My .58 was loaded back on Oct 15th or so. Still loaded and I will be taking it out hunting about the 20th of this month. Not worried.

I load my gun on a clean barrel and leave it loaded until I either shoot a deer or the season is over. Never had an issue with ignition or rust, even with pyrodex and #11's.

And fwiw, I'm not saying that you couldn't have a problem going from cold to hot... but in my experience its a non issue - at least in my knight inlines w/ss barrels.

I used to think that going from cold to warm (or hot) was taboo because it was all I'd ever heard in the 25+yrs of ML'ing. But after an unofficial experiment I conducted a couple years ago and doing this dozens of times over a couple month period, I had no rust or ignition issues. And this was going from sometimes single digits outside, into my woodstove heated basement (prob 75* or more). Personally, it doesn't worry me one bit anymore. I couldn't get a more drastic temp range, and if that didn't cause a problem, I don't know what will. And it wasn't one or two times... it was ALOT.
I'd always heard everyone say... never do that, its almost a guarantee of either ignition issues, or rust. Interestingly, I never had anyone tell me they actually HAD an issue doing this.

I'm not saying do what I do...but wanted to let you know my experience. My .02 fwiw

unofficial test thread

WV, higher humidity areas succumb to "sweating" problems with temperature variations. I've brought rifles in after being out in the cold (and around here it gets freaking COLD!) and could sit there and watch the water bead up on my barrel. It's also a problem if you are running a humidifier in the house.

Id unload it if it were me. The temp change from going outside to inside is going to make the barrel sweat, which could foul your charge.
Would it be fine? Maybe but do you really want to take the chance if the buck of a lifetime walks in front of you and your gun misfires?

I hear ya super_hunt... and I won't say we are super high humidity where I live (VA) but we are definitely an avg to moderately humid area. I'm sure the woodstove heat which is drier, helps. But.. many times I have done this over the years when my woodstove has not been running, and still have not had an issue. It will flash up immediately when I walk in, but never had any beads of water form like you said.
We aren't typically as cold as some area's...in Dec often in the colder winters we get down into single digits. The past two winters has been quite cold for our area. I'm hoping this year is a "normal" year.

Like I said, not advocating anything...just reporting what I've seen where I am.

I agree with WV Hunter and share the same thoughts about the subject. This thread has opened my eyes to the issue and I will certainly be cautious about temperature variations in the future. There is a ton of experience in this forum and I would be foolish to just ignore it.

I fire 3 primers and dry swab before laoding up. It stays loaded all season unless I get the opportunity to fire. I also leave the gun in the garage once exposed to cold air. If you are going to bring it in the house, definetly unload. As long as it stays cold enough that condensation will not form (garage, cellar, truck, etc...) you should be fine. If you unload, do not attempt to reuse the same pellets.

I learned the hard way. Single digit tempuratures for a Michigan morning hunt and was so cold I brought the gun into the warm mud room. Went out for the evening hunt, pulled the trigger on a big doe and... delayed fire, bullet went 15 yards and it looked like fireworks came out the end of the barrell. Condensation corrupted the powder. Old quote: "keep your powder dry".

there are many different thoughts about the moisture going from cold to hot or hot to cold.
My thought is that the moisture comes from the air circulating against metal that is a different temperature. I seal my barrel with saran wrap and a rubber band and rub a small amount of beeswax on the 209 and use Teflon plumbers tape on the BP threads.
I hunt or have hunted many different parts of the country and Canada and I have had to wipe off the out side of the guns when moisture beaded on them. But have never had a problem with ignition.
P.S. I keep a fired 209 to seal it when in car or building.

OK, I suppose I'm going to ruffle a few more feathers, but just how is moisture supposed to get to the powder charge? Moisture collecting on the outside of the metal will have no effect on what's going on inside the barrel! The powder is sealed by the bullet and sabot, or patch, or whatever, at one end, and by the cap at the other. Some folks go as far as to seal the cap with bullet lube. A flintlock can be sealed at the flashhole with a toothpick, which also serves as a "loaded gun" indicator.

Whatever moisture is in the powder can't get out, nor can any more get in.

OldBob

Hold a bullet/sabot in a barrel upto a light sometime. Its hardly sealed. You would need a hammer to load a sabot that measured full groove diameter.