I loaded my T/C 54 on the morning of Dec 18 for a couple of days of muzzleloader hunting. As you guys may remember from my posts the weather turned pretty nasty that evening and I only got to hunt one day. I came home to about 8 or 10 days of power outage and general chaos. Well I never unloaded the gun. So finally yesterday I decided to go to the range to shoot the centerfires and shoot out the 80 gr of T7 and the round ball out of the 54. Not only did it fire without hesitation it also was only out of the bullseye by about 3 inches at 100 yards.
It was in the gun from Dec 18- March 5 and fired flawlessly and to almost perfect poi. I figure it was a pretty good unintended experiment. So anyone thats worried about leaving their gun loaded for a few days with T7... I dont think you have anything to worry about..lol.
Glad to here it turned out to the good. It's nice to know that you can leave a charge in for an extended period and it will perform just as if it were fresh.
Doe Dumper: Did you take any precautions like tape over the muzzle or covering the nipple ?
I never had much luck leaving a MZ rifle loaded with T7, over a few days and not changing POI. I always blamed the powder.. figuring it got weaker or moisture affected it.
Thanks for the report DoeDumper. It's always been my practice to leave the gun(s) loaded until I take a shot, or the end of the three-month season, whichever comes first. I've never had a problem with GOEX, Pyrodex, or Triple Seven. However, my guns are always loaded on a clean dry bore - no fouling shot, no popped caps/primers.
Was your load on a clean barrel, or did you pop a cap or foul the bore before loading?
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It was on an absolutely clean bore with not even a cap popped Semi. Thats the only way I'da left it that long. I get pretty panicky about leaving a muzzleloader thats been shot even a couple of days without cleaning. This gives me pretty good peace of mind for next season as I used to shoot the gun off every night at dark and clean it that night. Now I can leave it in there til I see soemthing to shoot at.
rt.. I didnt have anything covered. I hunted all that day with it... took it home and put it back in the cabinet and its been there until I shot it.
"Thanks for the report DoeDumper. It's always been my practice to leave the gun(s) loaded until I take a shot, or the end of the three-month season, whichever comes first. I've never had a problem with GOEX, Pyrodex, or Triple Seven. However, my guns are always loaded on a clean dry bore - no fouling shot, no popped caps/primers."
X2
I will re-emphasize for any newbies reading this that you can't do it with a dirty barrel. If you have fired the gun, clean it as soon as practical. With a clean bore.....no worries.
I have left my ML loaded from Mid December to the next November, almost 11 months and it fired just fine. I have also had it loaded through snow, rain, constant temperature changes for weeks at a time and it fired just fine. My secret (and it's no secret) I always cover the end of the muzzle with masking tape, I believe this is the biggest factor in keeping moisture out of the barrel and having it fire when needed.
(BP)
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I have left my ML loaded from Mid December to the next November, almost 11 months and it fired just fine. I have also had it loaded through snow, rain, constant temperature changes for weeks at a time and it fired just fine. My secret (and it's no secret) I always cover the end of the muzzle with masking tape, I believe this is the biggest factor in keeping moisture out of the barrel and having it fire when needed.
(BP)
X2 here, but no tape used.
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Little story about Triple 7.
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