ccicora

The real question is "how long can you keep it dry?" If you can keep it dry it will be there for you. I went four weeks, hunting on the weekends, during Elk season with the same load in the barrel and I went through some pretty nasty Idaho mountain weather. Last weekend was the last one so that evenening I sighted a nice chunk of basalt at about 75yds and touched it off if it had been a bull elk it would have been blown to pieces.

Another, thought an old guy up here that hunts with a sidehammer never pulls his load, he has left loads in at the end of one hunting season and shot that load the next. He considers himself a throwback to the old days - waste-not want not. He also is not near as particular about his barrel as I am - says it's not necessary in fact his sidehammer was his dads and it is older than the hills and if you look down the barrel you would agree. It is in tough shape - but man does it shoot well he can hit anything he wants to.

In reality here is what I do, I am shooting Remington SS barrels and a A&H Nickel barrel on the inlines and regular blued barrels on the sidelocks - I treat them no differently. Once the season gets here I will shoot a few rounds in whichever gun I am using to check either the scope or the sights. I will then clean the barrel with damp patches run a real light coat of a good gun oil down the barrel patch that several times to move it around and get the excess out. And it is ready for the season. Anytime during the season that I shoot it I repeat the process, but I never really strip it and regiment clean it until after the season. Loads may stay in all season, I hope not - I hope i get use them... but if I keep the powder dry I don't worry about it, whether it is damp, wet, or snowy out. If there is any question dump the load.

All this said this advice is with T7 in mind - if you are using real BP - that might be a different problem.

Good luck in what ever method you use....