I hunt with a t/c renegde. I use fffg black powder & 320gr. maxi ball. On a 2-3 day hunt is it necessary to fire your weapon at day's end and swab the barrel, or is it ok to leave the charge in for a couple days? I always feel reluctant to make noise before returning to camp. Another question I have is in regards to snapping a couple caps before the hunt. Our camp is small and sits in the woods. I always get funny looks from my hunting partners when I fire off caps in the camp at 5:30 A.M. I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks

Regardless of whether I'm usingreal black powder, Triple 7, or Pyrodex, I load on a squeaky clean barrel for hunting, and leave the charge in the barrel until I shoot at game, or until the end of the season. I don't pop a cap or primer before I load for the hunt, but I know my barrel/nipple/flash channel is clean, dry and clear. If I don't take a shot I remove the primer/cap at the end of the day and, for a caplock, I put a folded up patch on top of the nipple and lower the hammer and leave it like that until I cap it for the next hunt. On an in-line, Isticka piece of patch material in the primer hole and close the action, then pick it out when I'm ready to reprime. I've left loads in a barrel like this for months (squeaky clean barrel only) and have never had a load fail to fire when I set it off and never had a barrel rust.

+1

Thanks for the input. Whats your procedure for a squeaky clean barrel? I clean barrel with hot soapy water prior to hunt and finish up with a little denatured alcohol just prior. That seemed to fix any misfire problems.

Same here,but I'll add that I never bring my rifle into a warm place once the season starts.

Charlie

That's pretty much what I do. Soapy water - clear water - dry patch -alcohol patch -lightly oiledpatch -clean dry patch - load.

Well after having some bad experiences with leaving the rifle loaded, and then finding it does not fire when I need it, I shoot the thing off on the way out of the woods at night and clean it. My hunting mates always kid me that they know when I am coming out of the woods. They hear me. I built a range at my house for the purpose of shooting my rifle off. You can just put up a dirty pile somewhere near your cabin and shoot into that. We used to shoot at an old refrigerator (old beer fridge that finally gave up theghost)until we finally started cutting it apart. Back at the house, clean it, then load it the next day.

If your hunting mates object to you shooting caps off in the early morning (which I can understand), clean the rifle the night before and pop your caps then. Push a patch on a jag into the bore and pop off two or three caps into that cap. Then pull the patch. It should be black. The cap will not fowl or rust your barrel over night or even for some time. The nipple and breech will be clear and you can load it the next morning with no noise.

Wet - I also load my rifle up and leave it loaded most of the season (weather permitting). Rain or wet snow will mess up a BP charge if your're not careful. If I am hunting in this stuff, I will shoot it off. Otherwise I leave it loaded. Right now I have a 45 caplock that has been loaded since October 31st. Its been dry so I have no doubt it will go boom.
If you camp mates object to you snapping caps. put a patched jag down the bore and pop off one or two BEFORE you get to camp. The patch will do two things. Contain and collect the fouling at the breach and verify that your flash hole is open. (you will notice a burn mark on you patch)
Then when you get to camp, you can dry patch and load up.

how about the flintlocks? I am using goex 3f for pan prime and load right now.

I can only relate my very limited experience in my first hunt with a flintlock last weekend.

I loaded it Friday night and put a round toothpick in the touch hole. Saturday morning on the stand I pulled the toothpick and primed the pan. Mid-day I returned to camp, dumped the prime and reinserted the toothpick. That afternoon I pullet the pick again a primed the pan. At dark I dumped the prime and put the pick back in. Sunday morning I pulled the pick and primed the pan. After the Sunday morning hunt I walked out to the club's rifle range at 11 o'clockand put a .54 caliber hole in the center of the bull at 50 yards from the bench. Instant ignition with the same prime I put in at 6 o'clock that morning, and the same load that had been in the gun since Friday night.