1turkeykiller

Hi All,
I am curious to find out how many of you hunt with a fouled barrel and how many of you go to the hunting woods with aclean barrel that contains no fouling.

My Triumph seems to shoot better with a fouled barrel and the new BH209 powder will allow a hunter to go several weeks, even months, without cleaning the barrel. I called Western Powders, maker of BH209 ,and they said that many guys have been saying that they do not clean their barrels before going hunting becuase often times the first shot out of their clean barrel is a little eratic. So tell us what each of you hunt with, a clean or dirty barrel.

1turkeykiller

Fouled Barrel

cayugad

It depends on which rifle I am shooting.

sabotloader

1turkeykiller

I would call my barrels > semi-fouled < I shoot the gun rior to hunting season - clean the barrel with windex patches - then very lightly oil the bore for rust protection and it stays that way all season until I strip clean it. If i shoot the gun during the hunt or the season I repeat the process again... I can get away with this because i shoot T7 which does not produce the corrosive suphur residueand is not nearly as corrosive as Pyro's of real BP's.

Semisane

Squeaky clean, and the load stays in until I shoot something or the season ends.

1turkeykiller

Semisane,
Do you have any issues with your first shot out ofa clean barrel not shooting as straight as say your 4th or 5th shot?

HEAD0001

+1. However i will normally not keep the same load in for the whole season. But if I donot shoot for 2 or 3 days, I will shoot it, clean it, and reload it.

I am not sure why you would be concerned about the fourth or fifth shot. But then we are only allowed one deer here at a time in WV. Tom.

Semisane

Yep! In most cases the second shot is going to be two or three inches off the point of aim because Ihave mysight adjustedto the clean barrel shot. In a hunting situation I'm not really concerned about that. The big issue with this method is "does your first shot with a squeaky clean barrel go to the same spot consistently?". It takes a bit of doing to find out. You have to shoot a shot from a clean barrel, then totally clean the bore, oil it lightly, dry swab the oiled bore,load, and shoot it again - and do thisfor at least five times with the load you are testing. I've found at least one load in several of my guns where this method works. Hunting on a clean borewould not be the way to goif your gun is totally erratic with a clean bore.

Doe Dumper

Clean here also. At the ranges I get shots during muzzleloader 2 or 3 inches would be nothing...5 or 6 inches wouldnt be a big deal. I try to keep my ml's fanatically clean. Like semi I also leave it loaded and shoot t7.

falcon

Quote:

Squeaky clean, and the load stays in until I shoot something or the season ends.

i do the same unless it rains really hard while i'm hunting.