There was a case where a man too his grandfather's old family musket off the wall, capped it and it fired. They had no idea the rifle was loaded or how long it was loaded for. The claim was it had hung on that wall for over 50 years as well as they knew. If the rifle was never fired, and loaded clean... they say it will not damage the bore to leave the rifle loaded. Not something I would do, but they do claim that. By the way that was a heck of a deal on that Hawkins.