Again, I shoot the rifle off at the end of the day whether I used the rifle or not. That is just my habit and from past experiences, found I have better luck (andless worries that the rifle will fire.. man I hate that)starting each day off with a clean fresh load in the rifle. If all you have fired is one round out of the rifle it will not be all that bad to clean anyway. If you push the round out of the breech and it has not been fired, clean up should be rather simple I would guess. A few solvent patches. And then oil it.
A person did a test on another forum about rusting barrels. He took a barrel, degreased it, oiled it down, then put different kinds of powder on the surface of the steel and ignited them. He also put similar powders unfired on the same steel but did not ignite them as a test base. What he found was the worst of all powders for rusting was Pyrodex. It started turning white the very next day. Goex was not as bad. It lasted a little longer. Unfortunately he did not test Triple Se7en or APP. A shame really, he let the test run for a couple week. The conclusion of the test is, with any powder if not ignited, they did not cause rust. If ignited, they did start the corrosion process but at different speeds according to powders.
I have the stainless steel barrel, does that still hold true with what you said above? meaning to wipe them down?
Stainless steel barrels will still rust, just not as fast. They
stain less but still stain. I have stainless steel barrels. If I shoot it that day, I clean it that day. And yes, if you are going to store the stainless steel barrel, like a blue barrel, take a light oil cloth and wipe the water and finger marks off the outside of the rifle. That way you have eliminated any possibility of giving corrosion a foot hold there.
If you have not fired the rifle and wish to leave it loaded, find a safe place to store it where the temperatures will stay constant, about the same as the weather it had been subjected too all day. I have a unheated woodworking shop that I use. In fact, I am going to test a rifle this season and store it all season long out there, loaded.
We do not want to warm that barrel up and subject it to any kind of condensation process. I know one person that even runs a light oil patch down the barrel to the projectile before he turns the rifle upside down and stores it resting on a cloth (to catch the oil and any condensation) muzzle end down. He removed the 209 primer and discards it. He never uses that primer again. I made the mistake of reusing the primer once, and the rifle did not fire.I suspect the primer was the cause.
With it stored muzzle end down, I always put a red handkerchief through the trigger guard. This warns everyone that the rifle is dangerous and loaded. I also tell anyone that might come into contact with the rifle, it is loaded and tell them about the meaning of the red handkerchief.
The next morning all you do is put a new primer on the rifle (swab thebarrel clean with a dry patch if youoiled the bore) and then sit on your stand and worry all day whether the rifle is going to go off or not.
