable.

Before I leave home I wipe the bore with alcohol and a dry patch. If it's a percusion I pop two caps in my garage before I leave (aiming at the back cement wall that's against a hill-side). If I'm headed up the back hill I pop a couple behind the garden shed (out of neighbor's earshot for courtesy).

On a Saturday night I will leave the gun loaded and in the car. Bringing it in the house leads to condensation.

 

[Darkhorse]

If I am not at camp I load the night before in my shop. After the metal has acclimated to the outside temp. I wipe with a combination of dry and alcohol patches until all the oil is out, then I run an alchohol patch in with a worm instead of the jag to try and get any oil the tight patch missed.
Then I "always" remove the lock and clean off any oil that may leech into the breech plug area and corrupt my prime. The lock, pan, flint and all, is cleaned with alcohol.
After loading I place a broken toothpick in the vent, then let the hammer down on the hammer stall. Then I tightly wrap and tie the lock with a cows knee. This stays on during the predawn walks to the stand through dewey bushes.
After I get into the stand the cows knee comes off, the pan, frizzen and flint is wiped with a clean cloth and the pan is primed. If dew is falling the cows knee will stay draped over the lock.
If I am loading at camp I do the same things just under lantern light instead of shop lights.

 

[hobbles]

I load in my cabin before I go out, I will pop 2 caps (my poor lady, she don't like the smell) then load up, I'll cap it out side then start walkin, 4 of my deer blinds are west of the habitat,( mornin/day deer). and one is 3 or 400 yds east, my evenin deer blind,

 

[Headhunter]

Before Hunting, Usually the night before, I take off my nipple and degrease it. Then I swab my barrel out with a couple clean dry patches. I leave the patch on the ramrod with it all the way down the barrel. I pop a couple caps and check the patch for the primer pattern. Then I load it up. It stays loaded for the entire season. Sometimes, If it has been raining for a couple days, I will shoot it, clean it, and do it all again the next morning before I go out. I always leave my Rifle in the truck and never bring it into my warm house unless it is getting cleaned.

Headhunter